TL;DR—probably best to scrap rating people’s posts and comments altogether. At very least change the name.
I’m not fond of the label “Karma”. It suggests universal and hermetic moral judgement when in the context of this blog it’s just, you know, people’s impulsive opinion in the moment. It also suggests persistence—as Karma supposedly spills over into the next iteration.
My very first comment on LW garnered a −36 Karma score. It was thoughtful and carefully argued—and, yes, a bit spicy. But regardless, the community decided to just shun me with a click without actually engaging in the ideas I proposed. I feel ganged up upon and not taken seriously.
I still trudge ahead though with other comments but regrettably I feel compelled to adopt a “me versus you all” stance. Its saddening and anti-intellectual (and a direct violation of the LW ethic of “A community blog devoted to refining the art of rationality.”)
Viewpoint diversity is vitally important for deep learning. I suggest dropping Karma altogether, or at least use simple up-down voting to shift comments to the bottom. But even that doesn’t really feel right. What you have now is a Milgram machine.
TL;DR—probably best to scrap rating people’s posts and comments altogether. At very least change the name.
I’m not fond of the label “Karma”. It suggests universal and hermetic moral judgement when in the context of this blog it’s just, you know, people’s impulsive opinion in the moment. It also suggests persistence—as Karma supposedly spills over into the next iteration.
My very first comment on LW garnered a −36 Karma score. It was thoughtful and carefully argued—and, yes, a bit spicy. But regardless, the community decided to just shun me with a click without actually engaging in the ideas I proposed. I feel ganged up upon and not taken seriously.
I still trudge ahead though with other comments but regrettably I feel compelled to adopt a “me versus you all” stance. Its saddening and anti-intellectual (and a direct violation of the LW ethic of “A community blog devoted to refining the art of rationality.”)
Viewpoint diversity is vitally important for deep learning. I suggest dropping Karma altogether, or at least use simple up-down voting to shift comments to the bottom. But even that doesn’t really feel right. What you have now is a Milgram machine.
As I am new here, I am not allowed to ‘vote’ --
hope your comment at least gets a reply from one of the mods, esp. regarding the possibility of dissenting without being ‘dissappeared’.