Here's the query: https://github.com/stackernews/stacker.news/blob/master/worker/earn.js#L42

Yes, I read about this. But I am still interested to look into the code which implements this when I have time.

I think your approach is an innovation in itself. Were you inspired by something to come up with this? Web of trust in GPG for example?

Daily discussion thread

saloon

Four things affect rewards for tipping:
1. how high the content ranked relative to other content
2. how early you tipped it 
    - All else being equal, 2nd tipper gets half the 1st, 3rd gets 1/3rd, and so on
3. how much you tipped
4. your trust level, e.g. how reliably you are at upvoting good content early