What a nice thread: #821212, I'm sorry I missed it.

Makes me wonder what, if anything, SN can do to maintain a good post's engagement after the first 24 hours

One thought I had is that if a post that had a lot of engagement receives a new reply or a large zap, it can still rise up in the Hot list. This would increase competition for space in Hot, and could disadvantage new posts, so that's a major tradeoff