Related, I am learning to code and in the process I built this simple website that randomly shows the most upvoted HN comments:
Edit: naturally, there is a strong bias for older comments in the list.
Code I use:
<script>
$(document).ready(function() {
var lasthours = "";
$("#refresh").on("click", function() {
var html = "";
var url = "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search?tags=comment&numericFilters=points>120&page=";
var page = Math.floor(Math.random() * (20)) + 1;
url += page.toString();
var position = 0;
position = Math.floor(Math.random() * 20);
$.getJSON(url, function(json) {
var hits = json.hits;
var html = "<p>"+hits[position].comment_text+"</p><p>Story: <a target='_blank' href='"+hits[position].story_url+"'>"+hits[position].story_title+"</a><br><a target='_blank' href='https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+hits[position].story_id+"'>comment by "+hits[position].author+"</a></p>";
$("#quote-text").html(html);
});
});
});
</script>There have been quite a few good comments since then.
It is worse to make an incredibly biased list than no list at all.