Karma - a Suicide Mission.Follow

If I hadn't acted like a complete ****** some two years ago in the place they call the Asylum, I probably would've been Sage or Guru by now. Lesson learned and I only post there if I feel I have something valuable to contribute with (valuable by normal forum standards, not Asylum standards). Sure, I can post in the OOT forum's CJ threads and probably grind my way up to Sage, but where's the fun in that? I want to be a Sage because of what I've contributed with, like my WoWReader/WoWSignature guide, my Hunter Macro Compilation and helping out newbies with whatever problems they might have, not because I spent an unhealthy amount of time playing LAST in the OOT forum.

That being said, I do go there to get my fix if I feel I've been unjustly rated down. I still have some karma stalkers who follow me outside of the WoW forum and basically rate down everything I post. Since trying to reason with them has proved to be ineffective, and messaging admins likewise, I do the only thing I can do to balance it out. The OOT and WoW forums are the only forums I can post in without being auto-downrated. Kinda sucks. Especially since some of the people who auto-downrate me out there are lurkers here. They're too afraid to karma camp me here though.

Yeah, don't think I don't know who you are.

As for rating others, I'll admit I've been slacking lately. Usually I rate people up if they provide useful information to a thread. However, sometimes I rate those up who have been rated down for no apparent reason (according to myself). I rarely rate down, but personal attacks, blatant trolling and RMT advertisement are all sure to receive a bashing.

I rarely rate up CJ threads, but there are two threads that get a pat on the shoulder everytime I see them and that's danieldakkak's Weekend Goals/Summary threads. It's a nice tradition and I want him to know it's appreciated. What other way than to rate the post up (except sending a PM, obviously)?

Finally, those who say that ratings don't matter, I'd like to claim otherwise. Your rating is like a summary of your achievements on these forums. It's also a major source of prejudice since a 'sub-default' poster might not be as bad as you would think. Ratings do matter and anyone who claims otherwise is 'scholar' or above, or has never been 'default'.

Edited, Dec 5th 2006 6:01pm by Mazra

I hate CJ threads, but the weekend thread is tolerable I suppose, unless I see someone post more than once. That bothers me, because it's a CJ thread, so why try to milk it shamelessly?


BTW, how do the admins feel about CJ threads? Honestly, because I just wandered over to the OOT forums to see what Mazra was talking about and it's @#%^ing ridiculous.

Karma abuse anyone?


edit: never mind me, I'm in a bad mood :(



Edited, Dec 5th 2006 4:18pm by Webjunky

Weird... I say the same thing the OP just said in another thread and I never go above Decent, but he starts a topic about it and goes to Excellent in a matter of hours.

I normally get rated down just because someone doesnt get my humor and they take it personally... and if what I typed didnt offend the person then another person thinks that I should be rated down because I offended someone else who didnt even think it was offensive... What?

I try to post informative information in everything I type... or at least I try to be funny in a way that I wont make anyone upset.

And yet... I am still blue-coded when all I really want is to be green. :/

People just dont like me. I will have to level another alt now, because I have offended someone somewhere. =P

Take gbaji for example, most people do not agree with his opinions but just the way he organizes his thoughts has earned him the title of Sage. So, if you have an unpopular opinion try to give reasons for it, use great grammar and spelling, and you will be successful in this crazy game called kharma.

I think people misuse the karma system, its not all that often, but often enough to be a problem.

I personally thought it was to weed out the people who are rude, post things that shouldnt be posted, or post things that are blatently wrong.

Or it was to rate up the people that have origional posts, contribute to the converstation, or help someone out.

If im wrong on this, then someone rate me down...

Either way, I rarely use the rate down button. Only when someone really gets my goat. Otherwise im a pretty positive person who trys to rate up at the hint of kindness, intelligence, or origionality.

The only time I noticed significant neg bombing was when I was arguing that forum search should be free.

Though, I don't really care, the system in theory is good, but in practise fails. Main forum I go to, the "elite" members made a topic in the elite area simply to spam +repping each other. Admittedly, I'm now No.2 rep on the site, but the system is flawed, especially when you have people leaving abusive messages along with the -rep/-kharma.

