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Ask HN: Does HN Karma do anything, other than give me dopamine? (in algorithm)

25 points by danschumann ↗ HN

33 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 88.8 ms ] thread
yasp
Exposes the ability to downvote comments at >500. Seems to give flags and possibly votes more weight.
gus_massa
There are some thresholds to unlock additional abilities. For example, with 200 you can make polls and with 500 you can downvote comments. (The numbers may change.)
gadders
Now I've got 5,000 points I get the secret Air BnB page that lets me stay at any of PG's 12 vacation homes around the globe. 10,000 points you get unlimited usage of the YC corporate jet.
partycoder
If anything, karma reflects how many users like your post or comment. They can like it for various reasons, not necessarily support it.
stephengillie
This is true for individual comments. But do we need the "score box" next to our login name?

I don't see an option in the settings to make that disappear, and adblocking the div removes a useful link.

jacob019
It give feedback as to whether people feel that your comments contribute positively to the discussion. Not algo but useful.
_blrj
It suppresses opinions that are not widely accepted or favorable and deters irritable tones of voice among other things.
denkmoon
> It suppresses opinions that are not widely accepted

There definitely is a type of person that revels in negative karma/points/whatever for their "controversial" "opinions".

opan
This is one reason I'm not a big fan of these sorts of karma systems. It's like when social media sites try to re-order the news instead of just showing it in chronological order. This post was popular, so maybe you'll like it too. Just a bit irritating. I think I prefer more traditional forums where the new posts are at the end.
[dead] grawprog
Having high karma and highly rated posts won't stop you from being arbitrarily banned for no real reason however.
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jason_slack
I think at a certain Karma you can also change your: top bar color. I have mine set to: 9794b6. I think it was at 500 points that I could do this.
jeanlucas
For real? I'm mostly a lurker, now I wanna hit 500 points.
RpFLCL
It may have changed but I remember that being available closer to the 256 point.
jason_slack
I don’t recall the number of points needed but I do remember being so excited to be able to change my top bar color.
jackgolding
confirming i have 368 and can change my color
oever
Who needs karma when you can use a user.js script?
jason_slack
I guess those of us that believe in karma :-)
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quickthrower2
I sometimes get dopamine from downvotes. Weird. It's like someone cares enough to say "that's shit".
laurentl
I was totally going to give you a dopamine hit but I don't have enough karma to downvote :(

Maybe if people like this comment enough ?

(/s, if you must ask)

labster
At 1000 karma you unlock the ability to post an occasional /.-worthy +2 Funny comment without worrying about the inevitable downvotes.

But really, I do look at people's karma to see if I should take a comment seriously if I'm feeling uncertain about it. People with 2000+ karma are usually worth listening to, even if you don't agree with them.

veddox
Yes, karma is a good indicator of standing in the HN community :-) High karma shows somebody has been around for a while and is known for substantive comments.
mrgreenfur
I'm opening a hn karma for karma trade marketplace to help us unionize commenting.
blahblahblahw
It's great for reinforcing group-think and confirming certain trendy biases.