Karma was initially made as a way of measuring the contributing quality of a post, image, or what-have-you, and by extension, the contributing quality of a user as a whole. But it is almost never used this way in practice, instead being a like/agree/dislike/disagree button. Rather than find some roundabout way of insisting on its "intended" use, it should be designed around its expected, proven use. So, since it is/will inevitably be used as an opinion button, it shouldn't be allowed to affect opinions expressed: remove its ability to bury. Also, replace top comments with a sorting system similar to media galleries, with "newest" being the default. This will put majority and minority opinions and views on more equal footing, with no systematic negative consequences for having a minority opinion, apart from letting it be known that one's opinion is in the minority. For when a post/image doesn't contribute, breaks a rule, or deserves the intended use of a burial for whatever reason, a "bury" button may be used instead. This button could, upon use, bury and hide the offending post for that user immediately. After reaching a threshold of buries, the offending post/image would be buried for all users by default (likely using the same threshold as downvotes use in our current system) and appropriate moderators would be notified. After judging it according to the rules/guidelines, a moderator may choose to unbury the post/image site-wide, though individual users may still choose to keep it hidden for themselves. An image that has been buried can be covered with a thumbnail in the same vein as the NSFW/Spoiler thumbnails. And unlike the regular voting buttons, moderators CAN see who clicks "bury" in order to monitor and warn/punish abusers.
As for user stats, karma could be remembered for each of the different contribution categories that are capable of receiving votes, for people who like/want more specific stats. Also, "karma received" should be hidden from other users in order to make it more difficult to use it as a bragging tool over other users. For all anyone knows, that screenshot of your karma is either shopped or had the page source altered first. That way a user's character would also have to be judged per post rather than a blanket judgement of "good/bad user" from the karma total. Users could still use "karma given" as a way to gain insight into a user's personality/activity (i.e.: this user seems contented or ambivalent in regards to the quality of images, but has strong opinions in the forums, agreeing as much as he seems to disagree, and etc.).
In this way, user opinion could be further divorced from implications of post quality. People can still use the voting system to express their opinion simply and anonymously, and the community still has a way of self-moderating bad or unhelpful posts in a way that has a much lesser likelihood of being misused or abused than the voting system we have now.
Also, this is not as important, but, displaying total upvotes and downvotes on a post at the same time, instead of displaying just the difference until you mouse over, would help keep hotly contested posts and mostly ignored posts from being mistaken for each other at a first glance.
