I think that karma is an extremely poorly thought system, because it worsens every single issue with content voting system, such as:
fluff principle - content that is the easiest to judge takes over, unless you take specific measures to prevent it
subjectivity - what’s “good” for a user might be rubbish for another, and vice versa, so the content surfacing will be the lowest common denominator
undue reposting - since content already highly upvoted will be likely highly upvoted in the future
demographic concentration - people hang around larger communities because they post more in those, since those will yield more upvotes
hivemind - more popular opinions are made even more visible than less popular ones, discouraging people from speaking their minds; etc.
because, even if the karma score means jack shit, people will feel encouraged to hoard karma instead of posting what would be more to the spirit of the relevant communities that they participate on.
Another issue of a karma system is that it enables that idiotic mod practice of gatekeeping communities behind karma points. I could go on a full rant about this, but let me not.
I think that karma is an extremely poorly thought system, because it worsens every single issue with content voting system, such as:
because, even if the karma score means jack shit, people will feel encouraged to hoard karma instead of posting what would be more to the spirit of the relevant communities that they participate on.
Another issue of a karma system is that it enables that idiotic mod practice of gatekeeping communities behind karma points. I could go on a full rant about this, but let me not.