So I skimmed through because this thread exploded like crazy in the past 12 hours. Then this caught my eye and I went all
Its advantages far outweigh its disadvantages.
Wesker's "adopt-a-newbie" isn't doing shit for improving the forums, yet all of the people I can recall complaining about its declining quality are involved.
Hence, it must be either ineffective, or invisibly effective.
If karma is removed, that little nursing circle will be all that's left.
I've never heard geuinine complaints about it from a non-trolling forum member besides Techno. That might also be because Teeky deleted god knows how many posts in there before I could get online and see. Not that I blame him of course, but no one's said really said anything negative to my face about my attempted effort to better orient newer members. I won't get into it right now seeing as this thread is about karma and not my little side-project, but I sincerely believe that it could actually help if given time.
Anyways, moving onto karma.
What is the point of karma, really? You (people who want to keep karma) argue that maybe it's a way of seeing whether you did right or wrong, as "negative reinforcement" or "positive reinforcement." But it is a flawed system that has absolutely no benefit at all. For example, look at Aptanor. He's been smited, what? 40 or 50 or god knows how many times by Anna. What's the reason? Because he happens to disagree with her on a couple of subjects. What does Aptanor learn? Nothing, besides the fact that apparently he isn't allowed to have a free will and counter-argue with one of the most popular forum members. He simply is being punished for being passionate enough about his viewpoint to express it in a couple posts. This example can also apply to you A/D. I can't help but notice that you have gotten two more smites these past couple of days. Now, it could be from any number of factors, from pissing off someone in GC for locking their thread, to maybe bad blood between you and another member. Now, have you learned anything? No, of course not, because you damm well know that you most likely got smited for no reason. Your argument, Koopa, that it (karma) shows what is right and wrong is completely invalid. Who decides what is “right” and what is “wrong”? Certainly not the member who just smited you because you managed to get beta tester status and they were jealous enough to take action. (No, that [probably] didn’t happen, but did you do anything “wrong”? Of course not.) A/D, you argued that events like what happened with Aptanor/Anna and Spud/Scarlett rarely happen because the people who care enough about karma to use it frequently are in the minority. However, I would like to add that that minority makes a difference. That minority is everyone who knows how to smite. Keeping how to smite a secret from the newer members doesn’t make Karma any more efficient. Don’t play dumb with me guys. You all have smited. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You heard that saying before? No, knowing how to smite is not absolute power, but it does put you in a far loftier position than someone who doesn’t, and if that someone happens to disagree with you on minor things, and is in your opinion a SOB who just won’t shut up, then what’s to stop you from pulling a virtual FU and using your power? I’ve seen it before with our glorious esteemed Techno Viking. I have watched when he got in a minor spat with one of the less popular members. 5 minutes later, as I am watching Who’s Online, he does an “unknown action” and bingo, new smite to that poor guy who doesn’t know any better. Of course, Techno won the argument. But was there really a use for that smite? No. Obviously not. That’s just like rubbing salt into wounds. He could have just settled the argument and walked away, but just because he has that power, he uses it. And it’s not just TV. All of us have. That minority you speak of, A/D, is the very minority that changes karma the most. They either applaud in massive circle jerks or smite simply because they don’t get a along with other members. Don’t get me wrong, there are probably forums where a rep system or the like have worked out perfectly. But not here. Definitely not here. At its best, karma is a popularity contest. At its worst, it is a frequently abused tool that does nothing at all to better the forums. Which is why I wish to permanently get rid of it. No smites, no applauds.
No tl;dr for you guys. Read it or get out.
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