One idea: instead of making the formula for article placement based on the points and decay based on time of creation, don't use time of creation in the formula

One idea: instead of making the formula for article placement based on the points and decay based on time of creation, don't use time of creation in the formula at all, and instead make just the points themselves decay. This way old things can come to the top again if they start receiving upvotes again. This idea alone wouldn't solve the problem, but if combined with some sort of "merge" mechanism then it would be sweet.