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Ask HN: Karma, how does it work.
Just out of curiosity, I dont understand how Karma on HN adds up.
I posted a comment that wasn't liked and was voted to -4. In that thread - two other comments were voted -4 for a total of -12. However, my karma score was reduced by 59 points.
Obviously, Karma means nothing - but I cant figure out the scoring math behind it. I can only imagine that as others comments get voted up in reply to me, I lose more karma?
- joelrunyon 16y agoI'd respond, but I'm afraid I'd lose Karma points :)
- rjhackin 16y agowhy worry about karma if your comment is honest, useful and decent enough
- chops 16y agoPeople can still vote down a comment even after it's hit the -4 floor. It's still counting against your Karma even after hitting that floor.
- cschmidt 16y agoIn a related question, what level of karma is necessary to be able to downvote? I have a lowly 72 points, and that's not enough. What is?
- bryanh 16y agoI believe it's 200.
- keiferski 16y agoNope. I'm nearly at 400 and I can't find a downvote button anywhere.
- zmmz 16y agoI believe it changes over time? I used to be able to downvote as I hit the 200 mark, but now I am well over 300 and can't downvote.. Perhaps it is related to the time spent on HN?
- mindcrime 16y agoIt went up to 500 not so long ago.
- dawson 16y agoIt was increased recently to 500, I believe.
- WillyF 16y agoI just got it at 500. I'd reached the downvoting threshold once or twice before, but then lost the privilege when the threshold was raised.
- tomkinstinch 16y agoI would be interested in learning more about the decisions behind the HN comment system. It works well.
- sagacity 16y agoI guess it deploys a sophisticated, proprietary, patent-pending algo involving weighted averages, uni-directional vectors and other related mumbo-jumbo. :-))) [A method and a process to calculate the Karma score of members] On a serious note, I joined here only early this month and have wondered about this once or twice myself. However, I post here mainly to share what (I think) I know and because I generally like this community; I'm sure there's a lot to learn here. In the end, I reckon if I keep doing my thing, Karma will (eventually) sort itself out. ;-)