I use it the same way I did on Reddit; it’s a decent gauge in how willing I am to engage with that person. If their history is littered with downvoted posts, then I’m less likely to engage because it’s more likely they’re being inflammatory on purpose.
Karma systems don’t make places worse; the value placed upon them by the users does. It’s not meant to be a counter for how liked you are, it’s supposed to be representative of how you interact with the community; bad karma for bad interactions. But people use downvote as a disagree button, and people spam posts cause “big number make feel good”. Good idea, difficult implementation given how humans work.
Karma usually doesn’t work because it is used, as you said, a like button and not a quality button. Disagreeing with the majority is considered a violation.
I agree that’s what it supposed to be, but nobody really treats it like that. Downvotes are treated as a “dislike” button, despite the fact that it should be “this does not contribute meaningfully.“
Regardless of what we want, that’s just how people operate.
I use it the same way I did on Reddit; it’s a decent gauge in how willing I am to engage with that person. If their history is littered with downvoted posts, then I’m less likely to engage because it’s more likely they’re being inflammatory on purpose.
Karma systems don’t make places worse; the value placed upon them by the users does. It’s not meant to be a counter for how liked you are, it’s supposed to be representative of how you interact with the community; bad karma for bad interactions. But people use downvote as a disagree button, and people spam posts cause “big number make feel good”. Good idea, difficult implementation given how humans work.
Karma usually doesn’t work because it is used, as you said, a like button and not a quality button. Disagreeing with the majority is considered a violation.
I agree that’s what it supposed to be, but nobody really treats it like that. Downvotes are treated as a “dislike” button, despite the fact that it should be “this does not contribute meaningfully.“
Regardless of what we want, that’s just how people operate.
If it weren’t for the humans, humanity would be pretty cool.