There’s some misinformation floating around regarding Lemmy not having a karma system. While many have discovered otherwise, this is for those who may not have.

While it’s not exposed in the Lemmy default user interface, Lemmy does have a fully functional karma system and it is visible in third party clients such as WefWef and Memmy.

Do with that what you will.

https://join-lemmy.org/api/interfaces/PersonAggregates.html

  • Poob@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Upvotes are useful for determining what people like and dislike so you can sort posts and comments

    Account karma is for narcissists to masturbate about how loved they are

    • glibg10b@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Upvotes are useful for determining what people like and dislike so you can sort posts and comments

      > Things people like get more upvotes
      > Upvotes give you karma
      > Therefore posting things people like gives you more karma

      • c0c0c0@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not sure if this was an argument for karma, but it sounds like an argument for avoiding contraversy and trying to fit in This is why everyone on Reddit appears to have the same opinion. I much prefer a diversity of opinions, and no penalty for speaking one’s mind (while treating each other with decency).

        Karma makes sense, in theory, but in practice, it just punishes anyone who diverges from the herd.

        • Poob@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          My biggest problem with karma is that it bakes in a reason for bots to repost everyone else’s posts. It also encourages people to sell their high karma accounts (god knows why someone would want to buy one)

        • glibg10b@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          it just punishes anyone who diverges from the herd

          So you’re saying people get less karma for posts that diverge from the herd. That can only mean those posts get fewer upvotes, which means they rank lower

          In other words, the sort-by-votes system makes uncontroversial posts more likely to be seen, while the karma system makes those same posts more likely to exist. My point, therefore, is that both systems have a similar overall effect on the website, and that the result of their conjunction is only that the effect is amplified

          • c0c0c0@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Agreed. As others have pointed out, voting helps to elevate higher quality posts (even if it doesn’t always work that way), but karma takes that imperfect process to its ridiculous extreme.

    • SyJ@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Yeah if people start going for Karma we’ll be plagued by “this” and stupid puns. Yesterday I saw a reddit post where the guy misspelled WiFi as Wife when explaining his problem, and then the top 10 comments were “omg dude you can’t just get a new wife” or “I wouldn’t come to Reddit for a problem with my wife”

      The actual solutions to the problem were rubbish too

      • Boozilla@lemmy.worldM
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        1 year ago

        Yup, there’s a lot of hurrrr hurrrr hurrr stuff on reddit. Which isn’t inherently bad…but they often just keep pushing it ad nauseum. There’s no such concept as “OK, enough already” on there.

        • SyJ@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          A bit of humour is fine, but when it drowns out the actual information it’s frustrating.

    • Space_Racer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      At the same time it’s shows who you should block. I don’t always remember usernames but I had the top posters like that blocked. Made reddit so much better to use.

    • Atemu@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      I don’t think there is a way to remove that. “Karma” is just the sum of upvotes on all of a users’ posts/comments and that info is always accessible.

      We could make the decision to not show that value in the front-ends of course but you’ll likely have very different opinions on that and some front-ends will inevitably show karma.

      • Balder@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        But if it wasn’t available in the API then apps would have to do a fetch of all the users posts to calculate it, possibly discouraging it.

  • gdbjr@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Welcome to Lemmy where everything is made up and the Karma doesn’t matter.

  • youthinkyouknowme@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Honestly is it even worth anything? Even on reddit I didn’t really pay attention to how much karma a user had, maybe when I wanted to check if it was a bot or something.

    • Copernican@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      When it comes to gauging advice, or doing something like buying or trading used goods it was helpful as a proxy for trustworthiness. Older accounts with good karma are a lot less sketchy than brand new accounts.

    • zeppo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d check sometimes whether someone had a history and how long their account had been around, but 18,000 vs 80,000 or 800,000 is super meaningless to me. Personally I’d delete my accounts every 1-6 months. It was a pain to start over but after that, so what. Reddit is practically anonymous. Posts and comments stand on their own to me… it’s not about the reputation of the author.

  • Someology@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, I completely ignored karma on Reddit for around a decade, until a friend one day pointed my huge karma out to me in a very enthusiastic way. I believe I will also ignore it here.

  • Ph03n1x443@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Mine (on both 3rd party apps) are very inaccurate lol. I have a post with over 2k and it says my karma is 300

  • teacosts@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    One thing I love about the fediverse is I dont have to give a fuck about karma

  • eee@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I used to create a new account on reddit every few years to “reset” my Internet presence.

    Didn’t give a shit about karma, still don’t.

    • ewe@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Same here. If any of my friends correctly identify my username as me, my annual account reset puts them back to square one…not that my accounts were anything but completely tame.

      Also nice username!

    • Ben@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      When you need a bit more, there are a couple of ways you can do a quick search/copy/paste as new jokes/memes pop up and you get votes for the Lolz. Easy to farm a couple of hundred or more each time.

      However, by talking sense in r/Thailand (i.e. from a perspective of someone who actually LIVES here) and call out stupid bullshit posts from wannabes (people who know everything about a country after a week’s holiday in a whore hole) and you’ll get a hundred downvotes in ten seconds.

      Karma is crap.

      • chowder@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Reminds me of California and Bay Area related posts. 98% of the people have never even been there and just lie and exaggerate its problems.

  • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I know I’m in the minority here, but I think the karma system has value and I’d like to see us keep it. I did time as a moderator on a fairly busy subreddit, and requiring accounts to be >30 days old and have >100 or so karma saved us a lot of work. E.g., it made ban evasion a little harder to do, and reduced brigading.

