You mean on user profiles? We used to have them shown but voted to turn them off, to prevent karma farming.
But we also do show real scores, including the downvotes, for comments and posts.
this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2021
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ok, I see your point :)
I thought only posts and comments get scores, don't they?
Yes, but you can sum a user's scores on all the posts and comments they've made, to get a user's post and comment karma. Its available in the API but we don't show it in the front end right now.
Can't quickly understand whether it has a meaning. Any point in the above summing, what does it mean? If I only downvote other people's content, I get a negative karma? It's rather "I'm a negativist". On the opposite, if people only downvote my posts and comments, this is IMO closer to a concept of (negative) karma (but can quickly become a massive shaming "hey friends, let's downvote his/her comments").
A lot of the bigger reddit accounts do what's called Karma farming, where they post really popular memes to a few big subreddits at specific times, and potentially have bots that upvote them, because early upvotes can boost a post.
Then these popular accounts can be marketed and sold for their attention-grabbing value.
Also a lot of people just obsess over their account karma in a really unhealthy way.
There are troll accounts like you're saying too, where the goal is to get a negative score.
This explains why people use karma and maybe why Lemmy doesn't have it visible. But actually I'm asking why karma is available via API, and why it's a sum of user's own votes instead of votes made against the user's content?
Not sure why we still have it available in the API, might be useful for some thing we haven't thought of yet.
why it’s a sum of user’s own votes instead of votes made against the user’s content?
Oh, it is the second one, the sum of votes against the user's content.
Got it. I'm too have no clear vision whether it can be of use. At least as FYI and maybe shown for admins/moderators only to keep in mind whether someone is a potential troll. I'm against China-like reputation systems.
Actually, I've got a question: any plans/ideas or already implemented stuff in Lemmy to prevent massive (and maybe even automated) trolls/bots accounts registration and further spamming?
It's just good that there is no karma on user profiles. There will be no hierarchy between users based on karma and no circlejerking around it. Like "hehehe see how you have so small amount of karma" and something else. Karma scores on posts should only matter.
There's a comment further below that's actually pretty scary when people believe/live this sort of thing:
On Reddit Karma is typically used to show legitimacy and maturity. If you have 20k Karma from having 20k more upvotes than downvotes, your comment is probably worth giving a read.
That's great - isn't that exactly the 'social score' implemented in China? Yikes.
I could imagine a situation where someone makes low-effort memes, reposts or something that fits Reddit's monoculture, gaining that 20k positive karma. That person may not comment much and the comments may be low-effort. Where's the maturity and legitimacy here?
That’s great - isn’t that exactly the ‘social score’ implemented in China? Yikes.
Reddit's biggest investors are Chinese so this is just fitting.
Sure, it's a bit like the Chinese social score. But it's a private company site, not a government score. Huge difference.
The construct on Reddit is obviously contained within Reddit, but it's plenty harmful within that environment, when and if people decide whether or not they'll interact with someone else based on their 'score'.
What's the use of karma?
it is just kinda gamification tool that could encourage some sort of activity...
On Reddit Karma is typically used to show legitimacy and maturity. If you have 20k Karma from having 20k more upvotes than downvotes, your comment is probably worth giving a read.