Forums / Maintenance / Suggest Ideas

I decided not to make my post in this thread, as it seems geared more towards comment karma. But mods, feel free to redirect this thread if you think this topic would fit better in the thread previously linked.

I'm assuming that karma was originally created on the site to compliment good or funny posts and bury shitposts or off-topic comments. There's nothing wrong with this. But due to karma being shown on users walls, I would imagine that some users feel they're being judged based on their overall negative karma count and/or the percentage of positive and negative karma they have. Because of this, some users might avoid doing things such as voicing their opinions or making certain posts that might get them downvotes. Therefore, I think it would be useful to do something such as removing karma from user's profiles, or at least removing the positive/negative count, so that only a user's net karma would be shown.

TL;DR: I don't see the point in displaying karma on user's walls.
Any other thoughts on forum karma as a whole?

i don't really care for forum karma at all. i've had it blocked through adblock for a couple months and honestly it's working great. comment karma has it's place because you want the best comments to rise to the top but forum posts stay in place so it's not really useful for anything at all. i mean, for the most part people who like you are going to vote your posts up. also we don't need a total karma on pages. maybe replace it with a "top comments" section.

please do away with forum karma.

no i need my meme money

Ehh, I don't personally care too much about forum karma. I don't really see this widespread issue of people being judged for the karma on their walls and it's pretty much used how it's supposed to be in the forums since people here are overall more friendly and know how to use it. Just me though.

Is this really an issue though?

No. Most of the people who want it gone are the people who tend to proudly boast they don't care about karma. I don't exactly get how an internet points system bothers you if you claim to not care about it at the same time.

I agree with Muffinlicious that we should stop displaying total karma at users' walls. The karma system, as it is right now through, is adequate, so I don't think there needs to be changes in that area.

This seems to me like a case of trying to fix something that`s not broken, or even damaged for that matter. This same exact system is used on countless websites without issue. And besides, I`ve seen plenty of potentially unpopular opinions voiced on here- hell, we had an entire thread with hundreds of posts dedicated to exactly that.

+1 remove karma display on walls, for the same reasons Muffin described

What if I don't want to remove the karma display from my wall?

Make it optional. That way everyone wins.

But of course, this issue with karma can't be solve with just doing that, right?

To me, karma is entirely psychological. When an user downvotes/upvotes a post they are not only expressing their approval or rejection of said post, they are expressing their own idea of what they consider as a good post, or a bad post. In other words, they are judging the user and the way it post, either rejecting the user or accepting him.

For example: in Serious debate you are supposed to be serious when discussing a topic. Very different of what is Riff Raff, where you are not allowed to be serious nor be taken seriously. If you don't follow these "rules" (or "etiquette" if you want) that every board has, then you are rejected by the community. Which, sometimes, is a problem (this applies more to Riff Raff than the other boards).

I think the real problem is the misconception this community has about what is a good post, what is a bad post, and what is the real meaning of karma.

I also think that removing the karma display is dumb and contradictory. You can't see the total amount of karma, but you can still go to the thread and see if your comment got downvoted. You can still see if your opinion was accepted and/or rejected by other users. What's the point then?

Karma is just the result of people expressing their own and personal misconceptions. If you remove the karma display nothing will change, some people will still get their opinions downvoted.

We either remove karma from the forums or we change the mindset that this community has.

I'm in agreement that the Userbase itself is largely the problematic factor. Not as problematic as the Comments Section (but lets face it, with only Sr. Moderators containing Comment Powers, of course it's trash), however still has it's little problematic quirks.

So here is what I think the Karma System actually does;

It creates a Stable Environment for the Current Userbase, slowing down the process of change. A voting system means that people can act in a crowd without vocalizing themselves, becoming capable of chasing people away without even REASONING with the new ideas being presented to them. (An outside recluses NIGHTMARE basically)

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact if used correctly we could use such a thing to our advantage if we do something MORE than just strip away the voting systems.

As I said earlier; removing a voting system would take away stability. Letting an animal out of a cage almost. It can cause… Riff Raff if you do so haphazardly.

But if you remove the cage, and throw in positive seeds. Maybe an upstanding rolemodel(s) like the original Know Your Meme team was or even AmandaB (Somebody/people with insanely high Charisma), you could fundamentally change the userbase to be a healthier organism.

And as soon as it takes effect, you slam the karma cage doors closed again to preserve it.

Tl;Dr

If we are going to strip away the Karma System, it will have to be Temporary and with the intention of Intentionally changing the user-base for the better.

Okay, IMO, we should make it optional. I don't really give a damm about karma, but i think i can be judged and downvoted based on my predominantly negative (at the time of writing) karma. So basically, i agree with loli.

so much this!

We worked hard for our money.

Also randomman pretty much negated the whole concern…