[grandalf]

Actually I've thought the quality of comments has improved since points went away.

With too much gamification, everything becomes a game. Writing a comment should be about sharing experience or insight, not making a move to try to score points.

[Yzupnick]

But, people still are making a move to score points. Your points still show.

Taking away only other people's points isn't really solving the problem.

[grandalf]

Now points represent a "personal Everest". The motivation to post is pure.

With the old system, I often found myself motivated to post b/c I saw that a snarky comment had gotten a lot of points and wanted to one-up it. It was an ugly, ugly emotion and thankfully PG has eradicated it from HN.

[burgerbrain]

"Now points represent a "personal Everest". The motivation to post is pure."

Not as long as total karma scores remain visible to the world.

[grandalf]

A user's total score represents a very broad measurement of his/her contribution to the HN community, and is unlikely to negatively impact an individual's decision to post. If anything, seeing an overall high score makes a user seem more worthy of respect and less likely to trigger a points arms race in a single thread.