diff --git a/app/models/story.rb b/app/models/story.rb
index 59ccb8c..f90c021 100644
--- a/app/models/story.rb
+++ b/app/models/story.rb
@@ -123,7 +123,11 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
 
   def self.recalculate_all_hotnesses!
-    Story.all.order("id DESC").each do |s|
+    # do the front page first, since find_each can't take an order
+    Story.order("id DESC").limit(100).each do |s|
+      s.recalculate_hotness!
+    end
+    Story.find_each do |s|
       s.recalculate_hotness!
     end
     true
@@ -189,6 +193,8 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
 
   def calculated_hotness
+    # take each tag's hotness modifier into effect, and give a slight bump to
+    # stories submitted by the author
     base = self.tags.map{|t| t.hotness_mod }.sum +
       (self.user_is_author ? 0.25 : 0.0)
 
@@ -210,6 +216,12 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
     # mix in any stories this one cannibalized
     cpoints += self.merged_stories.map{|s| s.score }.inject(&:+).to_f
 
+    # if a story has many comments but few votes, it's probably a bad story, so
+    # cap the comment points at the number of upvotes
+    if cpoints > self.upvotes
+      cpoints = self.upvotes
+    end
+
     # don't immediately kill stories at 0 by bumping up score by one
     order = Math.log([ (score + 1).abs + cpoints, 1 ].max, 10)
     if score > 0