Ok, the best part is that CVS now contains a fixed and, AFAIK quite functional scoop.sql. Almost all of the HTML is now in Blocks, except for the font stuff, which still needs to be in Vars to make the display prefs work right. It also is set up for diaries by default, and has the latest versions of all the boxes (except possibly the poll box-- hurst, can you grab it and check that, and update if needed?).
Other fixes include a difference in how "cid links" work. Basically now whenever your link contains cid=$number, you will see that comment, regardless of your display prefs. This makes sense because presumably if you clicked on a link like that, you really wanted to see that comment. Cid links are also now used in threads, which tends to make navigating threads a lot more sane.
Also, there's the "open ratings" change. The rating display itself is a box, of course, so you can disable open ratings by simply not having that box do anything. If you want open ratings, update your code, and grab the ratings-show box (which I will post in just a minute). A quick edit to your "comment" block to add the link, and you have open ratings too.
The link you need to add in your comment (and moderation_comment) block is something like:
<A HREF="|rootdir|/?op=comments;sid=|sid|;mode=alone;showrate=1;cid=|cid|#|cid|">|score| / |num_ratings|</A>
To update your DB so that the "ratings" counts are right on each comment, run the script scripts/init_comment_counts.pl. From the command-line, the syntax is:
$] scripts/init_comment_counts.pl [dbname] [password] [user]
One final small fix, now you can actually reset your comment prefs from anywhere the "comment_controls" box appears. Update that box as well, and it ought to work.