Question What is "karma" ?

Dear all,

Can you tell me what is "Karma" ? how it functions and how to use it?

Sorry, I am newbie in using forum, just not quite sure of some functions or terminology used in forum. I couldn't find the explanation for Karma in the documentation as well. Hope some one can explain. Thanks!

"Karma" is a kind of rewards and punishments system that was originally developed as part of Fireboard and retained in Kunena. The main problem with using an anonymous rewards and punishments system is that it has the tendency to be abused more than it's used fairly, honestly, openly, courageously or with integrity. The current "karma" system is unaccountable; there is no record of who voted for whom or how they voted.

Basically, users (in a self-regulating discussion forum) can "vote" to reward or to punish contributors. Theoretically, users should be able to give recognition for the work of others based on merit as a way of encouraging their participation. In practice, however, it is more likely that users deduct points capriciously, without any regard for merit, simply because they disagree with what someone has written. This negative behaviour is intended to stifle dissenting (or controversional) opinion. It also tends to create factional blocs/cliques within the forum. At the very least, it's unrewarding, dissatisfying and discouraging for the people being targetted in this way.

In my opinion I think it's better to debate issues in open discussion. It's easier to "gang up" against someone by secretly voting "I hate you, but you're never going to know who (insert sneer/"mu-ha-ha-ha" here)" than it is to say "I admire what you wrote (even if I disagree with you)". Sad but true, this seems to be a common trait in discussion forums these days. Of course, this is merely my opinion.

"Karma" is enabled in Kunena by using the configuration setting Components » Kunena Forum » Kunena Configuration » Frontend » User Related » Show Karma indicator = Yes

See also Karma logging in db and karma_time for more discussion.

I see.....Now I understand fully. Thank you very much for your explanation about Karma in detail as well as your opinion on the usage.

Karma system has been disabled in Kunena.com.

This is because of the nature of karma system made it too easy to abuse it and nobody really liked it.

We are going to implement better system (perhaps "Thank you") in the near future.

No wonder the official site has to close it. Anyway, before the better system implemented, allow me to say "Thank you"

Might be a bug in 1.6, but I noticed I can just sit there and click the karma button over and over and over again and give someone -1000 karma if I want to in one sitting, is this supposed to be this way or is this a bug in rc3?

Hello,

I need to check that, because normally you can't do this..

It might have something to do with me being an admin, but yeah on rc3 I sat there and kept clicking - and it kept dropping the guys karma hahaha poor guy. Maybe it just lets admins do this?

If you are a moderaor (including admin), you have not time limit when you put a karma, but normal users have time limit.

Oh that's just dandy! "Join my website. See how my we can victimise helpless users by abusing moderator/administrator privileges."

I'm not saying that people do abuse their privileges and I'm definitely not suggesting that this is the normal practice at F012saken's website) but this loophole is another very good reason to disable karma ... in my opinion.

Good question, F012saken. I think that a future version of Kunena should close this exploit. There should be one standard that applies to all users.

I'm not sure if this is intentional, I would think not, but...

I can click on the + or - (applaud or smite) repeatably, over and over, which is great for when I see someone post something really good, or really stupid, lol, but I'm apt to believe that once my users realize this, they too will click it over and over till the overall karma score is whatever they want it to be. Is this something known? I have the latest release (unless one came out within the week or so) of 1.6.

As far as I can remember this was possible in 1.5 too. So I think it is not a bug.