4 ms·
KPn = Karma for nth submission KCm = Karma for mth comment Karma = [SUM(KP1,KP2,..KPn) - n] + ROUND[0.5x(SUM(KC1,KC2...KCm) - m)]
by nurall 19y ago
KPn = Karma for nth submission
KCm = Karma for mth comment
Karma = [SUM(KP1,KP2,..KPn) - n] + ROUND[0.5x(SUM(KC1,KC2...KCm) - m)]
- nostrademons 19y agoThat's what I figured it was, except I always thought of it in these terms: You get one point every time someone votes up your submission. You get half a point every time someone votes up your comment. You lose half a point every time someone votes down your comment.
- timg 19y agoIt should be the other way around, since users rarely create the content of their submissions.
- nostrademons 19y agoWould make me happy, I comment more than I submit. ;-) OTOH, actual submissions are often more detailed and well-thought-out than simple comments. So maybe this is the right way after all.
- Goladus 19y agoOr it's something new. It is a news site, after all. I'm a commenter too. I figure once I learn enough and have something significant to contribute, I'll start a blog.
- timg 19y agoAm I the only person left who thinks that blogs are generally a big waste of time? At least if some product I'm designing fails, I will have advanced my skills by creating it. Is having written a failed blog supposed to make me a great writer?
- zemaj 19y agoIt will make you a better writer, yes - for exactly the same reasons. The more experience you have the better you become.
- kmt 19y agoHow do you actually vote down someone's comment or post? I don't see a downward-pointing triangle, so I thought a only a super-user could do it. Am I missing something?
- randallsquared 19y agoI believe you have to have a certain amount of karma. Not much, though, since I can see it with less than 20 karma.
- aston 19y agoI always get one karma point per comment point above 1. What's the basis for the 0.5 factor?
- nurall 19y agoSimple answer - Submissions are more important than Comments for News.YC ;-). If comments were given more weight tending towards that of submissions, people would have trouble moving onto the next submission, in the process of accumulating karma. I am sure YC wants people to add value through new/novel submissions.
- immad 19y agoI think aston means that he thinks he gets a full point for his comment, Not what the justification of the 0.5 factor is. I wasn't sure on this, but I didn't think it was straight 1 point so the 0.5 might be right, I am sure other people have more evidence.
- nurall 19y agoSorry about that aston and immad. Even I believe its not 0.5 deterministically, but I think it averages to 0.5. The system appears far more adaptive/dynamic than a completely deterministic model as suggested by the formula. But again, its a model. My friend, up-voted me once each for two separate comments, but my Karma remained the same. As a matter of fact, I observed something similar with the submissions as well. This could imply the following - 1. Karma calculation is not interrupt driven, but its timeout based (I probably hadn't waited long enough!) OR 2. The weight for the comments (/submissions?) could be a function of user Karma, with an average of 0.5 (I probably did wait long enough!) OR 3. My friend's up-voting was suspicious (Highly doubt it!!) My bet is on 1 and/or 3.
- aston 19y agoHow'd your friend up vote the same comment twice? As far as I know, the system only counts one vote per user per comment or post.
- immad 19y agoDo karma point ever go negative? If they dont (which is my view) then the sum of comments is rounded to 0 if less than 0. Karma = [SUM(KP1,KP2,..KPn) - n] + ROUND0[0.5x((KC1,KC2...KCm) - m)] I changed ROUND to ROUND0 where ROUND0 always returns 0 or more. Is there a math way of representing that, that I cant remember?
- nurall 19y agoThis should be a philosophical question for Paul. Can the Karma be negative for a user? The trade-off then would be between absolute web democracy Vs keeping the users 'happy' (capitalistic?)
- immad 19y agoIt's still absolute democracy there are just rules that have to be obeyed :-). Anyway the system is heavily (and rightly) skewed to encourage and award participation, hence no down-votes on submissions.