Well we could bring the points back so that it would be possible to scan a long thread and find the good comments. The bad comments aren't gone, but they'll be easier to avoid. Also, your point about upvoting certain comments will probably be moot if users can't see the result of their action. Without having seen the numbers I'll make a bold statement and say that overall voting per user has gone down significantly.…
Re: Bringing back points for individual comments Pros: * Saves the reader's time. This is incredibly important. I've been here pretty much since the beginning, mostly as a lurker. I've noticed that I used to look forward to the stories with the most comments, because the best comments in those threads were generally very good and generally easy to identify. Now I avoid stories that have received a lot of comments. I…
It may be however, that there are people who have found ways to chase the karma they want by means that are detrimental to the community. For example, users might post almost duplicate links with more enticing titles, or they might (don't know whether this happens) up vote their own stories using fake accounts.
If there are such users, rather than abolishing karma, I think we should try and fix the rules.
If people are gaining karma, but harming the community, what are they doing, and how can we prevent them from doing that?