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Ask HN: What's the value of Hacker News points/karma?
I finally got over 500 points a while back (earning the ability to downvote comments), and more recently posted a few things (I'm on vacation, if that explains it). It's neat when stuff gets on the front page (or that kind of upvote velocity). I like that. I also like getting points. It's a way of keeping score. I can look at someone's profile and think, "Wow, they have contributed 10 times the value that I have." and get the sense that they're an old pro, while others might seem more like peers or new to the site.
But aside from that, what's the value in the points? Does anyone care? If anything, I've seen myself get over-confident and think that what works on one site works on another, or that my reputation or credentials mean anything to another site - and so it might even hurt me elsewhere. Is there any privileges you get beyond the ability to downvote comments with enough points?
TL;DR - What's the value of Hacker News points?
- chris_wot 11y agoI find it helps me gauge how much people appreciate (or for that matter - don't appreciate!) my comments.
- DrScump 11y agoI'm just 3 points away from having enough to redeem for the giant stuffed panda -- please upvote me! But seriously, I think it's meant as a sort of credibility metric and/or a disincentive to create troll accounts (e.g. if new accounts had the same "powers" as existing accounts). I think it would be more meaningful if it included a time metric (e.g. 503 points, 37 in last 30 days), since there is a wide spread of time since account creation.