…And WTF events related to Karma led me to come back here, because Lemmy really surpasses Reddit on all points (even if it cruelly lacks users compared to Reddit).
On some subreddits, we ask to have a Karma in comments good enough on all Reddit to be able to publish one on the community in question (it happened to me on /r/iOSBeta). I don’t know you but these communities shouldn’t get involved in what I do on other Reddit communities, it doesn’t make sense.
Another problem is users who feel superior to others because they have a better Karma. There was a discussion on r/privacy that talked about alternatives to Fire Stick and Chromecast, and one guy had proposed Apple TV, another had replied that Apple was worse than Google and Amazon when it comes to data collection. So to this guy I told him that he would have to be a little clearer by giving evidence. And there, he answers me « You’re a fresh 0-Karma account, you bring proof ».
Well, that’s what Reddit is for me. A huge social game where only Karma allows you to express yourself freely. It reminds me of the episode of Black Mirror where everyone has social points.
In short, I stay on Lemmy.
A global score (karma) is one of those ideas that sound great on paper: you’re encouraging people to post better stuff by associating it with some score.
In practice though OP shows why it’s a bad idea, on multiple levels. And why I’m glad that Lemmy doesn’t have karma.
Issue #1: enabling shitty moderative practices. Some assumptive = braindead mods think that karma is a viable heuristic to keep trolls and morons at bay. It is not.
Contrast OP’s user experience with mine: when still using Reddit I often had a shitposting account, that was never locked out any subreddit due to karma. Why? Because I was willing to game the system and farm karma before shitposting.
And that leads to issue #2: gamified systems are made to be gamed. It’s actually easier to farm karma without contributing than to post shit that contributes with Reddit. Repost old stuff, replying comments with shitty one-line jokes (nowadays I’d probably use ChatGPT for that), sticking to high-activity subs (i.e. the worst of Reddit)… you get the idea.
Issue #3: karma is yet another thing that distracts users from what is said, towards who says it. A user with more karma… has more karma, that’s it - anything else is assumption.
Welcome back. Lemmy isn’t perfect but it’s less worse than the options.