Unless you are saying that the karma system actually displaces such motivations as giving others something worthwhile to think about, and getting feedback on one’s ideas, I don’t see how a small (even zero) non negative karma rating would discourage anyone from posting an unusual idea. If we are more concerned with writing posts that gain karma than expressing our ideas, we are in trouble. What would we want the karma for anyways?
Unless you are saying that the karma system actually displaces such motivations as giving others something worthwhile to think about, and getting feedback on one’s ideas, I don’t see how a small (even zero) non negative karma rating would discourage anyone from posting an unusual idea. If we are more concerned with writing posts that gain karma than expressing our ideas, we are in trouble. What would we want the karma for anyways?