Who else has noticed that when an HN post reaches critical mass, people mostly just reply to the first comment and don't see anything beneath? (even if there are other very worthy top-level comments). Anyone have a good idea for how to remedy this? Or do you feel like it's a feature not a bug?
I had a feeling they shuffled comments randomly a few times during the first 1-2h after post creation. But I guess you are right, it's easier to get noticed by bandwagoning the most popular comment.
Maybe if there are a lot of comments - display five randomly chosen and get those up/down voted first before showing everything else?
But there would still be a problem with some just having longer lifetime hence higher chance of being in the top than others.
