Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#1

Post by kashif » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 3:54 PM UTC

Since the last influx of users, I have been thinking about social aggregation systems such as news.YC. And, to put it in a nutshell, I believe that for communities such as nYC which are, not mainstream, comparatively close knit and somewhat homogeneous, it is possible to improve the quality of the submissions and comments if we removed individual karma altogether but kept the voting system for submissions and comments intact.

What do you think?

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#2

Post by gaika » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:04 PM UTC

Yes, I care, as a form of trust metric:

For the person: it is a simplest way to see if you fit or not in this community. For the community: quickly judge if the post or comment is spam or not.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#3

Post by brk » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:04 PM UTC

I think that people spend a LOT of time obsessing over karma and rankings/ratings.

This includes not only obsession with gaining karma, but obsession with how to better measure, display or distribute/earn karma points.

What I would personally prefer to see is someone present a valid, (semi)tested proposal for a better system. There have been a lot of threads withe what I personally consider to be vague half-suggestions for "improvement" that don't really articulate how the proposal will make news:YC cumulatively "better".

When I'm reading the site or submitting comments or linking I don't really find myself giving a lot of merit to the overall rankings. I'm just as likely to add a comment to a story with a ranking of 100 as I am to a story ranked 1, provided the story itself interests me.

Perhaps your argument would be more persuasive if you applied it to some submissions or comments showing how it would affect those items for the overall betterment of the site.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#4

Post by apgwoz » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:05 PM UTC

I'd love if social news were more like an RPG where you could "level up" to get more features, customizations and other things I can't think of. Last I knew, users with 250 karma were allowed to change the color of the nav bar at the top.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#5

Post by andr » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:05 PM UTC

I'm only happy when my karma reaches a certain significant number. Like 314 or 411.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#6

Post by mixmax » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:05 PM UTC

I would be lying if I said I didn't.

But I care more for a good conversation.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#7

Post by ph0rque » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:09 PM UTC

I had a karma of ~350 until the software glitch at the beginning of the month. At first, I cared, but then I realized that it's not important in the grand scheme of things. However, I would like to get my #CBDDFF top bar back, and have the down arrows available again. Otherwise, it's no big deal :~).

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#8

Post by fairramone » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:11 PM UTC

Earning karma points is not important to me. I could honestly care less.

However, that being said, I am more a "consumer" of this site than a "poster." I am not trying to be heard, trusted, or accepted by anyone here.

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#9

Post by hollywoodcole » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:21 PM UTC

No I don't. I just tell everyone how I feel and when I need to top up on Karma I just post a pg related article...>:)

Re: Ask YC: Do you care about Karma?

#10

Post by plinkplonk » Mon, Apr 21, 2008, 4:22 PM UTC

I don't care about Karma.

Mostly.

One day I noticed that I had about 180 karma and decided to try for 250 so I could change the colour of the Navbar. After clearing 250 (and changing the color to a nice soothing green vs the default orange), I find I don't really care about Karma.

A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon. - Napoleon