Ask HN: Why am I stuck on 51 HN karma points?

17 pointsby anthay7 tahun yang lalu21 comments

I post on HN infrequently. When I do it says something like "1 point for anthay." But I've been on 51 points for what feels like years. Just curious.

21 comments

clusmore7 tahun yang lalu

My understanding is that comments start on 1 point but you don't actually get karma for that point, only for subsequent upvotes.

onion2k7 tahun yang lalu

You didn't post any comments for 8 months.

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

I posted one yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20722765

onion2k7 tahun yang lalu

I meant that you hadn't been posting comments for a while, so obviously you weren't going to get karma.

Now you're posting again hopefully you'll make interesting comments that people think are worth a click.

bristleworm7 tahun yang lalu

Roughly, the number of upvotes on their stories and comments minus the number of downvotes. These don't match up exactly; some votes are dropped to prevent abuse.

see: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

I see after your comment I've jumped to 52 points.

Usually, I write a short reply on some thread and although my post shows me "1 point by anthay" my karma doesn't change. I'm sure it used to.

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

Awesome, back to 51 points. Is it because I'm talking about karma and get automatically downvoted? I don't usually mention karma and yet still my little 1 point doesn't get added to my "score."

muzani7 tahun yang lalu

You'll normally get downvoted if you go against the guidelines. Quoting the related guideline:

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

necovek7 tahun yang lalu

I am looking at this as the 51st ranked post on HN: that seems to be your sweet spot, just enjoy it. :)

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

Ha! Well, I have 52 karma now. So I'm enjoying the view before the next downvote comes along. :-)

mcv7 tahun yang lalu

Well, certainly don't post questions complaining about karma. Instead, post interesting non-duplicate content that people want to read, or make useful or insightful comments in discussions.

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

Thank you. I'll do my best.

kleer0017 tahun yang lalu

Why do you want more HN Karma points?

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

Well, I believe you get more privileges in HN when you have more points. And it makes you look more attractive.

quickthrower27 tahun yang lalu

If you want karma, post great news stories. Comments don’t attract much karma usually.

scarface747 tahun yang lalu

Looking through the number of points you've gotten from your submissions (not many, join the club) and your current amount of karma, most of your karma has come from your comments.

quickthrower27 tahun yang lalu

Maybe but on a per effort basis, submissions come out on top.

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

Thank you. So for example, and I realise this isn't a great news story, this Ask HN post of mine is showing me it has 6 points (upvotes?), but my karma is still 51.

mcv7 tahun yang lalu

Did you share it elsewhere for people to upvote? Apparently you don't get karma for that. Only for organic upvotes.

The system is fairly resistant to gaming. The purpose is to post useful content.

anthay7 tahun yang lalu

All I did was submit this Ask HN here. I've not posted a link to it anywhere. As I write the post has 13 points and I have 51 points. Again. I'm sure my life would be much better if only I could escape from the clutches of 51. (I've been down to 49 and up to 52 since I posted.)

mcv7 tahun yang lalu

It's not actual real karma. It's just a number. Don't obsess about it; that's bad for your karma.