Journal CatherineCornelius's Journal: Edge effect 3
The 50 cap on Karma is very sensible, because otherwise we'd all end up with immense karma scores and the beneficial effect of the system would be diluted.
I must confess that prior to reaching a 50 limit, around about my 100th post, I felt more motivated to contribute. Since then, less so, but that isn't a bad thing because there is seldom a lack of good contributions on
There's an interesting edge effect pertaining to the 50 cap. If you have 50, then no matter how many people mod your articles up, the points have no effect, but if one person mods an article down, then (at least until next time someone mods you up) your karma score goes down.
There's an interesting discussion, in Stephen Jay Gould's Full House, of how a similar edge effect in nature can give the appearance of a pattern of a directional evolutionary force towards increasing complexity.
Re:I hate you! You are one of CmdrTaco's Fans!!! (Score:1)
I'd be inclined to agree... (Score:2)
I'd like my Karma to be able to rise above 50. Even if it had zero effect, it would be a nice way to keep track of how well my comments are being recieved. As it is, I'm tempted to troll just to get modded down 10 points, so I can have this sort of indicator.
Secondly, I think it would be nice, when your karma gets high (say 45-50, or if karma was capped at 60, then >50) to be able to expend karma to post higher. Say two karma points for every +1, for example. Many times, I will come into a story late (for example, it gets posted at 8 PM on friday, but I don't read it until Saturday morning), and I have something to contribute that I know for a fact is worth reading.
As it is, I can post at +2, and hope some moderator sees it, I can post in reply to a +5 comment, which makes me feel dirty because I'm just whoring myself for visibility, legit or not...
Also, I don't want to meta-moderate, I want to moderate, but it won't let me. Damn thing.
I just think there are some tweaks to be made.
As for not feeling like posting, create a new account and see how many comments it takes for you to get to 50 karma again. See if you can use your old +2 bonus to accelerate things. Have some fun with the system.
--Dan