I've been lurking here for quite a while before I started posting and I strongly suspect it's the ratio of upvotes to comments that trigger this. There may be a

I've been lurking here for quite a while before I started posting and I strongly suspect it's the ratio of upvotes to comments that trigger this. There may be a "recalculation" at 40 comments for performance or other reasons, but I've seen plenty of other stories with hundreds of comments and an equal or greater number of upvotes - on occasion passing 1000 - that stay on the front page for the better part of a day.