Discobot told me this about the difference between ‘hot’ and ‘top’:
The main difference is that Hot balances overall popularity with recent activity, while Top only looks at total popularity over a specific time period (like the week or month).
- Hot: Combines total likes/reactions with recent likes and active replies. It is designed to surface currently trending discussions, making it ideal for large, active communities.
- Top: Ranks topics solely by their total likes/reactions within the selected timeframe. It is best for catching up on what was popular while you were away.
Both rely on likes, but Hot also factors in recent posters and replies to determine “hotness.” You can read more about this in the Hot topic sorting announcement.
To me that sounds very similar and that’s why I think it should also be included in ‘top’. I’m not yet very experienced with discourse though, so I might totally be wrong here of course.
Edit: Oh, I might have misread, I’m sorry! This is about vote recency. I did not realize “top” already reacts to up/down votes!
Maybe it could be used in a similar way to the likes but additionally decrease the time the topic is visible if it gets negative votes.