Karma

wolf bite · August 13, 2005, 10:37:06 AM

Although I knew that Karma is the Buddhist concept that good deeds bring good things to happen, I had no idea what it does on our forum. I hunted through all the help and Admin stuff, could find nothing on it. Went to SMS main site, nothing. Went to their own forum and found very little. The best definition I could find was:

Karma is a sort of user-rating system, that allows people to "smite" or "applaud" other users. You can set it to display the total karma (ie total positive and negative combined) or show both positive and negative karma. You can enable the system from the "Features Settings and Options" area of the admin center, and can also choose who can use it from the permissions screen. It is also quite easy to choose the labels for "smite" and "applaud".

Basically, as members, if you like someone?s post, you can applaud them. On the other hand, if the post is totally useless, you can smite them. The number of applauds and smites will show up under the person?s name. This is a rating system on how well a person posts. On forums that are not connected with a game, people will rate others as to how knowledgeable they are in the subject of that forum (ie: how much they know about presidential debates).

I see a problem that since we have allies and enemies here that people will use it based on the person, not their actions. Only the Admins can see who has used it on who and how much. If it is abused the Admins can adjust people?s karma, take away the right of some people to use it, or completely remove it from the forums.

Use karma to applaud people when they make one of those posts that really make you think as the poster said something really interesting. Use Karma to smite a person when they are totally off topic.

Wolf Bite

Ruatine · August 13, 2005, 12:46:52 PM

Thanks for clearing that up, Wolf Bite. We were all kind of wondering. I've applauded a few people both out of sheer curiosity about it and for a person's posting.

RazorClaw · August 13, 2005, 02:40:29 PM

There's a show about karma coming out on NBC called "My Name Is Earl".

Ashyra Nightwing · August 13, 2005, 02:42:32 PM

*resists urge to smite RC for being anti-cheese* Really?

...I'm not sure if this Karma thing is going to work all that well. But I shall wait and see..

RazorClaw · August 13, 2005, 05:21:55 PM

I smited you back you silly fool.

The Lady Shael · August 13, 2005, 05:27:15 PM

Tsk, tsk, no mis-using now...

Ruatine · August 13, 2005, 07:07:23 PM

*growls at Razor* I smited you because you didn't add ~anything~ to the topic with your post... you tend to do that.

Ashy, I think I agree with you. I think the karma thing is ... kind of stupid, but we'll see.

Nohcnonk · August 13, 2005, 08:06:38 PM

It's strange. Say a person has 0 Karma. Applaud them and they get 1 Karma. Smite after that them and they have -1. Applaud and it goes back up to 1. But you apparently can applaud or smite someone as many times as you want, as long as you don't raise or lower their Karma by a total of 2 in one hour.

RazorClaw · August 13, 2005, 08:22:27 PM

Quote from: Ruatine on August 13, 2005, 07:07:23 PM
*growls at Razor* I smited you because you didn't add ~anything~ to the topic with your post... you tend to do that.

Ashy, I think I agree with you. I think the karma thing is ... kind of stupid, but we'll see.

What is there to add? A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants.

Honestly, though, this is sort of like a fun zone. If I want to make a sarcastic or silly remark, I think I have the right to do so. Quite frankly, I don't really care about my karma, but... I doubt that anything bad is going to happen to me due to a minus two karma on an inactive internet bulletin board...

Holby · August 14, 2005, 01:02:05 AM

I have seen/been part of rating systems on forums before. And they are evil. Based on this "karma", people judge the person before they have anything to say. This is a load of bollocks and doesn't allow people to have a fair say. "You have no karma, therefore you are not worth listening to." I would much prefer it just be removed- I know this is possible.

RazorClaw · August 15, 2005, 12:54:49 PM

*applauds Holby* :-D

Disdain · August 20, 2005, 12:15:59 AM

So, how do you give karma. I can't seem to find the way. :oops:

Nohcnonk · August 20, 2005, 12:31:07 AM

Wow, and you have 2 already. XD It says applaud and smite under each person's (other that yourself) Karma score. Just press one to change their Karma.

Disdain · August 20, 2005, 11:58:59 PM

HMMM, I don't see that. here's what I see under yours: (thank's, by the way)
Nohcnonk
RWL Member

Karma: 3
Posts: 2283

that's it. Could it be because I'm on IE (Explorer)?

windhound · August 21, 2005, 12:08:26 AM

eh
could be I geuss.. dont think so though, as it works on my badly running IE (slightly prodded to work on linux)
could also be a browser plugin not installed or simply not working...

Nohcnonk
RWL Member
*

Karma: 3
[applaud] [smite]
Posts: 2283

that's what I see for nohc, using both firefox and ie..