Have you considered Reddit's 'best' ranking for comments? http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10

Have you considered Reddit's 'best' ranking for comments? http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-s... """ Most of the time, you won't notice that there's anything obviously different (it doesn't affect threading or anything -- don't worry!), but it should improve the quality of the top comments immensely. """