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I think it's time to stop awarding karma for submitting stories. It really doesn't make sense to do so in the first place, but I suppose it might have helped b

I think it's time to stop awarding karma for submitting stories. It really doesn't make sense to do so in the first place, but I suppose it might have helped back when the site was young. Now, since pretty much every good story is going to end up here anyway, I don't see any reason to reward people for posting them. Karma for comments makes sense, since it's an actual contribution by you. Karma for posting something you didn't even write just leads to people gaming the system.

rlpb 16y ago
Extra karma for early upvoters of stories that later take off and get high up the front page would be good too.
- mike-cardwell 16y ago
  Wouldn't that just lead to some people upvoting everything?
  - rlpb 16y ago
    The system would have to take that into account, for example by considering the proportion of stories upvoted that have led to such success.
10smom 16y ago
Great Idea! And I do spend time making sure that people who submit about the same time I do have up voted points. Also try and leave a comment on one that are worth wile that may be a few pages back just so it is seen. I think more people should do this as well.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
10smom 16y ago
Another thing to consider is to have Categories for new post. so easy to scroll through and does not get lost on 2nd page. YOU can have the categories in the drop down of "New" post link. You can a have "view all" as an option as well. You can have the category fields as a requirement when filling out the submission form. I hope the PTB of HN consider this. wow even this post is getting voted down already. HMMM
- srean 16y ago
  Are you sure you are being voted down like you claim ? In my experience HN'ers are quite restrained in their downvotes. Apart from a few of your comments in this thread that got downvoted I don't see any major downvoting trend going on. And about those comments: I do not have the karma to downvote anyone and I haven't till before this thread felt the need for such rights. But some of your comments did come off as immature and needlessly argumentative, to the point of refusing to listen to what everyone is saying to you and blaming everything on being a newbie. Just my thoughts.
  - 10smom 16y ago
    when you have zeros next to your post and when you are watching your karma go up and down as much as 5 points, depending on when you posted, then your are being voted. down. Only reason I am being voted down if because someone or a few think I am here for other reason beside just wanting to get may startup going and just trying to figure it all out. Just leave me alone already.
  - 10smom 16y ago
    when you have zeros next to your post and when you are watching your karma go up and down as much as 5 points, depending on when you posted, then your are being voted. down. Only reason I am being voted down if because someone or a few think I am here for other reason beside just wanting to get may startup going and just trying to figure it all out. Just leave me alone already.
srean 16y ago
I would not go so far as stop awarding those karma. It gives people the incentive to post those stories and its not that just by posting one gets some karma. It has to be liked by the community. But the quantum of karma per post should ideally be less than that for a comment. Karma seems more sought after than I thought. It seems there is almost a viable market for it. Shudder
- jasonkester 16y ago
  Indeed, people are here seeking karma for its own sake. That's the problem. It's also the reason why every single techcrunch article get submitted here. There was a time where you'd see maybe one TC article a week come through, usually with discussion as to whether it was really worth being here. Realistically, maybe half a dozen articles per day are high enough quality to even be submitted here. The fact that we're seeing thousands each day is a sign that standards have fallen drastically. Removing the incentive to post things unless they're really good would go a long way toward improving the signal to noise ratio.
  - srean 16y ago
    Your comment made me think of a scheme where a post automatically incurs a tiny negative karma, which can be compensated and exceeded by the karma awarded by the community. Right now we do not have any dis-incentive for posting noise. It will make posters think twice. However karma has to be made a float as opposed to an integer. I am curious, do downvoters get a tiny hit for downvoting ?
    - secret 16y ago
      I agree there should be a cost for posting stories, even going so far as preventing further submissions if you fall below a certain threshold. You could raise your karma back up through commenting.
- beoba 16y ago
  I'm seeing a lot of cases where someone writes a small post to their site and posts it as a story (or even a comment!) on HN just to get publicity for the site. So it might not always be purely for karma. Though I'm pretty new here, so this might be 'normal'.

rlpb 16y ago

Extra karma for early upvoters of stories that later take off and get high up the front page would be good too.

mike-cardwell 16y ago
Wouldn't that just lead to some people upvoting everything?
- rlpb 16y ago
  The system would have to take that into account, for example by considering the proportion of stories upvoted that have led to such success.

10smom 16y ago

Great Idea! And I do spend time making sure that people who submit about the same time I do have up voted points. Also try and leave a comment on one that are worth wile that may be a few pages back just so it is seen. I think more people should do this as well.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

10smom 16y ago

Another thing to consider is to have Categories for new post. so easy to scroll through and does not get lost on 2nd page. YOU can have the categories in the drop down of "New" post link. You can a have "view all" as an option as well. You can have the category fields as a requirement when filling out the submission form. I hope the PTB of HN consider this. wow even this post is getting voted down already. HMMM

srean 16y ago
Are you sure you are being voted down like you claim ? In my experience HN'ers are quite restrained in their downvotes. Apart from a few of your comments in this thread that got downvoted I don't see any major downvoting trend going on. And about those comments: I do not have the karma to downvote anyone and I haven't till before this thread felt the need for such rights. But some of your comments did come off as immature and needlessly argumentative, to the point of refusing to listen to what everyone is saying to you and blaming everything on being a newbie. Just my thoughts.
- 10smom 16y ago
  when you have zeros next to your post and when you are watching your karma go up and down as much as 5 points, depending on when you posted, then your are being voted. down. Only reason I am being voted down if because someone or a few think I am here for other reason beside just wanting to get may startup going and just trying to figure it all out. Just leave me alone already.
- 10smom 16y ago
  when you have zeros next to your post and when you are watching your karma go up and down as much as 5 points, depending on when you posted, then your are being voted. down. Only reason I am being voted down if because someone or a few think I am here for other reason beside just wanting to get may startup going and just trying to figure it all out. Just leave me alone already.

srean 16y ago

I would not go so far as stop awarding those karma. It gives people the incentive to post those stories and its not that just by posting one gets some karma. It has to be liked by the community. But the quantum of karma per post should ideally be less than that for a comment. Karma seems more sought after than I thought. It seems there is almost a viable market for it. Shudder

jasonkester 16y ago
Indeed, people are here seeking karma for its own sake. That's the problem. It's also the reason why every single techcrunch article get submitted here. There was a time where you'd see maybe one TC article a week come through, usually with discussion as to whether it was really worth being here. Realistically, maybe half a dozen articles per day are high enough quality to even be submitted here. The fact that we're seeing thousands each day is a sign that standards have fallen drastically. Removing the incentive to post things unless they're really good would go a long way toward improving the signal to noise ratio.
- srean 16y ago
  Your comment made me think of a scheme where a post automatically incurs a tiny negative karma, which can be compensated and exceeded by the karma awarded by the community. Right now we do not have any dis-incentive for posting noise. It will make posters think twice. However karma has to be made a float as opposed to an integer. I am curious, do downvoters get a tiny hit for downvoting ?
  - secret 16y ago
    I agree there should be a cost for posting stories, even going so far as preventing further submissions if you fall below a certain threshold. You could raise your karma back up through commenting.
beoba 16y ago
I'm seeing a lot of cases where someone writes a small post to their site and posts it as a story (or even a comment!) on HN just to get publicity for the site. So it might not always be purely for karma. Though I'm pretty new here, so this might be 'normal'.