Karma Points?

[jpcher]

I first noticed the Karma Points today . . . I was going to post in "Time for a coffee break" something like "What's up with that?" but I decided to look here first.

It seems that I'm not the only one curious about this new addition.



Mods -- what do Karma Points mean?

[O'Dell]

Also, forgive me if I'm wrong, but isn't all Karma bad?  I thought Karma was like sin and there was no such thing as "good Karma."

Nope, Karma is not all bad. Common misconception though. Good Karma can come from good actions.

[zainabzks]

Curiosity killed the cat but I am too curious for my own good. I'm sure the Dame will explain tO us what karma points are.

[Harriet Jones]

From a little googling, it looks like users are supposed to be able to "applaud" or "smite" others.  It does seem like a popularity contest, and not really appropriate for an etiquette forum. 

[ShadesOfGrey]

doing a little testing....

I think a really great idea for karma points is for people to give them when the post is good, but to just ignore (like we do with trolls) posts that are bad, or just neutral. 

More like reward excellent posts, leave the neutral and the bad alone.

[Bibliophile]

Not so excited about the karma points.  It doesn't seem that "we" the masses have any say so in this matter.  Not so sure what the point is.  If I've committed an offense that requires a mod to contact me - which has only happend once in YEARS - then contact me in PRIVATE.  I just don't "get it".

[Outdoor Girl]

I'm wondering if the Dame is playing with some settings again?  The calendar disappeared earlier today but it's back now.

[O'Dell]

I'm keeping an open mind. There is another thread about the Calendar. The link for it disappeared and today reappeared when someone asked about it. Seems that there might be some fiddling of the forum settings/options going on, so I'm in waiting mode.

[cass2591]

I would encourage everyone to relax until we hear from Jeanne or Ticia. I have no idea what these karma points mean, and if it makes you all feel better (or not) it's on my profile, too, and I'm also +0/-0.

So please wait 'til we hear from admin before getting all upset. Like the poster above me, let's keep an open mind.

[Ticia]

Since I've gotten several PMs from people concerned about this, I thought I'd answer in the thread instead of replying to the PMs. Although I'm afraid my answer might not satisfy...

I'm not sure what's up with the karma points. I thought we'd talked about that in the staff folder a long time back, as it's been an option since this forum came into being (I think...I must admit that my memory for these kinds of things is not the best) and we'd decided that it was a bad idea. One of two things must have happened: The Dame changed her mind and decided to try it out, or the button was accidentally pushed to turn Karma Points on.

Either way, I think we will have to wait for Jeanne to answer.

[Ehelldame]

I turned on Karma to see if it could be modified to "Like" posts only since people have asked for a feature which would "pod" another person's posts, not the particular person.  But it cannot be so at this time, I thought I had disabled it but I apparently disabled but forgot to "save".    I'm pretty certain that while it appeared in the profile, that it will not have worked if you tried it because I had disabled it in another section of the Admin. 

 

[Scritzy]

They are gone now, at least from what I'm seeing.

[Aeris]

I turned on Karma to see if it could be modified to "Like" posts only since people have asked for a feature which would "pod" another person's posts, not the particular person.  But it cannot be so at this time, I thought I had disabled it but I apparently disabled but forgot to "save".    I'm pretty certain that while it appeared in the profile, that it will not have worked if you tried it because I had disabled it in another section of the Admin. 

 

That seems likely - when I first noticed them, out of curiosity I starting clicking on all manner of things, and didn't see any way to interact with the karma.

Thanks for clarifying!

[ShadesOfGrey]

Critical, I dont really know how I like karma points or not - I'd have to see it in action in this setting. But if they *were* to be put into practice, I think the positive-only rating system is a good way to go. With limits on how many you can give a day (one my my college courses did something similar for classroom discussion)

But overall, I'm not really worried about it. So mods, not everyone is freaking out about them, some of us are just posting thoughts on them!

doing a little testing....

I think a really great idea for karma points is for people to give them when the post is good, but to just ignore (like we do with trolls) posts that are bad, or just neutral. 

More like reward excellent posts, leave the neutral and the bad alone.

so are you saying you would be good with the option to add karma but not the option to take away karma?  I am on a board that does it that way, only it's called reputation.  you can add to someone's rep, but you can't take any away.  I'm not really a fan either way, but from what I have seen in the limited time i spend there it seems to work out okay.  I definitely prefer that way of doing it if it's going to be done.

[dirtyweasel]

Okay, that makes sense.  Thanks for clarifying mods and Dame!