Currently user relationships do not play a role in comment sorting. However, we plan to change that in the next couple of days. Specifically, if you ignore or mute a user, their comments will sort towards the bottom of a comment thread. This seems a reasonable mechanism, based on clear and specific user input.
However, we have been discussing another method of comment sorting, and I thought it would be worth getting your thoughts: The idea is that if you follow someone, they might sort a bit higher than normal in comment threads that you view.
The rationale is that as Hubski grows, it might be nice to preferentially see those folk that you actively rely upon for content. I wouldn't want to make it a strong bias if we did implement it, perhaps give those comments the added weight of one extra share.
The obvious downside argument is the creation of an echo chamber. Of course all the comments will still be there, however, the top ones are probably the most read, and any sorting bias might make the conversation a tad more insular.
At any rate, I am not married to the idea, but I could see it becoming useful if the average number of comments grows substantially.
I've been thinking on it, and I thought it would be worthwhile to see what the general consensus is, and/or if there is anything we haven't considered.