I suggest a user-based option to sort comments in chronological order instead of by rating. It's easier to read when people go into thread-mode. I'm not sure how easy this would be to implement, and the rating system is nice, so it's not like the internet will explode if this doesn't happen.
I like the idea of being able to choose between chronologically or by votes myself. sometimes one post* gets a million votes and comments parroting it, and the rest get pushed way down.