One of the most frustrating things about HN for me these days is going into the comments to read more about the content of an article, and instead being bombarded by people nitpicking the design of it.
I dislike it when people complain about people disliking the design and presentation of a site, because it devalues the reality that these are important for effective communication.
Comments on presentation are quick and easy to make. They show up soonest on a submission, and since they're at the top, collect upvotes. Comments on content take longer to write, end up below comments on presentation, and receive fewer upvotes.
HN should have randomised ordering of presentation of top posts, with a sort of simulated annealing technique that fades over time, so leaves are sorted to the top based on the branch total vote count after some hours.
