Quora did a good job of fixing this. You frequently see highly upvoted answers that aren't among the top answers and similarly answers with relatively few upvot

Quora did a good job of fixing this. You frequently see highly upvoted answers that aren't among the top answers and similarly answers with relatively few upvotes at or near the top. How quickly late answers gather upvotes seems to be a big factor. I'm also fairly certain the relationship between the upvoter and upvotee plays a big role. For example if you frequently upvote a persons answers, that upvote carries much less weight than if you upvote some random noob. And if you downvote somebody whom you frequently uvpote, that seems to count as a super downvote. Also, not all answerers are treated equally. Answers from a person with an algorithmically good (or bad) track record start out higher (or lower) than for others. This happens to me on a couple of topics where I've had popular answers. I can make a stupid one line answer and it'll instantly leapfrog answers from randoms with up to ~10 upvotes each, sometimes more.