Ask HN: Why am I stuck on 51 HN karma points?

anthay · 2019-08-19T09:44:14.000Z

I post on HN infrequently. When I do it says something like "1 point for anthay." But I've been on 51 points for what feels like years. Just curious.

clusmore 6 years ago |

My understanding is that comments start on 1 point but you don't actually get karma for that point, only for subsequent upvotes.

onion2k 6 years ago |

You didn't post any comments for 8 months.

anthay 6 years ago | |

I posted one yesterday. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20722765

onion2k 6 years ago | | |

I meant that you hadn't been posting comments for a while, so obviously you weren't going to get karma.

Now you're posting again hopefully you'll make interesting comments that people think are worth a click.

bristleworm 6 years ago |

Roughly, the number of upvotes on their stories and comments minus the number of downvotes. These don't match up exactly; some votes are dropped to prevent abuse.

see: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

anthay 6 years ago | |

I see after your comment I've jumped to 52 points.

Usually, I write a short reply on some thread and although my post shows me "1 point by anthay" my karma doesn't change. I'm sure it used to.

anthay 6 years ago | | |

Awesome, back to 51 points. Is it because I'm talking about karma and get automatically downvoted? I don't usually mention karma and yet still my little 1 point doesn't get added to my "score."

muzani 6 years ago | | |

You'll normally get downvoted if you go against the guidelines. Quoting the related guideline:

"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

necovek 6 years ago |

I am looking at this as the 51st ranked post on HN: that seems to be your sweet spot, just enjoy it. :)

anthay 6 years ago | |

Ha! Well, I have 52 karma now. So I'm enjoying the view before the next downvote comes along. :-)

mcv 6 years ago |

Well, certainly don't post questions complaining about karma. Instead, post interesting non-duplicate content that people want to read, or make useful or insightful comments in discussions.

anthay 6 years ago | |

Thank you. I'll do my best.

kleer001 6 years ago |

Why do you want more HN Karma points?

anthay 6 years ago | |

Well, I believe you get more privileges in HN when you have more points. And it makes you look more attractive.

quickthrower2 6 years ago |

If you want karma, post great news stories. Comments don’t attract much karma usually.

scarface74 6 years ago | |

Looking through the number of points you've gotten from your submissions (not many, join the club) and your current amount of karma, most of your karma has come from your comments.

quickthrower2 6 years ago | | |

Maybe but on a per effort basis, submissions come out on top.

anthay 6 years ago | |

Thank you. So for example, and I realise this isn't a great news story, this Ask HN post of mine is showing me it has 6 points (upvotes?), but my karma is still 51.

mcv 6 years ago | | |

Did you share it elsewhere for people to upvote? Apparently you don't get karma for that. Only for organic upvotes.

The system is fairly resistant to gaming. The purpose is to post useful content.

anthay 6 years ago | | |

All I did was submit this Ask HN here. I've not posted a link to it anywhere. As I write the post has 13 points and I have 51 points. Again. I'm sure my life would be much better if only I could escape from the clutches of 51. (I've been down to 49 and up to 52 since I posted.)

mcv 6 years ago | | |

It's not actual real karma. It's just a number. Don't obsess about it; that's bad for your karma.