Karma

[RootRanger]

When I was new, karma was incredibly important to me.
Until after 300 posts, I had not a single karma point. This really made me angry. And the worst part? I would see people receive karma for absolutely terrible reasons, yet it didn't happen to me.

They say karma doesn't matter. This is obviously the case. But when you have 300 posts and no karma, it's really depressing to have no karma. I nearly left the forum. Wouldn't it be nice if karma was removed completely?

[TheIdioticIdiot]

When I was new, karma was incredibly important to me.
Until after 300 posts, I had not a single karma point. This really made me angry. And the worst part? I would see people receive karma for absolutely terrible reasons, yet it didn't happen to me.

They say karma doesn't matter. This is obviously the case. But when you have 300 posts and no karma, it's really depressing to have no karma. I nearly left the forum. Wouldn't it be nice if karma was removed completely?

yeah... karma can be hurtful to ppl's self-esteem
a certain veteran with a lot of karma almost made me quit back when I had only 2 karma (not because of his high karma count, something else that I won't talk about)
but I sticked around

[Wardead]

Karma is being abused a lot by the community, but I can't actually see any direct solutions to the problem. As much as youtry to convince, some people will always remain the same. And most people don't even go to the forum's main 'boards' to find anyone to give Karma to. I said most, not all. They will just straight go to the Off-topic section, or Introduction section. Negative Karma is one solution, but it can be abused the same way. Karma is important, but it lost it's worth after quite few times. My proposal is to limit the Karma by one person to a specific number, so it won't be over-used, while it can be given to certain members of the forum who deserve it. Also, under 100 posts members should not be deserved to give out Karma, some exceptions of course. And the Karma limit raises each time you get  higher rank of course...

[TheForbiddenOracle]

How about:

You can give Karma only if you give up your own. So if you give Karma, -1 to you and +1 for them, and vice versa

[suxerz]

For me there's nothing much to say about this. I think everyone can agree that the act of giving out karma is an individual right or privilege. There's no true justification for this act. I myself have given a couple of karmas for reasons that doesn't matter to most; but there are certainly significant enough to me. So, as some here have pointed out, let it be. Ignore the karma if you don't think it shows anything, but keep in mind that there are others who care.

My only hope that this thread could at least open up the eyes of some people.

[Jaxly]

Ive seen nothing good come of Karma.
It's a frickin "Like" button.
People without any worry about it and people with it don't care about it.
I hate the idea.
That said the game/forum was set up for entertainment.
PK was entertaining (first post was anyhoo, havent seen any others)
PK gets karma for fufilling forums role of entertainment.
Its just easier to "like" a funny thing than a serious thing.

[918273645]

My karma stats:

3 for being helpful to newbz.
1 for being funny (and a good war sportsman, lulwut?)
1 for giving someone else karma
1 for no absolute reason at all.

[BluePriest]

I got my karma for a lot of stupid reasons.

1 was because my title of a thread had so many abbreviations, it was unreadable. What!??!?!
Another was for my fg spreadsheet
KARMA 4 TEH LULZ! - was literally one of the reasons I recieved karma
1 for my ai3 grinder
4 for religious things
1 for good observations in a deck shuffling study
3 was for my ask bp thread (aka my awesomeness and infinite knowledge)
1 was for my longest joke ever
1 was because it was the first time they were rickrolled without them seeing it coming


The bolded are the only ones that really matter, and its sorta sad

[silux]

The bolded are the only ones that really matter, and its sorta sad

Don't be sad you are legendary!

Worst thing about karma is when you don't receive it.
However when I wrote articles on the wiki I didn't it for being appreciated, but helpful!

I dislike any ideas about giving karma in base of posts(I believe almost anyone who post in this thread deserves a karma point )
A karma depending on post is useless since we have already the 'newbie-junior-senior-legendary' system.

I think anyone who puts an helpful link like a limit calculator http://sharpermath.com/content/maxima-limit-evaluate (http://sharpermath.com/content/maxima-limit-evaluate) or a spreadsheet needs a karma point^^

Anyway I agree that having 200 post and no karma hurts.
Maybe make a thread like 'karma hunting', where to link helpful post?

ps:How I can see my karma reasons?

[BluePriest]

The bolded are the only ones that really matter, and its sorta sad

Don't be sad you are legendary!

Worst thing about karma is when you don't receive it.
However when I wrote articles on the wiki I didn't it for being appreciated, but helpful!

I dislike any ideas about giving karma in base of posts(I believe almost anyone who post in this thread deserves a karma point )
A karma depending on post is useless since we have already the 'newbie-junior-senior-legendary' system.

I think anyone who puts an helpful link like a limit calculator http://sharpermath.com/content/maxima-limit-evaluate (http://sharpermath.com/content/maxima-limit-evaluate) or a spreadsheet needs a karma point^^

Anyway I agree that having 200 post and no karma hurts.
Maybe make a thread like 'karma hunting', where to link helpful post?

ps:How I can see my karma reasons?

Im syaing its sad that people give karma for such horrible reasons. I dont care one way or the other about karma


The oracle sends you a message whenever you get karma that tells you why.

[jmdt]

This has turned into the whiniest discussion I have seen in some time.  Its a made up number on a gaming forum.  People really want to quit the forum over this?  Seriously?

Lets be honest, 'most' of the folk with high karma numbers do continual good for the community.  If you have 0 karma and its that important to you, start a project that will benefit the community.  When I started my ttw study, I had 20 karma within a week.  Did I do it for karma? Absolutely not; I honestly started it for my own benefit, but soon realizedit had much larger implications.  If you really live and die by having as much karma as the next guy take a step back and find something more useful to the community than whining and complaing about not having it.  Go out and become awesome: write a newbie tutorial or helping newbies, start helping people with decks, come up with a unique study or help with a current one.  Before you know it, you may have a cookie of awesomeness which is greater than all the karma in the forum.  Remember to leave the negativity behind on your trip to awesomeness.

jmdt

[Essence]

Everything that jmdt said.

Also, this:

It's a frickin "Like" button.

Everyone needs to remember that we already have multiple established non-Karma systems for pointing out awesomeness.  The first is staff positions -- people in staff positions are the leaders of the community.  Especially Council Members.   The second, as jmdt pointed out, is the Cookies Of Awesomeness.   If anything, the Cookies of Awesomeness need to be a regular (once every 3 months?) event given out by the Council and/or SG for people who do truly amazing things around the forum.

In short: the fact that I have a sh!tload of Karma doesn't necessarily mean anything other than that people like what I have to say and the style that I say it in.  I've probably gotten just as much if not more Karma from posts like this (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17234.msg235761#msg235761) than from 'hard work' like this (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,23099.0.html).  And that's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as everyone recognizes Karma for what it is: a Like button.  (God knows that if negative Karma still existed, I'd probably be in the low 30s, too. )

In all humility, I certainly don't have a lot of long-term impact on how people play the game or use the forums -- not like PlanPlan, jmdt, or my brah jmizzle for example -- and you can tell, because I don't have a terribly important staff position and I certainly haven't earned a Cookie of Awesomeness. 

I think what I'm trying to say is that the only thing we really need to do to address the problem is point out in someplace like the Forum FAQ that Karma doesn't equal awesome -- merely popular.