[bloch]

You seem to imply that people primarely comment to get an orange highlight. I don't think the majority of users are that stupid.

[Xichekolas]

Give people a status symbol and they invariably try to attain it.

[DanielBMarkham]

I'm amazed that you would have a karma system, special colored status indicators, and yet people would still claim that it doesn't affect user behavior.

That's the point, guys. If the karma/colored system didn't affect user behavior, it wouldn't be there

[far33d]

Create a game, and people will play it as a game. Put a number next to someone or a color and people will change behavior to change the color/number. Especially hacker/gamer/competitive males, which are clearly represented pretty well here at HN.