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Management of "karma" in systems like Hacker News is critical to long term success. Watching the community, and the flow articles, in Reddit shows that minor ch

by bbulkow 16y ago

Management of "karma" in systems like Hacker News is critical to long term success. Watching the community, and the flow articles, in Reddit shows that minor changes in algorithms make a big difference. One further thought: your "karma" in a site like HN is a very serious asset. Access to a post which reaches the front page can make or break a company. I would easily pay $100 for someone to post a choice blog post reference that would hit the front page, and I'm sure I'm not alone. We also know about Digg's kabal of a few high-karma individuals who tilted the entire news site to the political right. People don't game a site until it's important, and you don't find out the effects of your site's algorithms until the site becomes popular. The owners of a site must be diligent, continue to understand how articles are floating to the front page, and be willing to make changes. We as users need to be supportive of the changes & experiments they make - even at the cost of our own "karma" (ie, real-world-dollars).

lsc 16y ago
I agree that having something on the front page is worth real money (a lot more than $100, in my opinion.) but I don't see the connection between having a high personal carma and getting something on the front page. As far as I can tell, it's one user, one vote (I mean, except in the common case of dupes) to my knowledge, higher-carma users don't get extra points to vote up stories.
toast76 16y ago
I think there are to distinct issues here. The first is how articles find their way to the front page, and the second is how individuals are rewarded (or punished) for their involvement in those stories. The reality is that the earlier you post in a story, the more karma you're likely to collect. To me, that just encourages "first!" type posts. A poorly thought out comment in a story that makes the front page will inevitably earn more karma than a well thought out comment that doesn't. So is this about getting better stories to the front page, or about rewarding users for their participation?

by bbulkow 16y ago

lsc 16y ago

I agree that having something on the front page is worth real money (a lot more than $100, in my opinion.) but I don't see the connection between having a high personal carma and getting something on the front page. As far as I can tell, it's one user, one vote (I mean, except in the common case of dupes) to my knowledge, higher-carma users don't get extra points to vote up stories.

toast76 16y ago

I think there are to distinct issues here. The first is how articles find their way to the front page, and the second is how individuals are rewarded (or punished) for their involvement in those stories. The reality is that the earlier you post in a story, the more karma you're likely to collect. To me, that just encourages "first!" type posts. A poorly thought out comment in a story that makes the front page will inevitably earn more karma than a well thought out comment that doesn't. So is this about getting better stories to the front page, or about rewarding users for their participation?