Karma has been discussed many times, and I really have nothing to add to the subject.

But I'd like to comment about the 2 weekend threads and their rating.

First of all, I agree that they encourage and strengthen the sense of belonging to a community. I, for one, read and try to keep up with every single post in there. I feel genuinely happy when someone has reached his goal, and pretty bummed out if something kept you from it. I rate up all relevant posts there, but rarely multiple posts by the same user (for obvious rate fishing I rate down, not up).

I wish for them to be a "1 post per person" thread, but I also rate up helpful answers to questions others have asked.

If you're curious about the ratings I give there, a well thought out post gets an Excellent, a 1 liner gets a Good if it's on topic, Awful if it's just spam or rate fishing.

I say that this suicide mission failed.

Thanks for the responses- I know we get these threads intermittently, but I still keep seeing weird ratedowns, and it bothers me for whatever quirky reason. Hence, this thread. Anyway, it's good to see so many replies, even if it's the "already-converted", so to speak.

It's a really strange thing to be concerned about other people's karma and not my own, but meh- I'm weird.

And I also rate up the Weekend Goals thread, not for a general CJ, but just because it's people contributing to a positive tradition here, as people before me said.

The one thing I am dissapointed about, ironically enough, is that there are no dissenting opinions here- nobody came forward to say "I rate down whenever I want, it's my right, and you can't tell me when or how to rate down".

Like I said, I'm weird.

Edit: I started posting in OoT lately, because I felt I needed a change of pace... different topics et al... but I am hesitant to now because it seems to have devolved into a CJ emporium. I don't like gratuitous ratedowns, but I feel that gratuitous (ie, unearned) rateups are just as bad.

Edited, Dec 6th 2006 7:44am by Wondroustremor

Most likely because the types who do rate down spitefully, arbatrairily(sp), or maliciously are doing so in spite of knowing it to be wrong (and so they would get in trouble for it), but because of the anonimity of the internet, can get away with it.

It's the same type of person who logs into the game and turns into a potty-mouthed, gansta-talking, offensive loser, but who if you ever met them in real life turns out to be some skinny 13 year old with glasses and weighs 90 lbs dripping wet who wouldn't say boo to a mouse. I met any number of those types of people back in the early days when message boards were local and they had occasional meetups. Some of the rudest nastiest people on the boards generally turned out to be shy and polite youngsters in real life. Now mind I'm not saying that type are always teens, just that all too often people who act the worst online are hiding their real selves behind some facade of "online wannabe machismo" that dies quickly when exposed to the light of reality or the scrutiny of their peers.

I only rate people up who have at least 5 Xs in their names.

I just thought about another reason I might rate someone down, and yes, it's about rating someone down for having opinions that differ from mine. I do it when someone's post differs so completely from my own values that the alternatives are a whopping big flame (and everybody knows I don't shy from those!) or a rate-down. So, I use rate downs as a control on my temper. Does it help? well it helps me, even though it harms the karma of that hypocritical, greedy, violent, malevolent, vengeful, cowardly, deadly, mendacious, meretricious, loathsome, despicable, belligerent, opportunistic, barratrous, contemptible, criminal, fascistic, bigoted, racist, sexist, avaricious, tasteless, idiotic, brain-damaged, imbecilic, insane, arrogant, deceitful, demented, lame, self-righteous, Byzantine, conspiratorial, satanic, fraudulent, libelous, bilious, splenetic, spastic, ignorant, clueless, illegitimate, harmful, destructive, dumb, evasive, double-talking, devious, revisionist, narrow, manipulative, paternalistic, fundamentalist, dogmatic, idolatrous, unethical, cultic, diseased, suppressive, controlling, restrictive, malignant, deceptive, dim, crazy, weird, dystopic, stifling, uncaring, plantigrade, grim, unsympathetic, jargon-spouting, censorious, secretive, aggressive, mind-numbing, abrasive, poisonous, flagrant, self-destructive, abusive, socially-retarded, puerile, clueless, and generally Not Good person.