Pardon me if this is a noob question, but whats the point (value) behind karma points?
I ask because is there really a tangible difference between a poster with say 300 karma points and another with 500?
Also, since (typically) older posters have more karma points isnt the whole system skewed in favor of those posters who have been here the longest (you can make the same argument for those who post vs those who submit).
Basically what do HN users derive from having huge karma point tallies?
Also the ability to create polls, which I usually find interesting but which are rarely posted.
I've thought sometimes that it might be interesting to weight votes by the logarithm of the voter's karma, so that the interest / approval of a highly-ranked member would be enough to promote a story from new to the main page.
Hmm i see. A quick search on google tells me that you need 100 points to downvote. I only have 11 :(
Something to aspire too I guess.
I wish there were more search/filter functionality. It would be interesting to filter submissions by posters who meet certain criteria (points, trending info, etc.)
I suspect it's more mysterious than that. I have 182 and can't see a downvote thingy anywhere.
And to me a visible points system is part of the problem. If people 'try' to get more points then they'll post lots of stuff that might just get in. Then you end up like Digg.
it's not that mysterious. it takes more than 100 points to downvote now. pg keeps increasing the point totals you need to do various things, due to karma inflation.
Nothing except being able to downvote comments and change the color of the topbar. And of course the ability look at your username on the leaderboard with narcissistic love if you're that kind of guy :-)
I ask because is there really a tangible difference between a poster with say 300 karma points and another with 500?
Also, since (typically) older posters have more karma points isnt the whole system skewed in favor of those posters who have been here the longest (you can make the same argument for those who post vs those who submit).
Basically what do HN users derive from having huge karma point tallies?
(edit: aside from the obvious that is)