Even if we assume for a minute that this information isn't being faked (which it very often probably is - see other thread) I think there are nuances there. Lo

Even if we assume for a minute that this information isn't being faked (which it very often probably is - see other thread) I think there are nuances there. Looking at something and actually buying it are different. If we really wanted to help the customer decide we might want to also show the number of customers that returned the item. Or wait: allow reviews of them ;) Would it help anyone to see that "200 people are reading xwolfi's comment"? Not really. That's just because there are not many comments yet and says nothing about the quality of it. It's much better to rank comments by votes and let that affect sort order. "200 people found xwolfi's comment so insightful they clicked the vote link" is a much better indicator of quality.