[afa]

I must say I'm glad someone brought it up, as I've noticed this phenomenon as well.

I was busy with a new job and hadn't been around MR for a few months. On my return I, too, was surprised to see so many people, particularly relatively new members, who had a significant amount of Karma. I assumed that maybe MR had some sort of 'new policy' where newbies joining were given more Karma on signing up than before. I have no idea, though.

As for the Karma itself, I'm in favor of it. Yes, plenty of users have high number of posts. But the Karma count shows how much a particular user's posts were seen as positive (whether because they were informative, helpful, humorous, or due to blackmail).

I like it and see no reason to get rid of it.