HN used to show the average number of votes/post on your profile and it certainly affected my posting habits. It made me less likely to carry on conversations in the comments or post on stories that either had too much activity or had been on the front page for too long.
There were some benefits too (I started writing more substantial comments), but the net effect had some unintended problems, so I'm pretty happy they got rid of that metric.
Karma has some problems too, and could no doubt do with some adjustments, but I think that it's more useful to have it than not.
There were some benefits too (I started writing more substantial comments), but the net effect had some unintended problems, so I'm pretty happy they got rid of that metric.
Karma has some problems too, and could no doubt do with some adjustments, but I think that it's more useful to have it than not.