When i am interested in the subject, i usually read ALL comments. Having them in order of popularity helps, but does not really discourage me from reading on. Scores don't really matter.
There is a tendency for short comments to sink down, regardless of how informative they are, simply because people spend less time on them, so they're less likely to hit that upvote button.
Also, like all forums, the first upvoted comments get more replies creating a positive feedback loop, not necesarily because they are the best, but because people know their replies will be more visible.
It would be interesting to have the statistics of number of upvotes vs position of the comment in the page.
There is a tendency for short comments to sink down, regardless of how informative they are, simply because people spend less time on them, so they're less likely to hit that upvote button.
Also, like all forums, the first upvoted comments get more replies creating a positive feedback loop, not necesarily because they are the best, but because people know their replies will be more visible.
It would be interesting to have the statistics of number of upvotes vs position of the comment in the page.