[RWood]

Originally Posted by vivaldirules

This karma thing still strikes me as very odd. I absolutely love the ability to click a button and instantly thank someone. What could be better? But then it's as if we all walk around with sticky notes on our foreheads showing the number of thank you's we've received. It's embarrassing but it's not like I can rip the thing off. It's equally odd that we count and show off the number of times we talk. We then celebrate when we hit notably large milestones for talking. I acknowledge that these might benefit newbies because they could quickly see who is most likely to be helpful but if there was a better way of doing that then I'd be happy to see karma disappear here. Perhaps we could tag ourselves (we tag threads and books, why not users?) if we feel we are particularly capable and willing to help on this or that issue. Then the karma button could be replaced by a 'Thank This Person' button and we wouldn't have to walk around with these stickies on our foreheads.

And I vote for the blue one, next to the fish. Is she fresh?

There is a plan (I shouldn't tell but I will since I know that NatCh can't keep a secret and he would spill it sooner or later) to replace the karma system with one providing direct financial contributions. The more money you send to MR the higher your "New Karma" score goes. We modeled this closely on the US and UK election systems. Under "New Karma" when you like someone else's post you also reward them financially. You may use the "New Karma" to purchase many beautiful prizes such as Turtle Wax, WD40, and Post-It brand sticky notes from 3M. Negative "New Karma" is like writing a parking ticket, you are "charging" the other person for wasting your time with their low quality post.