Lemmy scores like this:

Rank = ScaleFactor * log(Max(1, 3 + Score)) / (Time + 2)^Gravity

With:

Score = Upvotes - Downvotes + 3

And Time is the time since either the posting for “Active” or the last comment for “Hot”. The issue being that the Time score drops of very quickly. As a result it matters much more, what the Time is rather then the votes, as long as it is not horribly bad. Also posts with a lot of downvotes are not treated as bad, as long as they have a lot of upvotes as well.