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I like the way this discussion is going. It is strange how karma could encourage people to act in a counter productive way. 1. How about not displaying the kar
by teyc 16y ago
I like the way this discussion is going. It is strange how karma could encourage people to act in a counter productive way.
1. How about not displaying the karma of new users for the first year?
2. The second insight is multiple postings from a news site. HN was good at recommending "hard to find" articles or esoterica. Where there are multiple people submitting the same link, it is probably not going to be hard to find or esoteric in the first place.
- eli 16y agoI don't get why a cumulative karma score even exists. I like to see what other people think of my opinions and if I've touched a nerve. And I guess average comment score could conceivably be useful. But Total Karma just seems pointless. If the idea is to identify the oldtimers, then show their join date and be done with it.
- teyc 16y agoIt's probably an experiment in reputation. There was time when people would try to optimize their site's PageRank. The moment you start measuring things, magical emergent behaviors are created.
- hugh3 16y agoThe point to cumulative karma is to feed the rodent-like portion of our brain which likes getting slow, semi-random rewards. There's a tiny amount of satisfaction you get every time you look at your karma score and see that it's gone up since last time you looked at it... and a tiny amount of disappointment every time you see it go down.
- redthrowaway 16y agoExactly. It's the same basic principle that Farmville uses for more nefarious purposes. It's a method of encouraging participation and engagement, which makes it very effective for cultivating a community of like-minded individuals.