4 ms·

Thanks, dang. It was once true that a surefire way to rack up a large amount of karma in HN was to make a nasty, uncharitable statement like that. I've experien

by Falcon9 10y ago

Thanks, dang. It was once true that a surefire way to rack up a large amount of karma in HN was to make a nasty, uncharitable statement like that. I've experienced the weird ridiculous thrill of it myself, on another account, along with the deflating realization that I'm being rewarded (such as it is, karma having no actual value) for participating in the destruction of civilized discourse. I appreciate you actively stepping in and articulating the argument against such "parlor games" and the drive to make HN different in that way, even though I've seen that it doesn't always win you fans in the community.

jsprogrammer 10y ago
>karma having no actual value I believe additional HN abilities are granted based on an account's karma number.
- tptacek 10y ago
  Not really, no. The site karma thresholds are extremely low. They're an anti-abuse measure, not a reward.
  - jsprogrammer 10y ago
    You can label and the differences between extremely low karma accounts and 0 karma accounts however you'd like, but a low karma account has more power over the content of the site than a zero karma account. I also don't think it can be easily ruled out that there are additional, higher karma thresholds upon which an account may be bestowed with additional powers (rate-limit loosening, for example).
    - dang 10y ago
      It can easily be ruled out by asking us. The highest karma threshold (that I recall, at least) is the downvoting one at 500. Pretty much all the others are 30 or lower.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      I feel reasonably confident that there aren't karma rewards for people with more karma than me, although there should be some kind of sick reward for it.