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Vote system theory
I guess there has been a lot of deliberation on the ramifications of reddit's upvote/downvote system, and voting for topics.
How do you all feel about the way reddit aggregates karma and shows totals for users?
How does this impact submissions and and commentary?
How does the voting system here change post and comment visibility?
Interested to see everyone's take on this.
Karma has turned reddit into a game for many people. Vast numbers of people are chasing a "high score" like they're playing Asteroids in an arcade and the higher the score, the better person they are. It gamifies the whole site into a juvenile popularity contest.
I would not be at all upset if there was no indication on userpages of how many votes we receive. Obviously votes will have to be tracked for any kind of "trust system" that gets implemented, but that's something I don't have to, nor want to, worry about. I'll just go with whatever direction is chosen to track our reputation or trust scores.
Accumulated Karma is also not something that Reddit could just take away on a whim. The site has made some unpopular decisions over the years, but deciding to revoke everyone's Karma for the health of the community could actually destroy what they've built and scatter their users. It seems to me that if you decide to have an accumulated "points" system for a message board site, you're stuck with that decision. If you take them away, people feel as though they've been robbed.
That would be an incredible thing to witness but wouldn't be good for reddit.
I'll admit to being a karmawhore at times. I feel I'd find it a healthier site personally if there wasn't a vote counter on userbases. The trust thing seems good but would be bloody hard to do.
It's difficult not to be a karmawhore on reddit. It's probably the biggest driver of content posting.
I have found that recieving downvotes has given me better idea of the will and ideals of the group. For better or worse voting marshall's behavior.
Now, as for upvotes, that's just narcessism.
I don't know why they try so hard to make people "not use downvote for disagree" because no one listenes. And the way it functions reassures people that it in fact does mean disagree. If it gets enough downvotes you won't see it anymore. It's really conflicting logic.