tgrotvedt's Journal: The Simplistic Beauty Of Slashdot's Karma System

I was just reading some posts concerning Slashdot's karma/moderation system, and I got to thinking...

A large ammount of the comments, and a larger still ammount of journal entries here are discussions about how the karma system works, and not related to tech news in any way shape or form. Slashdot is more and more becoming a great tech site with a constant background discussion of psychology.

People criticise post mods as if they are the system's problem, where it is clear to me that all their criticisms are actually that of human nature. The "following the leader" philosophy being used in theories as to why there are so many +5 posts when compared to +3's, and the way a comment can stay at +1 (or wherever it started off) for over 24 hours and then suddenly be modded up/down many times, is a human psychology issue. Same with trolls, running "jokes" and anonymity.

Perhaps the most interesting of these phenomena is "karma-whoring", whereby an individual waits for a new story, glosses over the contents, and tries to submit a comment that will attract positive mods, the earlier in the discussion, the better. Karma-whoring sounds very negative, but is it really that bad? If a post is modded up, then it's modded up, for no other reason than someone wanting it to be. That's the way the system was designed, and it was only a matter of social evolution that a good portion of posts would start to be designed for the purpose of aquiring karma.

The best way to up your karma is no doubt to post interesting stuff, where everyone can learn, and have an good discussion. However, the most efficient way is to post funny comments. I do this alot. I am in real life a joker, and in my Slashdot posts this becomes apparent. It is to some extent karma-whoring, but then it's my nature, and makes a discussion more rewarding to read.

What I'm trying to say is that it's the good old fashioned karma whores that make Slashdot such an entertaining read, and grab people, meaning that the insightful stuff will also recieve more attention.

In my next journal entry, I may present some theories (or maybe just loaded rhetorical questions) about why people even value karma. Stay tuned!

Dismissed...