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Hacker News Karma Tracker

hn-karma-tracker.herokuapp.com

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Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#21

Post by Udo »

eksith wrote: post #19
Udo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but karma is an important measurement of the (perceived) quality of your posts. If a comment gets upvoted that's not only because people agree with you but also because they think your comment has value. Likewise, if a comment gets downvoted, that's a fair indicator it did not have a lot of merit. Of course, HN distorts this somewhat by just having one score for all the possible reasons a user might have to vot…

I just got a measurement of my post, simply because you replied. ;) Just by talking to me, you've let me know what I said was worth at least a reply. This is just opinion, so take it for what its worth... I'd much rather someone reply to me, email, chat whatever, and let me know what exactly they think rather than assign my words a value via a mouse click. Wouldn't you?

> I just got a measurement of my post, simply because you replied. ;)

Yes, but I also upvoted you ;)

I essentially agree with you, it's just that I think karma has its place, too. And usually when I reply to a comment, I make it a point to give it a vote as well.

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#22

Post by nsns »

eksith wrote: post #19
Udo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but karma is an important measurement of the (perceived) quality of your posts. If a comment gets upvoted that's not only because people agree with you but also because they think your comment has value. Likewise, if a comment gets downvoted, that's a fair indicator it did not have a lot of merit. Of course, HN distorts this somewhat by just having one score for all the possible reasons a user might have to vot…

I just got a measurement of my post, simply because you replied. ;) Just by talking to me, you've let me know what I said was worth at least a reply. This is just opinion, so take it for what its worth... I'd much rather someone reply to me, email, chat whatever, and let me know what exactly they think rather than assign my words a value via a mouse click. Wouldn't you?

You're confusing a single conversation with the ongoing presence on the forum. Karma is an imperfect but effective way of assessing a user's position within the community based on her/his previous actions and reactions. It can be looked at as a substitute to an auditory/visual first impression in the "real" world.

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#23

Post by andreasvc »

Xcelerate wrote: post #9

This is a cool website. I was wondering about some kind of ranking system like this. > Speed percentile: 98.82% While I have to acknowledge that some instinctive/animalistic part of me is excited at being in this percentile, it also prompts me to remember that karma is effectively worthless and I really need to get busy on class work and research... It's really strange the impact something silly like karma has, becau…

> My last comment, a quip about about how every programmer thinks they're the best, was worth 64 points. However, a detailed post I wrote on molecular dynamics simulation where I fact-checked and reviewed the literature was only worth 3 points. Go figure.

It doesn't seem surprising to me. It takes effort to recognize quality, most people aren't going to bother. It makes sense that quality is hard to measure, because if it weren't it would most likely be easier to produce. Perhaps the score should be corrected for length and how deep in the thread a comment is, but getting it right is probably more trouble than it's worth.

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#24

Post by freework »

thesis wrote: post #18

Neat. One thing I noticed though... my karma isn't correct even though it states it was last updated today. I haven't commented in almost a week prior to this comment.

The site pulls data from the HNSearch API, which only updates user's karma on their end when the user submits a post.

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#25

Post by petercooper »

eksith wrote: post #12

It's just a number in a database. What you say and how you say it is more important than what other people think of it. If your words are important to you and you said them in earnest, why does it matter? Side note: You may even be unconsciously censoring yourself in fear of losing karma. It's a similar effect to suddenly having a lot of followers on Twitter.

You may even be unconsciously censoring yourself in fear of losing karma.

I consciously say things I wouldn't otherwise because I know I have karma to burn. It's when you have < 100 karma you have to watch out otherwise you could end up in negative territory quickly and your posts be dead by default (the idea of voting people down for disagreement rather than stupidity is still going strong, it seems).

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#28

Post by pavel_lishin »

eksith wrote: post #12

It's just a number in a database. What you say and how you say it is more important than what other people think of it. If your words are important to you and you said them in earnest, why does it matter? Side note: You may even be unconsciously censoring yourself in fear of losing karma. It's a similar effect to suddenly having a lot of followers on Twitter.

> Side note: You may even be unconsciously censoring yourself in fear of losing karma.

I've thought about this, actually, and based on my comment/karma history, it appears that I'm too dumb to keep from blurting out things people downvote.

I'm free of the tyranny of the hivemind by virtue of ignorance and stupidity!

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#29

Post by dave1010uk »

Is it easy to separate karma aquired from submissions and karma aquired from comments? My average comment karma is below 3 and I've only had a few comments over 20 but most of my karma has come from 2 or 3 submissions of interesting links, which seems almost like cheating.

I think the most karma I ever got was from being the first to post about Sublime Text 2. This was interesting but I only got the karma because I beat everyone else by a few seconds. I feel that's far less valuable than the odd thing I've spotted which no one else would have ever come across.

In the same way, I wonder how many people have high karma just because they are one of the first to comment on popular submissions.

Edit: typo (I wonder how proof reading my comment more would have affect my karma)

Re: Hacker News Karma Tracker

#30

Post by mjn »

Xcelerate wrote: post #9

This is a cool website. I was wondering about some kind of ranking system like this. > Speed percentile: 98.82% While I have to acknowledge that some instinctive/animalistic part of me is excited at being in this percentile, it also prompts me to remember that karma is effectively worthless and I really need to get busy on class work and research... It's really strange the impact something silly like karma has, becau…

On the last point, one thing I've taken away from the HN karma system is that your votes are most highly correlated with the general traffic around a discussion, more than with anything specific to the comment. Posting almost anything decent on a story that sits on the front page for a day will get you double-digit upvotes, especially if it's an early comment. But posting something in an article that only briefly hits the front page will not get much attention.

Come to think of it, that does transfer to both business and academia to some extent.

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