X4’s first line on Karma affecting your mood and life is dead on. Divorcing your self-esteem from these social indicators is important, but difficult as the wh

X4’s first line on Karma affecting your mood and life is dead on. Divorcing your self-esteem from these social indicators is important, but difficult as the whole point of them is social coercion. Which in a round about way brings us back to why you should care (but only a little)- karma exists to push people into conforming with the rules of society on the site. If you are being punished too badly in the karma ranks you are not conforming. (Karma also has a lot of noise - a little punishment is to be expected.) This will presumably be punished with a hell ban after some instance of severe enough non-conformity, and with that you’ll be straight out of the community. I’d look at what you are doing, and if the things you are being punished for are things that matter to you (and thus perhaps you should give up on this place), or are stylistic, or some form of social grace. In the latter cases you could conform with little sacrifice and that would give you a better platform to interact with others on the site, while at the same time removing those ugly drops in karma:)