Ranking +101/-100 comments higher than +1/-0 comments is something that they implemented at reddit a couple months ago. They use an algorithm called a "Wilson

Ranking +101/-100 comments higher than +1/-0 comments is something that they implemented at reddit a couple months ago. They use an algorithm called a "Wilson Score confidence interval for a Bernoulli parameter." Here are some relevant links: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-s... http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.html http://www.evanmiller.org/how-not-to-sort-by-average-rating.... http://blog.linkibol.com/post/How-to-Build-a-Popularity-Algorithm-You-can-be-Proud-of.aspx http://blog.linkibol.com/post/How-to-Build-a-Popularity-Algo... Digg also has a way to rank comments by "controversy", so the comments that are most contested by up and down votes are placed at the top: http://about.digg.com/blog/new-comments-system-released http://about.digg.com/blog/new-comments-system-released