What about two columns? One for popular and another one that peeks the top 10 new ones and keeps updating.

I like the idea. But no need for AJAX -- having it statically load as part of the frontpage would be good too.

The main reason you want something like this is to keep meritorious articles from languishing without any votes.

Doesn't have to be ajax. Can be websockets

I'd go with this if I had to pick one. But having it in a new page is essentially that, right?

Its a tradeoff, but you can decide how far along the scale to go. Maybe 1 random story isn't really going to ruin everything, and maybe the value of a good algorithm that tested new submissions this way would be worth it overall. Maybe we are letting alot of good stories slip through the cracks because new doesn't get enough visits- so you might want to add more than 1 on the front page. You can hide point counts too- why do we even need to see the number?

There would still be clear votes on each link - making it easier to discern what others found valuable.

Have you actually seen some of the posts in /new ? I don't think some of the links actually deserve even the accidental exposure to traffic.

Even allowing between 1, 2 and 3 new links seems like it could work. There are enough people that links would get a nice boost in being upvoted or downvoted.