Not sure if this is a showerthought, but it popped into my head randomly due to anothe member’s comment that “karma farming isn’t a thing here.” It kinda is…just not as blatant and open as Reddit. If the instances grow in size and number it could become a real thing, we’d have the same issues as Reddit with huge numbers of bots, shills, and karma whoring users.
What if every year we zero out Lemmy points but replace them with a [insert thing here: colored bars?] that maybe qualitatively show positive post and comment levels and sort of show “years of service”?
Get rid of the incentive for points accumulation, but denote consistent positive contribution?
Edit: or leave the comment/post points as the are, but make them only tally a rolling 365 day count and participation in the last 30/60/90 or similar. Continued participation would be obvious, but no substantial amount could ever be collected.
If the points aren’t worth anything, then why would it matter if they change or go away?
E2: welp. People think it isn’t a problem, and they say it will not be. Can’t argue with a position that demands Lemmy/fediverse remain static in its present form. Discussion closed, I guess.
I agree with a lot of what you’ve said, and am starting to think I may just be being cantankerous about something for no good reason.
I’ve no issue with shitposts nor trying to get All The Upvotes (nor, I guess, All The Downvotes) here. I think it’s just that lazy and transparent “This is a real question?” type of post - repeated over and 'cking over - that makes my teeth itch for some reason. 😅
The web version screenshot you provided was interesting when compared to the Voyager mobile app view of a profile:
It’s possible I was being lazy or stupid (they’re not mutually exclusive) in misreading the Comment Count metric as something else, like “karma”, rating, or whatever. It’s definitely not that. Either way, you and others are right in saying there is no karma here (for that I apologise to all). I still have doubts whether the people doing the above kind of posts understand the - literal - pointlessness of doing it for any kind of account cred.
I dunno. Anyway, I’ve had a day to reflect on it, and I’m wrong. So it goes… 🙂
This is really why I come here. Real talk. Whether it’s serious or funny, it’s nice to be able to feel like I’m interacting with real people like we’re just hanging out, challenging and affirming one another and appreciating different perspectives. You didn’t have to agree with me, though I’m gratified we could come to an accord. Deep respect, my friend.
