IMHO, if your primary interest is in skimming the cream of the crop, so to speak, you should be looking in the following places (and, in fact, probably don't need Yet Another Tool in your kit).

• Daily Best. The Daily Best nodelet can be enabled from the user preferences section on your home node. These are the nodes with the highest reputations for the day. Perhaps reputation is a more worthy indicator of merit than popularity.

• Weekly best. The Weekly Best nodelet can be enabled through the user preferences section on your home node. These are the nodes that have become of highest repute for the week. You'll definately find some choice topics here.

• Update: The Best Nodes page gives a summary of Daily best, Weekly best, and Alltime Best nodes. Thanks Jeffa for the reminder.

• Front-paged nodes. These are the ones that show up when you first enter the Monastary, or when you click on The Monastary Gates section. Front-page nodes were front-paged by those who have obtained a certain level of positive experience in the monastery, and generally are nodes that ask good questions and give good answers.

• The topic section that most interests you today.

• The Q&A, and the Tutorials sections.

With those starting points you will find the best of the best posts, without having to sift very long. Popularity would only tell you how many people clicked on a node. Reputation will tell you roughly what people thought of it.

Dave

"If I had my life to do over again, I'd be a plumber." -- Albert Einstein