as mentioned, tdavis certainly deserves recognition on that front
reddit used to have a 'sort by most controversial' (iirc just downs plus ups) that bubbled the most interesting comments to the top, apparently they were going for types of users who weren't into that though
You can still sort by controversial on reddit. In my experience the comments it bubbles to the top aren't very interesting, but mostly cheap shots. Like everything else about reddit, this probably depends on the subreddit.
reddit used to have a 'sort by most controversial' (iirc just downs plus ups) that bubbled the most interesting comments to the top, apparently they were going for types of users who weren't into that though