Guys... it's very simple! For every level in the hierarchy, it ranks the posts in order of points, and randomizes the order for those that have the same points.

Well that's an interesting approach.

My unscientific impression is that it depends on recency, score, and author's karma, for each comment in the thread.

it seems like, within "top level" comments with the same number of points, the comments switch between sorting ascending and descending by... a staggering of the time posted.

having more points puts you at the top of the comment list.

So, for example, this comment will have one point when i first post it. Since it's the latest comment, it will at first display topmost. When the next person posts a comment, my comment will display last and his will display first. Then when I refresh mine will display first and his last.

I'd assumed it was an artifact of the storage mechanism that pg didn't consider problematic enough to fix. PostgreSQL, for example, has no order guarantees unless you explicitly call for them, but seems to order by last update to the row.

Not that I'm suggesting that a SQL database backs news.yc; pg seems to have a preference for filesystems over databases.

I noticed that too. Especially if you update 2-3 times your comment...Sometimes it goes on top, then lower...

I've always taken this to be a feature, to promote development of comment threads beyond just the first few.

i agree, that was my thought too

They do that to remove the natural voting bias that favors comments nearer to the top of the page.

maybe after he's finished sending out the emails, we'll get ajax upvoting and commenting so it'll be easier to find your place again...

Nah, just right click the upvote link and click "Open Link in New Tab". (in firefox anyway)

I use control click myself...

I use the middle mouse button.

I would but I'm on a laptop without any of those fancy third buttons.

Thanks, that'll do for now. (why didn't I think of that?)