In think that this would not really work in HN. First of all, these are truly internet points. What you have has zero impact on your life. I can imagine that a

In think that this would not really work in HN. First of all, these are truly internet points. What you have has zero impact on your life. I can imagine that a developer could care about their SO points, or Github stars because these may (and it is a big may) have some impact. But HN points? Who cares? I love HN mostly because of the various kind of information, but especially because of the quality of the comments (that I read before the post they relate to). I have no idea about the karma points of the ones making the comments, and this is great. So I can hardly imagine someone building an elaborate plot to downvote someone whose points are invisible. Now, there are the psychopaths who will do everything to bury a post just because. Hopefully HN is not a practical playground for them.