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Remember, "Karma" is for techies!

2 points by zaidf 20y ago

zaidf 20y ago
The word karma has evolved and taken a meaning of its own thanks to slashdot's use of it as a point unit. But I have to say: I consider myself pretty good with computers and even program here and there. Yet, for the longest time I was confused about what exactly "karma" stood for. I knew it was a measurement of some sort(hey what else can a number be?) but I'd no idea about what exactly having "more karma" means. My point is that when you use such phrases, you are assuming a specific kind of audience. Use of karma for reddit(tech-focused) is fine; even for news.yc it's fine - but for a consumer website, you should be very careful about introduction of new words. And say you love the word karma so much that you insist on using it - in that case, have a page that clearly explains what karma is assuming that the user knows nothing about it. Karma is just one example - larger point here is to be careful about use of individual words that may have a huge role to play in your website. Thing that triggered me to make this post is I saw another poster use "karma" on their consumer start-up(bad idea IMO). This is a mistake that is so easy to commit. Heck we did it when we launched. A lot of our users that were playing songs on our site had no idea what "Jigg It!" button meant. After couple user mails inquiring about it, we put up a tooltip saying "Jigg It if you like it!". Suddenly more people were clicking on it. --Zaid
- staunch 20y ago
  I think the problem you had with "Jigg It" is that you're copying "Digg It" which is plain English, whereas yours is a made up term that doesn't mean anything. The closest phrase is "getting jiggy with it", which would be nice if shortened. Another thing to consider is that "priesthood" stuff. Users feel good for knowing stuff about your product that newbies won't know right away. There may be times when it makes sense to use unfamiliar lingo on your site.
mukund 20y ago
Actual Karma is defined as "The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.". In hinduism there is this concept which says that whatever a person does is recorded and sum total will reflect in your next life.
- zaidf 20y ago
  Of course, karma is a mainstream word now even in the English language. Yet "karma"'s understanding as a reputation system is limited to the slashdot audience.
- prakster 20y ago
  Karma simply means "duty". Every other meaning is a derivative of this fundamental definition of Karma. From that perspective, using the word Karma with a number is utterly meningless :-)
ivan 20y ago
Karma is the law of cause and effect. Every effect has a cause and every cause follows an effect, so karma is suggestible.

2 points by zaidf 20y ago

zaidf 20y ago

The word karma has evolved and taken a meaning of its own thanks to slashdot's use of it as a point unit. But I have to say: I consider myself pretty good with computers and even program here and there. Yet, for the longest time I was confused about what exactly "karma" stood for. I knew it was a measurement of some sort(hey what else can a number be?) but I'd no idea about what exactly having "more karma" means. My point is that when you use such phrases, you are assuming a specific kind of audience. Use of karma for reddit(tech-focused) is fine; even for news.yc it's fine - but for a consumer website, you should be very careful about introduction of new words. And say you love the word karma so much that you insist on using it - in that case, have a page that clearly explains what karma is assuming that the user knows nothing about it. Karma is just one example - larger point here is to be careful about use of individual words that may have a huge role to play in your website. Thing that triggered me to make this post is I saw another poster use "karma" on their consumer start-up(bad idea IMO). This is a mistake that is so easy to commit. Heck we did it when we launched. A lot of our users that were playing songs on our site had no idea what "Jigg It!" button meant. After couple user mails inquiring about it, we put up a tooltip saying "Jigg It if you like it!". Suddenly more people were clicking on it. --Zaid

staunch 20y ago
I think the problem you had with "Jigg It" is that you're copying "Digg It" which is plain English, whereas yours is a made up term that doesn't mean anything. The closest phrase is "getting jiggy with it", which would be nice if shortened. Another thing to consider is that "priesthood" stuff. Users feel good for knowing stuff about your product that newbies won't know right away. There may be times when it makes sense to use unfamiliar lingo on your site.

mukund 20y ago

Actual Karma is defined as "The total effect of a person's actions and conduct during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as determining the person's destiny.". In hinduism there is this concept which says that whatever a person does is recorded and sum total will reflect in your next life.

zaidf 20y ago
Of course, karma is a mainstream word now even in the English language. Yet "karma"'s understanding as a reputation system is limited to the slashdot audience.
prakster 20y ago
Karma simply means "duty". Every other meaning is a derivative of this fundamental definition of Karma. From that perspective, using the word Karma with a number is utterly meningless :-)

ivan 20y ago

Karma is the law of cause and effect. Every effect has a cause and every cause follows an effect, so karma is suggestible.