I can&#x27;t remember where dang explained this, but there is a human factor in the algorithm.  Some posts are artificially bumped to low on the front page for a small period of time to see if they gain traction.  The selection of those posts is up to the moderators.  This might be one such post.<p>EDIT: As I recall, the human-curated selections get put in a pool which the computer randomly promotes for a time to see if it gains traction.