I'm already ambivalent about karma, but I think the highlighting is wholly a Bad Idea: * it strongly encourages gaming and groupthink, already the biggest prob

I'm already ambivalent about karma, but I think the highlighting is wholly a Bad Idea: * it strongly encourages gaming and groupthink, already the biggest problem with social news sites, especially karma-based ones, while discouraging controversial opinions * it makes those without highlighting feel less welcome or that their contributions are less worthwhile * it adds excessive weight to the opinions of popular members, and as noted elsewhere this causes a feedback loop IMHO karma should be a subtle thing, used gently. Shoving it in users' faces is the worst possible thing to do with it. I don't like sounding so negative, because I appreciate the work and thought that has gone into making HN the great site that it is. But I'd like to keep it great, and I think this is not a good way to go about it, and a bad road to go down.