It doesn’t feel like the algorithm is weighted properly. I usually see the more recent comments near the top even if they have no or very few upvotes (or sometimes even in the negative), with the highly upvoted comments somewhere lower down.
I would expect Hot to feel more like Top but with extra weight given to the rate at which a comment is being upvoted, giving more visibility to new discussions in older threads.
I think comments with a high number of upvotes deserve a little more weight to avoid a 12h old comment with 60 upvotes being outcompeted by a 12m old comment with one or two upvotes. I could accept a 1h old comment with 10 upvotes being placed above a 10h old comment with 30±10 upvotes.
I would also like to be able to change the default for my account.
You can read about our ranking algorithm here.
We intentionally don’t do sorts like reddit, because they don’t abstract out time correctly, so nearly every top comment is just the first one.