British Expat Forum

Some people have expressed the opinion that perhaps we don't want the karma function on the fora.

I like it and am concerned that perhaps I've not explained it properly. It's much more than just a way of saying "thank you". It's a feel good thing.

If you have any opinions about karma, please post them here so everyone can have a say in the discussion.

Personally I don't have any strong opinions for or against it.

I didn't understand it when it first appeared but do like hovering over the question mark just to read the feelgood phrases that pop up.

Like many others, I also didn't know that the + and - buttons were there to register good and bad opinions of other members conduct/posts.

Having just looked at my own Karma, I currently have +11 / -3.
To me this indicates that I have annoyed or upset 3 other forum users without knowing how, when or why.

For this I apologise, but can't correct it under this system.
That is the only concern I have with the Karma rating.

Hi Bob

Yes, I'd noticed your negative karma votes and couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Dave has a negative one as well because he stopped someone from trying to score free adverts. The database could be fiddled but we're waiting to see how things pan out.

The mystery of the universe is that I haven't got any negative ones yet. Maybe karma makes people behave themselves better.

I also like the little karma messages.

It's been suggested that we could change to having just "thank you" buttons instead, but that's not quite the same. Karma is more fun. I'll give a positive karma vote if someone makes me laugh or if they make an exceptionally good posting. I'd only do a more formal "thanks" vote for a more formal helpful posting.

It's early days and I'm sure the whole karma thing will settle down soon.

Maybe people don't quite "get it" yet. It's not meant to be a vote against a person if you disagree with them - and you don't have to vote for or against every post.

I'm giving out positive karma when I like what I read and reserving the negative karma for spammers or for any obnoxious postings. If the system isn't working in the fun way it's intended to it's because some people have been a bit quick to land negative karma on someone. I think I've only used the negative button twice in total (excluding on blatant spammers).

I think there's a fix we can implement whereby if people vote, plus or minus, then who voted is recorded and they are invited to leave a comment to say why they voted. That might sort out some of the concerns.

Dave knows more about this function than I do so... over to him...

There is indeed such a facility. In fact, we can even arrange things so that people have to comment if they're giving karma.

It's easy enough to think of something nice to say if you're giving positive karma. But it will probably make people think twice before giving negative karma, in the knowledge that the person receiving the negative karma will know who's giving it and why. So I think that would be a good thing to introduce.

At present the karma control panel doesn't give Site Admins the ability to step in and eliminate bad karma that's given mistakenly - we'd have to do it manually on the database. Nor would we be able to see the comments without going into the database manually.

Huh? Why not? What's the point of having these comments if no one sees them unless they go into the back office of the database. You've lost me on this.

It should be more like a "reputation" thing that you get on some other fora. Mostly they're used for buying and selling stuff and you rate the buyer/seller according to how they behaved during the deal. Comments, such as "great buyer, quick payment", are the norm, and a person can build up trust that way.

Whatever, I simply don't see the point in having comments that you have to get into the database to see.

As designed, the only person who gets to see the comments is the person who receives the karma - not even Site Admins can see it, unless they know how to find it in the database.

I agree - that's pretty pointless. It should be possible to change things without too much rescripting, though.

Ah, OK, so at least the recipient would know who and why. That would be a start.

I am fairly neutral to the whole thing, I don't mind if it is a Thanks or + Karma. Can't personally imagine ever wanting to - Karma anyone. By the time anyone became that obnoxious they would have been banned I would think. And I have no clue why anyone would negative Bob. That is just odd. He has never said anything controversial to my knowledge. I do wonder if it has been a slip of the mouse. (not suggesting there is a good reason for negging Dave but he seems to know why he has one)

Thanks for the feedback.

People can be as controversial if they like - we have some fairly controversial views expressed in our Opions/Politics forum. Being controversial shouldn't attract a negative vote. Being obnoxious should.

Yes, we do ban people who are obnoxious, but not usually immediately. We usually give them a chance to redeem themselves. If someone was making a habit of being obnoxious, you would be able to see a pattern building up. It's a democratic way for the community to vote and increase or decrease the reputation of its members.

The karma is also a way of reminding people what goes around comes around and therefore, we hope, a means of encouraging people to be good community members.

YEah I think that is true, it is nice to be nice and there is a feeling of "giving back" in some way when at my point in proceedings I feel all I do is take all your good advice.

Now, off to be controversial since Kay just gave me the green light mwahahah

I think this was an anomaly - a glitch in the system meant that non-paying members were temporarily able to give karma as well as receiving it. I gave someone a minor reprimand for misbehaving - quite politely, I thought, but they took umbrage. And when I looked I found I'd scored a minus.

Kay/Dave. Sorry, after giving 'Karma' another twenty four hours of reflection I'm afraid I still cannot agree with you. Please feel free to re-name me as "GOZOGRUMP" and allow me to express myself by adding a new stock emoticon - 'yawn'.
Meldrew lives!

I must admit that although it does give me a buzz to get positive Karma, I do feel very anxious that I might get negative, especially as I wouldn't know what I had done wrong!!

Hi,

Am prpbably being dumb but I can't see the + or - buttons mentioned - do you have to be a paid up member to get these? I kinda thought not reading one of Dave's posts, but maybe things have changed.

Thanks,

Rachel

We've scrapped the negative karma altogether - it wasn't helpful. Paid-up members are able to award positive karma, but others are only able to receive it. Hope that clears matters up.