at the same time to avoid over-commenting to get more points?
I see the karma system as benign in this respect, because people love to argue anyway (M&S also mention that in their conclusions). They would do it without a karma outcome, so adding karma seems unlikely to affect the overall number of comments much.
There are punctual exceptions. As the “Spring meta thread” shows (or the pictures thread in the babies and bunnies post), people seem to need opportunities to just goof off. This is fine but it has the unfortunate effect of being a distraction to those who (like me, I’m afraid) prefer the more “serious” stuff.
I downvoted some of the comments in the “This is a comment” thread, but clearly enough other folks disagree with me. Here again M&S have something useful to say: the group isn’t always right, and not all group processes track truth; only those which foster production and evaluation of arguments.
So, perhaps what we need is a dual system, with separate votes for “I like/dislike this” one one hand, and “Good/stupid point” on the other hand.
They would do it without a karma outcome, so adding karma seems unlikely to affect the overall number of comments much.
I don’t think that follows. I enjoy drinking soda, but if someone gave me $5 every time I did it, I would drink even more soda.
More directly, as a data point, I find myself commenting more on Less Wrong than on other blogs because of the karma points system. However, an even bigger motivator for me than that is the response notification; if not for that, I would almost never comment on old threads, or post comments specifically inviting response.
I see the karma system as benign in this respect, because people love to argue anyway (M&S also mention that in their conclusions). They would do it without a karma outcome, so adding karma seems unlikely to affect the overall number of comments much.
There are punctual exceptions. As the “Spring meta thread” shows (or the pictures thread in the babies and bunnies post), people seem to need opportunities to just goof off. This is fine but it has the unfortunate effect of being a distraction to those who (like me, I’m afraid) prefer the more “serious” stuff.
I downvoted some of the comments in the “This is a comment” thread, but clearly enough other folks disagree with me. Here again M&S have something useful to say: the group isn’t always right, and not all group processes track truth; only those which foster production and evaluation of arguments.
So, perhaps what we need is a dual system, with separate votes for “I like/dislike this” one one hand, and “Good/stupid point” on the other hand.
I don’t think that follows. I enjoy drinking soda, but if someone gave me $5 every time I did it, I would drink even more soda.
More directly, as a data point, I find myself commenting more on Less Wrong than on other blogs because of the karma points system. However, an even bigger motivator for me than that is the response notification; if not for that, I would almost never comment on old threads, or post comments specifically inviting response.