I don’t want to trade in karma I earn for great comments so I can make mediocre comments. I want my karma to go up, preferably fast. I’m not sure if this is a good goal to have—maybe karma just feels like approval and I like it because I wasn’t hugged enough as a child or something—but nevertheless, I have that motivation.
And yet… the strategy your instincts are driving you to implement isn’t making your karma go up fast. At least, it would go up faster if you lowered your standard. What your extra caution is achieving in practice is sacrificing karma gain in favour of conveying a reputation as a considered, insightful poster with a diplomatic style.
If you actually want to increase karma faster, post a whole heap more and only inhibit posts that are rude or particularly stupid.
That said, it is possible to maintain high karma and come across as an entirely unhug-worthy pain in the ass a lot of the time. Data Point: The most downvoted person on this site remained in the top posters list until a couple of weeks ago when I spent ten minutes browsing his posts making sure I that I downvoted everything stupid. By all means, I encourage you to continue to err on the side of not being a pain in the ass.
I’m still making comments. And I value some strategies over others to get karma—I don’t want it to go up for sheer volume and dumb luck. I’d rather make comments that come to mind as good things to say, not just type the unfiltered contents of my brain. (The unfiltered contents of my brain contain a lot more fiction references, inside jokes that are known only to my close personal friends, and musings about muffins and tofu and broccoli than anyone wants to read.) And I’d rather the good ones get voted up and the bad ones get informative replies—not freely dispensed downvotes—so I can adjust my behavior with more information than a brute negative number.
Also, as a counterexample, I took a karma hit for a number of comments on another thread—I remarked on it and they’ve all been compensated for, but if I hadn’t said anything I imagine they’d have sat there indefinitely, because apparently the new “downvote freely” ethos hasn’t made me paranoid enough.
so I can adjust my behavior with more information than a brute negative number.
For comparison, I prefer to comment the same way I would if nobody was voting on them. If the people here like my comments, then they’ll float to the top. If my comments routinely got downvoted to oblivion, I’d probably post elsewhere instead.
In other words, I’m a big fan of the marketplace of ideas, but I don’t have one in my own head.
For comparison, I prefer to comment the same way I would if nobody was voting on them. If the people here like my comments, then they’ll float to the top. If my comments routinely got downvoted to oblivion, I’d probably post elsewhere instead.
Insofar as voting is collective feedback from this community, it carries at least some informational value that one should value to the extent that one considers the average LW user to have intelligent, insightful opinions.
Insofar as voting is collective feedback from this community, it carries at least some informational value that one should value to the extent that one considers the average LW user to have intelligent, insightful opinions.
It does. Perhaps the most significant value I get is in calibrating my expression. People here, who for most part are a relative inferential distance from myself and relatively high in comprehension ability. When people here don’t understand what I’m saying then chances are I’m leaving too many inferential steps implicit, expressing myself inelegantly or conveying concepts too quickly and I need to adjust my communication.
It does. Perhaps the most significant value I get is in calibrating my expression. People here, who for most part are a relatively inferential distance from myself and relatively high in comprehension ability. When people here don’t understand what I’m saying then chances are I’m leaving too many inferential steps implicit, expression myself inelegantly or conveying concepts too quickly and I need to adjust my communication.
In context, if these grammatical mistakes were intentional I tip my hat to you, sir. Well played.
And yet… the strategy your instincts are driving you to implement isn’t making your karma go up fast. At least, it would go up faster if you lowered your standard. What your extra caution is achieving in practice is sacrificing karma gain in favour of conveying a reputation as a considered, insightful poster with a diplomatic style.
If you actually want to increase karma faster, post a whole heap more and only inhibit posts that are rude or particularly stupid.
That said, it is possible to maintain high karma and come across as an entirely unhug-worthy pain in the ass a lot of the time. Data Point: The most downvoted person on this site remained in the top posters list until a couple of weeks ago when I spent ten minutes browsing his posts making sure I that I downvoted everything stupid. By all means, I encourage you to continue to err on the side of not being a pain in the ass.
I’m still making comments. And I value some strategies over others to get karma—I don’t want it to go up for sheer volume and dumb luck. I’d rather make comments that come to mind as good things to say, not just type the unfiltered contents of my brain. (The unfiltered contents of my brain contain a lot more fiction references, inside jokes that are known only to my close personal friends, and musings about muffins and tofu and broccoli than anyone wants to read.) And I’d rather the good ones get voted up and the bad ones get informative replies—not freely dispensed downvotes—so I can adjust my behavior with more information than a brute negative number.
Also, as a counterexample, I took a karma hit for a number of comments on another thread—I remarked on it and they’ve all been compensated for, but if I hadn’t said anything I imagine they’d have sat there indefinitely, because apparently the new “downvote freely” ethos hasn’t made me paranoid enough.
For comparison, I prefer to comment the same way I would if nobody was voting on them. If the people here like my comments, then they’ll float to the top. If my comments routinely got downvoted to oblivion, I’d probably post elsewhere instead.
In other words, I’m a big fan of the marketplace of ideas, but I don’t have one in my own head.
Insofar as voting is collective feedback from this community, it carries at least some informational value that one should value to the extent that one considers the average LW user to have intelligent, insightful opinions.
It does. Perhaps the most significant value I get is in calibrating my expression. People here, who for most part are a relative inferential distance from myself and relatively high in comprehension ability. When people here don’t understand what I’m saying then chances are I’m leaving too many inferential steps implicit, expressing myself inelegantly or conveying concepts too quickly and I need to adjust my communication.
In context, if these grammatical mistakes were intentional I tip my hat to you, sir. Well played.