I don't understand why people get worked up over karma numbers. I'm more interested in the comments that come with the karma (although they don't always come with comments, but even seeing what post prompted the karma is fun.)
I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't even notice what total karma people have until I open up one of these discussions.
Even then, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to get worked up over.
Would it be feasible to make it a user option whether or not to display karma? On another forum I have the option to turn off sigs, avatars, and images -- but I suppose you would have to turn off that whole block, not just the one line, and that probably wouldn't work for people that are annoyed by karma and also reference the location and post count as much as I do.