[etrvic]

I once read here on HN that a good metric for filtering controversial comment sections is number of upvotes/comments. If it's bellow one, the thread is probably controversial.

[layer8]

Are you saying controversial is good or bad?

[etrvic]

Neither, that's up to your individual preference. Although I think that controversial threads have more noise, but sometimes provide a more enjoyable read.

[ThrowawayTestr]

In common parlance, this would be called "ratioing".