/bestcomments is a mechanical ranking by upvote count, so 'best' is a misnomer.
/highlights is a manually curated list, designed for overlooked gems. If you or anyone notices an overlooked gem, from now or any time in the past, please let us know at hn@ycombinator.com and we'll add it!
Sure they are. The word "curate" comes from "care". That's a subjective feeling! However, it's not so subjective that other people can't share it, and that's what makes these things fun to share.
From my perspective, a 'gem' would be a post that has something rare and interesting about it, and perhaps also touching or beautiful.
That’s how I tell others about HN usually: it’s a news aggregator with comments for nerds, but the cool thing is, often someone chimes in and says "I was on the team who did this and here’s some more/different background info".
Tangentially related, out of curiosity: Are all or perhaps only specific comments limited to a maximum of 75 points, or is it simply a coincidence that mine have never seemed to get more upvotes beyond that score?
Not sure about a comprehensive list of differences, but, for one, /highlights page shows all comments there in a chronological order of when they were posted (while /bestcomments doesn't).
