I've also seen vindictive behavior, where someone who doesn't like one of your comments goes down to your profile and down-votes all of your comments on HN. Tha

I've also seen vindictive behavior, where someone who doesn't like one of your comments goes down to your profile and down-votes all of your comments on HN. That said, statistically dog-piling would pump the numbers of a comment here or there, but would not raise rankings of people who others consider thought leaders based on multiple valuable comments. So in a way, the thought leader ranking would more objectively surface people worth asking for advice or interviewing for YC.