So I've seen quite a few comments from people regarding the lack of karma so far in Lemmy/The Fediverse, and I was just wondering if because of the nature of how it works if karma is even possible? Although I wouldn't mind too much about it existing, people have made good points about how much it helps moderation and keeps the trolls at bay, so I feel it's a very nice too to have. Thanks in advance for the responses!

14 Comments
Toothpickjim@lemmy.fmhy.ml · 50 pts · 3y
Karma was one of the worst things about Reddit imo all the farming and low effort posts, let's not repeat things again
scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech · 7 pts · 3y
Exactly. Started as a fun thing, "Oh look how much I contribute" and over time was abused to the point of bot farms selling accounts with high karma. Not to mention trolls trying to get the lowest karma they could.
hoodlem@hoodlem.me · 13 pts · 3y
This has come up before and my opinion is still the same. I don’t want karma because it lowers the level of discourse. People posting the same running jokes, etc for the karma.
I also don’t know how this would work on a federated platform. Comments and votes are sometimes in a state of flux as data is synced among instances. Raises the question as to what the “real” totals are.
Ducks@ducks.dev · 2 pts · 3y
Reddit fuzzes the karma numbers anyway, so the Lemmy votes are kind of "naturally" fuzzy due to the nature of federation
Atiran@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 3y
I think this is true even on Reddit as data is synced across replicas (although maybe not to the same extent as the fediverse). Nonetheless, I agree with you 100%.
Candelestine@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 3y
This is one of the primary differences between us and kbin. They have a karma system, we don't. Otherwise the two systems are pretty fundamentally similar.
So, people who wish that have their option. Those that do not, come here. As a result of this basic sorting of the market, you will find that most of us Lemmings are not in favor of it.
empireOfLove@lemmy.one · 7 pts · 3y
Even aside from moderation and being able to tell if a user is "legit" or not, I do like to see how my contributions to the community are being received. I still check my profile frequently to see how my recent comments and posts are being voted on. Numbers go up trigger dopamine release, brrrrrrrr.
However, I also fully recognize the problems it creates with making karma "hoarding" the end goal and promoting shitposts/content stealing instead of meaningful contributions.
I would support the idea of a karma/vote total that was visible only to the user it belongs to (and/or admins) while being not displayed publicly. It covers the desire to see one's "community performance" without turning it into an E-Peen measuring contest. And of course, instances could disable it entirely on a case by case basis. Since it wouldn't be public, the potential for manipulation by abusing custom instances and such to collect votes is basically pointless.
Summzashi@lemmy.one · 6 pts · 3y
nan@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 3y
Already exists, just not in the Lemmy web interface. Most of the mobile apps will show total post and comment points on a person’s profile page.
blazarious@mylem.me · 4 pts · 3y
Karma can be played and it has been extensively on Reddit. Best not to repeat that mistake!
kayaven@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y
While I think a counter per instance would be possible, it would be way too easy to mess around with a "total" karma spread across all instances. All you'd have to do is set up your own instance, and give yourself a lot of karma there.
I do agree that a karma counter could be a nice indication of someone's activity, but I wonder if that's the best metric we could come up with to keep spammers/bots at bay.
hsl@wayfarershaven.eu · 0 pts · 3y
This is a support question and would be better off in !lemmy_support@lemmy.ml.
tubbadu@lemmy.kde.social · 2 pts · 3y
Nah this is good here, it's about discussing a possible evolution of Lemmy, not asking for support or help of any kind