Algorithm for sorting of comments on hacker news
How does the algorithm for sorting the comments in a given thread on hacker news work? I get the feeling that new comments that come in late don't stand much of a chance to stay at the top relative to old comments that got voted up. Doesn't it need to be weighted based on how high it got rated up relative to the time it was posted and how many other ratings took place during the time it was up?
2 comments
From the FAQ at http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
How are stories ranked?
On the front page, by points divided by a power
of the time since they were submitted. Comments
in comment threads are ranked the same way.
I prefer a simple "add new comments to the end of the page" system - if the comments are worth reading in the first place, then I like to check new comments off and on for a while, and these changeable order systems makes it hard and time-wasting to check up. (I do like nesting, because it helps understanding of comments more than it costs in updating).