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I think exposing average karma as a metric reflects the values of the community: better to have insightful comments that lots of people find helpful than to spa
by rflrob 16y ago
I think exposing average karma as a metric reflects the values of the community: better to have insightful comments that lots of people find helpful than to spam the boards with as many posts as you can to see what sticks.
- wladimir 16y agoSomething like the median would be even better; the average is too sensitive to outliers, if you have one post that is either karma'd into heaven or completely trashed, it should not reflect that much in your score. After all, it's better if someone consistently posts insightful comments.
- imkevingao 16y agobut doesn't some spam post get more credit than intellectual discussions? Because lately I realized that something Sean Parker said about the Social Network movie got way more credit than it deserved as opposed to some interesting innovative hacking news some newcomer provides
- brudgers 16y agoThe karma points a post earns only correlate with merit relative to the popularity of the discussion. A middling comment on a front page story might earn a dozen or more points, while a brilliant essay on in a four comment three point discussion may not even garner a single upvote. But that doesn't make karma meaningless, it's still a great feedback tool for improving one's writing.