[yvanleterrible]

I want to thank you all for the respect you have shown me with the cheering and kind words. Most of them were sincere as this thread is meant to underline milestones. Milestones are physical marks in time, an acknowledgment of a progress of some sorts, or celebrations in the personal lives out of MR.

There is a "situation" that has lately started to bother me. And as top poster in this thread, I feel this my responsibility to underline it. Karma celebration. And I'm not the only one being affected by this, many found it futile even to voice anything about it.
"The kind keep polite silence while the ambitious take control."

Karma was meant as a way to show appreciation for someone's exceptional behaviour, be it a show of helping others, a well performed act, a support of friendship or simply the enjoyment of a comment or joke.
The people around this wonderful site who do the brunt of the work at keeping things running smoothly should be the ones most rewarded by karma and so should the ones doing worthy deeds. Has anyone seen Alexander's karma count lately? He's still here, still working...

Even if karma "whoring" has been here for as long as the Llounge it's always been done with humour and fun in mind and for short bursts of time. Recently, karma has become a currency. It is often being given with intent of having some more back, by manipulating; with greed in mind. Like kissing up to a sugar-daddy. But celebrating it? That takes the cake, it's obscene. It's like a Catholic at communion going for a second or third host, of running around with a wad of money in your hands and flaunting it. Unless you're a stripper in Vegas, this is not the place. At this point, the thread is drowned with karma celebrations. At every five or ten thousand units, karma is overshadowing all the other more difficult and worthier markings...

Karma has lost its original goal, its nobility, its true value.

I wish I could return some of the karma I was given, it tastes foul, not right, some of its provenance undeserved in the true meaning karma was intended for.

I believe that karma should only show up in one's user public page. Nowhere else. And especially not on every post one writes. It should have been locked at ten points from the start, unless given from moderation. Just imagine a year from now those over 200,000, what fire power their gift will be!
From now on don't be surprised if I ignore karma celebrations. I'll only reply to real milestones...




Update:
An other absurdity about celebrating karma is that your celebrating yourself for having given karma, a user has no control on what's given to him...

I would also accept a possibility of refusing a gift if I feel unworthy of it, and especially if I know of a devious reason behind the gift...