Oh I'm wrong. You get all of ONE karma point to use for either a question (that will get closed) or one answer. Earning karma is fundamentally impossible for anyone who isn't living on SO.
I don't see much value in accumulation of karma points in the user account. It can be used to decide what makes it to the front page or how comments get ordered... but beyond that, why should it have any more value? It just incentivises karma hoarders to lie.
You have mistaken the purpose of the karma system here. It's just a system to encourage civil discussion. Earning back points doesn't matter - points don't matter. Keep up what you're doing and there's a good chance you'll be banned. But you won't know it.
One of the problems with the Karma thing is it's ridiculously simple to gain karma. Unless you're deliberately being stupid.
All you have to do is say something you believe will fit in with the groupthink of the community.
The first step to salvation is the realization that karma="how much time you waste commenting" rather than how much your comments are valued.
I'd like to see a community where there is a limited supply of karma. Or your karma is shown as a percentage of total karma. I think that would produce much better dynamics.
I have no idea what karma is used for. Does it affect one's posting ability (I posted with 1 karma and the post was immediately flagged as dead)? I created my account over a month ago, managed to get 6 karma and then ended up with 1 karma. I took time away and came back yesterday and started commenting (not posting). Now over 100 karma but I have no idea how or why or what it means.
What's the basis for the claim "the sum of your points across submissions and comments does not equal karma"? Pretty sure karma = 1 + every point beyond 1 point for any comment or submission.
Everyone is always talking about Karma points or losing karma points through down voting.
As I understand it karma points to don't effect ranking of articles. Correct?
So the point of having karma points is that when you get a certain level of karma points you can down vote or flag inappropriate content.
The question is how many do you need to complete the game? How many points do you need to be able to do all of the power ups that come with getting the points?
Why not focus on something more productive then Karma points? Your startup, job, school, hobby, significant other?
I can guarantee you that none of the successful people on here care about Karma points. (Unless, of course, your definition of success is having tons of Karma points.)
"Karma is meant to be spent" -which is a bit of a conundrum to me because I can't figure out how to "spend" karma without simply spamming every thread I see in hopes of getting up-votes (which I'm pretty sure is the opposite of what the karma system's intent is).
Investing time does not equal karma. I have posted about 10 comments so far and only have 2 karma. Most of the threads I post in never make it past 20 total posts. Requiring people to have a certain amount of karma will make them only post more comments to achieve said karma. And the more unnecessary posts there are, the lower the quality is of those posts.
reply