[sveno]

You only have 258 karma. You don't have to worry yet. When you get into the mid-thousands, that's when things get dicey.

Tech is like card counting. If you actually figure the game out, you get punished and flushed out. If you keep gambling and losing and don't know why (because you're bad at what you're trying to do) there will be a seat at the table until everything is squeezed out of you.

[WalterBright]

I have 51000 karma. I am not playing any game. I just enjoy posting here, and try to make interesting comments. I far prefer it to Reddit and Slashdot, and rarely bother with them anymore.

Probably all thanks to dang!

[dredmorbius]

Similar karma, also post as I think. Often disagree with viewpoints expressed, including many of those of WalterBright's.

But I agree with him here that there's been no general penalty observed.

The only things I've noticed are a couple of people reaching out on account of my being on the leaderboard (no, I can't get your posts approved, yes, I will report your trying to do so), and having corresponded with the mod team for years (occasionally viewpoint issues, mostly boring submission stuff such as titles, disambiguated URLs, and occasional spam), what I think is a fairly good mutual understanding. Not always agreement, but general respect. I'll make my case or argument, and almost always accept the moderation response. I've had numerous submissions entered into the 2nd chance pool.

Overall calibre of discussion for an open and general-interest website is excellent. Occasional visiting expertise is an added plus.

My own submissions sometimes succeed, are occasionally flagged, and mostly just languish in the "new" page.

[WalterBright]

I also have many unpopular views, and know I'm going to get downvoted plenty for them, but post them anyway.

[dredmorbius]

My tactic is more trying to get people to either think through or substantiate their claims or positions than simply focusing on "unpopular opinions". Including in some recent exchanges with you. I make a point of challenging what I suspect are viewpoints adopted for conventionality rather than empiricism or reasoning.

That also occasionally seems to unsettle some readers. I think on balance it improves the site. All the more so when people respond or learn things.

(I've certainly learned from being challenged on my own comments, and make my own fair share of errors.)

[Akronymus]

I made one submission that got a LOT of traction. which got me to around 1k karma.

Karma is useless.

[WalterBright]

> Karma is useless

Exactly. I can't even trade it for a cuppa coffee.

[awb]

I have ~12k karma and never experienced anything getting dicey. I’ve never been affiliated with YC or the mods.

In my experience it’s a pretty fair community and I’ve been downvoted many times.

[dctoedt]

Ditto what 'awb said, every word.

[laurex]

Though I am reasonably active on HN, I actually have no idea what you mean. Could you go into more detail about 'the game' and what one should worry about?

[zozbot234]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Game_(mind_game)

...and I just lost.

[stronglikedan]

> You only have 258 karma.

And you only have 1 karma, so you're not qualified to say what you said in your previous post. Of course, my point is that I know how much karma you have, as much as you know how much karma any other person has, which is...you don't. And I've been here long enough to know that your original comment is getting downvoted, because it's largely full of false statements. Sure, you can cherry pick a few examples here and there, as you could on any site, but to say that is is HN's "biggest problem" is demonstrably false.

[awb]

> I know how much karma you have, as much as you know how much karma any other person has, which is...you don't

FYI, clicking a username tells you have much karma someone else has.

For example, you have 4,258 karma: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=stronglikedan

[Shared404]

I think the implication is that you don't know how many accounts into HN someone is.

For example, I could make a burner and appear to have 0 karma, but still have however much I've got on this account - much like sveno appears to have done.

[0x4d464d48]

Maybe. I don't invest enough time and emotion here to have anything substantial to lose.

I consider myself a tradesman who, naively or not time will tell, leverages a rarified skill set at market rate trying to deliever value to clients as best as I can.

Millenial enough to have no expectations of a charmed future, despite earning an annual income in the top decile, but not jaded enough to put a price tag on my soul, principles nor well-being.

[jason-phillips]

> Tech is like card counting. If you actually figure the game out, you get punished and flushed out.

Wouldn't this dynamic that you describe from your perspective exist in every industry?

[awb]

Assuming there’s a “game” to be played, and you get pushed out, you probably didn’t understand the real game.

In the card counting example, the game isn’t blackjack, the game is the house always wins. If you’re card counting and losing money, no one cares.

I’ve been reasonably successful in tech and don’t know of any games besides the free market.

[pasadenasunset]

At least no games with underlying dynamics you would like to share, and I say that with a grin.

The discussion of moderation policies and topics in posting usually derive from a shared understanding of a forum as a group of people, rather than a trajectory where current community opinions in turn, create the future community.

There is also the origins of Hacker News as Startup News, which immediately creates a covariance constraint between seniority and topic. The only way this dynamism can be managed is having temporal aspects (e.g., boundaries, limits on accelerationism toward specific topics), included in moderating policies.

[blindmute]

It's a tech-themed reddit, bro. It's not that deep.