We heard that, which is why the post went back to the top 10. We're not experts, so it takes feedback to get this right.
You make a good point about stuff sitting on the front page for hours, though. I've been wondering whether the mega-popular posts of the last day or two are choking out good new stories.
>>dang+(OP)
I would expect the biggest factor is lower traffic over Easter - and that the "gravity" calculation isn't fully normalized for total traffic volume. (The new queue is probably slower than usual too).
>>waterl+d
No, we haven't made any change that would affect that. The most popular stories get much higher vote totals than they used to. That might explain their inertia.