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I don't see why people make such a big deal about karma...it doesn't affect anything...and noone can see it without checking your profile. And that's coming fro

by vaksel 16y ago

I don't see why people make such a big deal about karma...it doesn't affect anything...and noone can see it without checking your profile. And that's coming from someone who was #3 karma wise on this site.

stanleydrew 16y ago
The problem is that karma does affect things. Just by existing it affects the way we think. It may be subtle, but we give more respect to posters with higher karma. It's a sign of acceptance from a desirable community. It's also correlated with the age of your account, and we all know that older accounts are respected more than newer accounts. And we do check the karma of other users even though we have to click through to a profile. All the time. At least I do. It helps to frame a user's comments for instance. Ultimately I think karma is a big deal. And it comes off as a little disingenuous when someone with a ton of it belittles its importance.
- acqq 16y ago
  Yes, karma affects things. It's an instant feedback. So you can adjust to it. It's supposed to have a positive effect, and I believe it has, but the negative is: I've already learned that going "with the crowd" can get you more than trying to argument against the popular belief. Going against guarantees to give you some minus values even if you follow all the rules and contribute to the discussion (that is you're not going off-topic). I guess we can generalize things and say that the life is the same, you just can't argue that the condoms are good among the Catholics. So I have personally already also learned that how I'd be able to get more karma: say positive things about Python in post about Python, about Erlang in post about Erlang, about Lisp in posts about Lisp, etc. As Scott Adams would say "we're just meat robots." As long as people react so, the people are not only train not to troll, but also not to discuss against, just to "join our righteous crusades and fight the infidels."
  - robryan 16y ago
    To a point, some of the most well know and respected members of this community and more generally the startup's community are often so respected because they do take alternate viewpoints and argue for them really well. Sure you can preach to the choir on issues but if you do truly believe in an opposite viewpoint and make a well construed argument on it, good enough for the other side to at least see where you are coming from, that will earn a lot of respect.
ericb 16y ago
For the same reason people ostracized by their social group might be sad or even suicidal. Most people cannot overcome the hard-wiring that cares about our relative social standing.
hrabago 16y ago
Karma is most significant yardstick in this community, so that is HN's way of saying that it matters. This is why PG says you have to be careful about what you measure [1], because then you tend to start optimizing for that. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html

by vaksel 16y ago

stanleydrew 16y ago

The problem is that karma does affect things. Just by existing it affects the way we think. It may be subtle, but we give more respect to posters with higher karma. It's a sign of acceptance from a desirable community. It's also correlated with the age of your account, and we all know that older accounts are respected more than newer accounts. And we do check the karma of other users even though we have to click through to a profile. All the time. At least I do. It helps to frame a user's comments for instance. Ultimately I think karma is a big deal. And it comes off as a little disingenuous when someone with a ton of it belittles its importance.

acqq 16y ago
Yes, karma affects things. It's an instant feedback. So you can adjust to it. It's supposed to have a positive effect, and I believe it has, but the negative is: I've already learned that going "with the crowd" can get you more than trying to argument against the popular belief. Going against guarantees to give you some minus values even if you follow all the rules and contribute to the discussion (that is you're not going off-topic). I guess we can generalize things and say that the life is the same, you just can't argue that the condoms are good among the Catholics. So I have personally already also learned that how I'd be able to get more karma: say positive things about Python in post about Python, about Erlang in post about Erlang, about Lisp in posts about Lisp, etc. As Scott Adams would say "we're just meat robots." As long as people react so, the people are not only train not to troll, but also not to discuss against, just to "join our righteous crusades and fight the infidels."
- robryan 16y ago
  To a point, some of the most well know and respected members of this community and more generally the startup's community are often so respected because they do take alternate viewpoints and argue for them really well. Sure you can preach to the choir on issues but if you do truly believe in an opposite viewpoint and make a well construed argument on it, good enough for the other side to at least see where you are coming from, that will earn a lot of respect.

ericb 16y ago

For the same reason people ostracized by their social group might be sad or even suicidal. Most people cannot overcome the hard-wiring that cares about our relative social standing.

hrabago 16y ago

Karma is most significant yardstick in this community, so that is HN's way of saying that it matters. This is why PG says you have to be careful about what you measure [1], because then you tend to start optimizing for that. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html