Ask HN: How does HN sort/rank the comments thread? - cheeaun
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gus_massa
Comment of pg, 1362 days ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1398250#up_1398764](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1398250#up_1398764)

> _I did recently (about 3 weeks ago) tweak the algorithm for ranking
> comments, and that has had a noticeable effect. Previously it was the same
> as the one for ranking frontpage stories. Now it also considers among other
> things the average comment score of the submitter. With any luck this will
> keep HN poised in its usual position mid-way over the shark for another 6
> months._

AFAIK the exact weights are part of the secret sauce, and the current
algorithm may have a few modifications and can change without previous notice.

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ColinWright
My understanding is that it's the same as for the threads. There's a "score"
which is effectively points divided by some power of the age, with a penalty
applied for flags. Then they are sorted by that score.

A version of the source is available - it will be pretty similar.

Why do you ask?