    It also helped to keep folks fairly civil and promoted considering perspective when posting, which I think is valuable.

    With that said, I’d LOVE to allow communities to disable down votes… it’s a missing feature in reddit, and if you are trying to promote discussion of a divisive topic, or to actively suppress an echo chamber, I think down votes are counter productive.

    • Sharkwellington@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      requiring accounts to be >30 days old and have >100 or so karma saved us a lot of work. E.g., it made ban evasion a little harder to do, and reduced brigading.

      Counter-point: Requirements such as these were the reason repost/copy-paste bots were getting so rampant on Reddit.

      • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Kinda, but not really… if you are a user who has had your account for more than 5 minutes and you’re not a troll, odds are you never run into those rules.

        The repost / copy paste bots were mostly to build a believable strawman that could be sold for astroturfing / “viral marketing”, etc.

    • entropicshart@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Requiring accounts with X days or X karma lead to subs where people would literally post just to get upvotes and the creation of bot accounts.

    • emptyother@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Should probably be a per-server karma system. Or else anyone could create their own instance and auto-give themselves enough karma to be “trustworthy” and set their account date.

      • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yer, great way to kill momentum of a new community that is built around discussion.

    • zikk_transport2@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I’d LOVE to allow communities to disable down votes…

      Upvote-only system is bullshit and you also know it. How else would you motivate user to post a quality content? Karma should also exist for this exact reason.

      I don’t want yet-another-facebook-or-youtube here. 🤷

      • thehatfox@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        People that post quality content don’t tend to care about internet points. People that care about internet points won’t bother to collect them via posting quality content.

        Downvote systems can also discourage open discussion, as too many people can’t help themselves from downvoting dissenting views. Communities end up one sided hiveminds.

        Maybe there is a middle ground, perhaps downvotes could be rationed instead of outright disabled.

        • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I think downvote rationing could work, possibly. It is only an issue for subs that are focused on discussion of divisive topics… downvotes work fine for most communities

      • BraBraBra@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Being left on one would be the equivalent of being downvoted. What’s the difference? Downvotws often just serves as a fuck you, and makes people feel like they’re being attacked.

      • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not every sub is for “quality content”, some subs are intended for debate / dialogue between people that disagree with each other, and use the downvote button to mean “disagree” … which means if you are coming for a quality dialogue, you tend to only see a quality monologue unless the user base is split 50/50 on the topic, which is rare.

    • TOR-anon1@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You had my approval until: I’d LOVE to allow communities to disable down votes…

      No… Just No…

    • notenoughbutter@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      yeah, like if we pick a certain flair, down votes will be disabled to prevent echo chamber for a certain conversation

    • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      So no free and open discussion then? Only approved group think will be allowed?

      I understand the benifits of what you are asking, but those are the very things that lead Reddit to what it is now.

        • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It was more of a response to the minimum account karma.

          Account age is reasonable enough, after the service has grown a bit more.

          However, if people start getting banned for the wrong reasons and have to create new accounts to be able to have discussion. It does create a barrier for that discussion to take place.

          • clgoh@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            if people start getting banned for the wrong reasons

            What would be good or bad reasons?

          • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            It is seriously difficult to have negative account karma on reddit unless you are an outright troll.

        • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          requiring basic levels of karma most certainly is. You have to say the right things first to get the group approval before you can contribute.

          • Chathtiu@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            requiring basic levels of karma most certainly is. You have to say the right things first to get the group approval before you can contribute.

            Again, I disagree. You can say the “right things,” certainly, or you can say “neutral things.” Really anything short of overt hostility would be acceptable.

            • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              I think that is too idealistic. It could very easily go into a downward spiral that a community could never get out of. It happens already on several subreddits already. You may not have experienced it, but I can say it for certain happens. There have even been scifi series written about it that have taken the concept to the extreme.

              • Chathtiu@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                I think that is too idealistic. It could very easily go into a downward spiral that a community could never get out of. It happens already on several subreddits already. You may not have experienced it, but I can say it for certain happens. There have even been scifi series written about it that have taken the concept to the extreme.

                I’m familiar with some of the subreddits, but I believe you’re taking the spiral too steeply and too quickly.

                The “don’t be a dick” philosophy will get you more than enough karma to comment on whatever subreddit you want to participate in, outside of some super niche ones.

                • ProfezzorDarke@feddit.de
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                  1 year ago

                  If you have controversial opinions just post them on controversial subs as well. A large part of “the right things” depends on the “right community”

                • Kurroth@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  But not ‘being a dick’ is far too subjective in a global village… The world does not beat to one drum.

                  I have to stand on eggshells with my language around USamericans as an example.

      • Badass_panda@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Sorry, what? That’s the opposite of my point. I think most subs benefit from outright trolling and off topic nonsense being prohibited, but my issue is that downvotes promote group think, and on a discussion sub, you should be able to limit or remove them.

      • Username02@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Unlike other Bethesda games, In Fallout New Vegas there’s a karma system that tracks your reputation among various factions, you can help and have good karma with one group of people and consequently worsen your reputation among other opposing factions.

  • ogg42@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Let’s not make Lemmy Reddit, or at least can we label this feature Anti-Karma?

  • LemmyLefty@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    With Reddit, though, some subreddits required a minimum amount of karma to post, whereas if you have access to an instance you can post freely.

    So it’s more a user rating of “this was good/how have you survived until this point” than a gatekeeping device: you, as a poster, can freely ignore your points and the points of others if you don’t care.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Plus, at least in the web interface, there no cumulative total of karma for an account, just on individual posts and comments.