This search for a better way to rank comments still, in my opinion, makes a large incorrect assumption; namely that it is desirable (and possible) to display co

This search for a better way to rank comments still, in my opinion, makes a large incorrect assumption; namely that it is desirable (and possible) to display comments in order from "best" to "worst". If you think of comments only from the prespective a viewer then yes ordering comments from best to worst makes sense, the viewer wants to get as much information as quickly as possible. But if you are looking at establishing a robust meaningful dicussion, part of that is that all comments should have a chance of getting responded to that is proportional to their value, not their rank. Realistically the top three comments in a large thread are about equally good, but the top comment is going the vast majority of views and replies. One system the facilities dicussion might effectivelly shard it's users into separate threads of managble size so they can have a real dicussion, though I'm fuzzy on the details. Given all the worry we have about about how our online discussions work I think their is real societal (if not extrable monetary) value in discovering a better solution.