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[Reply #15 on:]

What is karma? Please post below and help me out.

As you have had it explained, I'll add that there is a good Mod (modification) for SMF forums that force you to give a reason for the karma so that there are no mysteries as to what it was given for. I know because I have an SMF forum that uses it. I personally don't like the fact that negative karma has been disabled. It's like Facebook - you can only "like" something, you can't "dislike" something - but we all know that people dislike things just as well. I don't like trying to create a feel-good everybody-gets-a-trophy world when we all know that's not the way life is.

Another thing is I see is that this forum is still running SMF 1.1.17 which is long been outdated. They can upgrade it for free so I wonder why they are using a version that is so outdated. The latest version is SMF 2.0.4.  

[Reply #16 on:]

Good deal. I guess a minimum of 5 posts in order to give karma is not too bad.

I personally don't like the fact that negative karma has been disabled. It's like Facebook - you can only "like" something, you can't "dislike" something - but we all know that people dislike things just as well. I don't like trying to create a feel-good everybody-gets-a-trophy world when we all know that's not the way life is.

I use other forums that have negative karma, and at first, some users would abuse it in a flame war. But after a while, it became a good tool. If some newbie gave karma to a user that suggested something incorrect, we could counter that with negative karma.

[Reply #17 on:]

I just tried Chrome 24.0.1312.57 and I can't see the + either. Must be version dependant, what have you guys got?

[Edit] yes as soon as I posted this I was able to give karma

Ignore me, I didn't see the extra posts.

______
Rob

[Reply #18 on:]

I use other forums that have negative karma, and at first, some users would abuse it in a flame war. But after a while, it became a good tool. If some newbie gave karma to a user that suggested something incorrect, we could counter that with negative karma.

Simply having both + and - karma can hardly result in a flame war anyway. There are sufficient controls built-in to stop that - I know all about SMF forums, I'm an expert at running them. As it is, you can have a similar thing happening with only positive karma - the groups that have formed cliques on the forum (all forums have this happen) will give each other positive karma all the time and the result will be a biased total. IMHO - you either use the full karma system or not at all.

[Reply #19 on:]

@Graynomad: Same version as yours.

@modeller: Now you are going to start the "turd stir"! I am a big proponent of karma in both directions, but I felt like I was standing alone against the masses here when the forum reintroduced karma a while back.
http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,123348.15.html

edit: ...and you are correct. The + and - did not start the flame war. It was only used as a weapon in that war.

[Reply #20 on:]

I think you just don't see your own.

LOL if only one could see their own "karma++" button!