Karma Unleashed: Give Props or Disapproval for Posts

[Walter]

Ever want to give a member props for a post, but don't have much to add to the thread? We've received that kind of feedback from members for years, and now we have a feature on the forum that allows you to put these feelings into a vote: The Karma system. Karma essentially serves as the score for a member's popularity. The name also works because of its meaning in Berserk.



How it works: Anyone can give another member an UP vote or a DOWN vote by clicking on the corresponding text beneath their avatar. This will add or subtract from that member's total karma points. Think of it as a way of congratulating someone for a great post, or a worthwhile submission, without undertaking the effort of formulating a post to do so.

Please let us know what you think of it!

[jackson_hurley]

well like I said to Aaz in a private msg I think it'll be a great "add-on" for the site. Congrats on the move guys!

[ApostleBob]

Great idea! Will users be able to filter posts by Karma in the future as a way to find the "Greatest hits" or most informative posts?

[Walter]

Great idea! Will users be able to filter posts by Karma in the future as a way to find the "Greatest hits" or most informative posts?

It's a good idea. The concept of a curated forum experience struck me a while back, but I haven't looked into it much. Karma might be the way, but as of right now its only function is a general score for the member. So unfortunately, the score isn't tied to posts.

[Griffith]

I just want to let you all know I love this idea, and all of you, everybody on this board.

Question: Can one upvote themselves...?

[Walter]

Question: Can one upvote themselves...?

The first post worthy of downvoting appears! 

[IncantatioN]

Pretty neat! Can think of numerous instances where an Admin's given in depth clarification on a query, without having the chance to say Thank You (at the expense of it being a useless post in context to the discussion).

Is there a limit to the number of Up/ Downvotes a member can make a single day or towards a certain member in a given amount of time?

[Truder]

I definitely like the idea to upvote peoples posts. and its about damn time .

but it would be nice if you could see both up and down votes. If a post gets 3 upvotes and 3 downvotes wont it just be 0 Karma? I mean if it's too much trouble to change (or you guys prefer this system) then I don't mind the current Karma system. im just saying it would be nice to see how many people liked and disliked a post.

[Walter]

I definitely like the idea to upvote peoples posts. and its about damn time .

but it would be nice if you could see both up and down votes. If a post gets 3 upvotes and 3 downvotes wont it just be 0 Karma? I mean if it's too much trouble to change (or you guys prefer this system) then I don't mind the current Karma system. im just saying it would be nice to see how many people liked and disliked a post.

Like I said earlier, the score is a sum of all votes for the member. They aren't tied to individual posts. That'd be neat, but I don't know how I would do it. The karma system is built into the forum. Changing it in the way you propose would be rather intensive.

[Aazealh]

Is there a limit to the number of Up/ Downvotes a member can make a single day or towards a certain member in a given amount of time?

There's a one hour delay between each vote, per member.

[ApostleBob]

There's a one hour delay between each vote, per member.

So does this mean that a member can continuously up or down vote a single member so long as they wait an hour.  Seems like there might be potential for abuse.

And also to be clear, from what you're saying a vote is not tied to content, but to instead to members, correct?

[Aazealh]

So does this mean that a member can continuously up or down vote a single member so long as they wait an hour.  Seems like there might be potential for abuse.

Has anyone really that empty of a life that they'd try to spam the karma of a member that way? Anyway, the duration can be adjusted at will, so maybe we'll move it to 4 or 8 hours, to make it more of a daily thing. But I'm not worried about abuse.

And also to be clear, from what you're saying a vote is not tied to content, but to instead to members, correct?

That's right. A score tied to each post would be nice, but unfortunately SMF doesn't support it natively, and the mods for it are outdated.

[Rhombaad]

Finally, I can stop posting "Thanks, Puella!" in the Translation section, and give her the positive Karma she deserves without cheaply adding to my post count!

[Truder]

Like I said earlier, the score is a sum of all votes for the member. They aren't tied to individual posts.

Oh sorry, I should have read your post more clearly

[Oburi]

I think its a great idea! I can't tell you how many times I've read a post and went to hit "like" before realizing this isn't facebook. 

But seriously, Karma on a Berserk forum. It just makes sense.

[NightCrawler]

It's a funny coincidence that many years ago, in the old hawks scanlation forum, they had this same feature.

[Skeleton]

I was wondering what this was when it first appeared.  You can't see my fingers, but I was this close to creating a thread asking about it.

[Walter]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. +1s all around. It's been a while since this forum got an actual NEW feature.

So does this mean that a member can continuously up or down vote a single member so long as they wait an hour.  Seems like there might be potential for abuse.

Any system can be abused. But unless that abuse becomes a problem, I'm content in my belief that the members that have stuck around, or would seek our forum out, aren't that petty. Besides, the function here is to give people a chance to give silent feedback. I don't really care about the inevitable popularity contest that comes with the score.

It's a funny coincidence that many years ago, in the old hawks scanlation forum, they had this same feature.

Ahem well... I don't much like being compared to those guys. But the karma system is built into the forum software that we use (and have used in various iterations since 2001). Others use the same software. That's about all there is to it.

We could have activated this long ago, and we had talked about it in the past, but I was usually the dissenting voice for doing so. However, after seeing Reddit's up and down voting system in action for a while, I eventually realized the benefit to it.

[ApostleBob]

Any system can be abused. But unless that abuse becomes a problem, I'm content in my belief that the members that have stuck around, or would seek our forum out, aren't that petty. Besides, the function here is to give people a chance to give silent feedback. I don't really care about the inevitable popularity contest that comes with the score.

Fair enough, just figured I'd mention it as trolls are occasionally a problem.

[Walter]

Fair enough, just figured I'd mention it as  are occasionally a problem.

If it gets too bad, we always have the Troll Extermination Squad: 

[ryOtoha]

A good way to reward relevant post. This is cool

[Johnstantine]

Can I transfer my Reddit karma here?

I'll have you guys know, my reddit karma is over 9,000.

[Walter]

Can I transfer my Reddit karma here?

I'll have you guys know, my reddit karma is over 9,000.

Sorry, we're silo'd. And is that link or comment karma? I'm walterbennet over there. Just started an account a month ago.

[Johnstantine]

Sorry, we're silo'd. And is that link or comment karma? I'm walterbennet over there. Just started an account a month ago.

It's link. Comment is sitting over 4,000.

My username there is none other than Johnstantine

[Griffith]

I'll have you guys know, my reddit karma is over 9,000.

I basically used to measure "this" (not quality per se, but... presence) here by post count, which is obviously problematic in its own way (though if one has lots of posts here and hasn't been banned yet they're probably not too virulently bad =). It'll be interesting to see how this dynamic adds to posting behavior. I did wonder if throwing this obvious old gag out there would get me downvoted, but fuck it, a bird's gotta fly (and crap).