>Giving a randomness to the whole sorting of the articles could have a "noisy" effect on users who update the home page often.
Yes, but not much. Provided the amount of noise is small enough, the order of articles on the front page may change a bit, but the articles themselves won't change much. I don't know much about the typical distribution of scores of articles on the front page at any given moment, but I suspect even the order of most of the page probably won't be affected.
Think about it this way: pushing an article that's already high up on the home page up or down a little in ranking won't push it off the front page. It's only the bottom of the page (and the top of page 2) that would even be materially affected.
Agreed on that, but you know, just not knowing if you are "really" #3 or not is bad, if you have your post in the home page. IMHO it would detract some from the value of the website.
Yes, but not much. Provided the amount of noise is small enough, the order of articles on the front page may change a bit, but the articles themselves won't change much. I don't know much about the typical distribution of scores of articles on the front page at any given moment, but I suspect even the order of most of the page probably won't be affected.
Think about it this way: pushing an article that's already high up on the home page up or down a little in ranking won't push it off the front page. It's only the bottom of the page (and the top of page 2) that would even be materially affected.