diff --git a/app/models/story.rb b/app/models/story.rb
index f73dc8c..6836115 100644
--- a/app/models/story.rb
+++ b/app/models/story.rb
@@ -132,9 +132,9 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
   end
 
   def calculated_hotness
-    base = 10
+    base = 0
     self.tags.select{|t| t.hotness_mod != 0 }.each do |t|
-      base -= t.hotness_mod
+      base += t.hotness_mod
     end
 
     # give a story's comment votes some weight, but ignore the story
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
       inject(&:+).to_i
 
     # don't immediately kill stories at 0 by bumping up score by one
-    order = Math.log([ (score + 1).abs + cpoints, 1 ].max, base)
+    order = Math.log([ (score + 1).abs + cpoints, 1 ].max, 10)
     if score > 0
       sign = 1
     elsif score < 0
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ class Story < ActiveRecord::Base
     # TODO: as the site grows, shrink this down to 12 or so.
     window = 60 * 60 * 24
 
-    return -((order * sign) + (self.created_at.to_f / window)).round(7)
+    return -((order * sign) + base + (self.created_at.to_f / window)).round(7)
   end
 
   def can_be_seen_by_user?(user)