[jeffcutsinger]

Next time you see a story about sexism against women (redundant but needs the clarification here anyway), watch its movement. Yeah, it may get up in the top for a bit, but you can watch stories that are older with fewer points and comments move up above it. Happens every time.

[drharris]

I've seen this effect in other "heated" discussions, and I wonder if it's the effect of moderation. Primarily, what happens to a thread as the percentage of moderated messages increases? Is that metric involved in the positioning? I could see a topic like sexism (or emacs v. vi) getting an inordinate amount of moderation, and thus might be flagged more often, moving it down the list. Maybe that has nothing to do with it, but I've seen this effect before.