zlacker

>>Charle+(OP)
Top post without a single comment and only 29 points. Clearly my mental model of how posts bubble to the top is broken.

>>kviran+U5
IIRC, there's a time/recency factor. If we assume that most people don't browse /newest (without commenting on should, I suspect this is true), then that seems like a reasonable way to help surface things; enough upvotes to indicate interest means a story gets a chance at the front page.