[kreeben]

Wouldn't the world become a little bit better if they did? Earning karma on HN is not the easiest thing. I would hate to speak for all of us but collectively, don't you think we have a pretty good marketspeak alert system here?

[blowski]

I’ve got 10k karma by making pithy criticisms of Node.js and Kubernetes. Do you therefore trust my opinions on US healthcare?

[kreeben]

I would, if what you say were to make a whole lot of sense, otherwise, no.

You know how it works here. We would strip you of your internet points if you start being nonsensical.

[jstummbillig]

I think you are kind of ignoring the issue that parent brought up.

The hn machine is not all that smart and can easily be gamed, and would, if the stakes were to become high enough. Farming hn karma by making pointed statements on crowd favorites (parent named two, oss licensing or privacy also spring to mind) gets you your 10k, no originality or honesty required, in no time.

What's protecting hn is a lot of moderation + relative irrelevance. If those 10k were to systematically bring you enough eyes (by driving search results), you are in effect printing money. There is no reason to assume the number of people doing it would not scale with the return attached to doing it.

[np1810]

Anything (points/karma/coins) which is free & unlimited will find it's way to get exploited. "What if" there's a barter system for karma/points, you do a +1 and get a -1.

Though I do not know how the initial allotment of karma/points could be distributed for the pioneers and for the new growing community, maybe allot 'n' points for new user after a year...

[DoctorDabadedoo]

Show us the way, reasonable man.