Karma

[Wigglyworm]

Hi Nick,

On the small list on the left of the posting, what does Karma stand for? 

~ Worm.

[Nick]

Hi Worm

Sorry about the delay in replying. As I understand it, Karma is something voted on by forum members. If you think someone has made a valuable contribution to the forum, you can click on the word 'Applaud' under their name in any posting they have made. Their Karma score will then increase by 1 point.

If, on the other hand, you think someone is being deliberately disruptive or objectionable, you can click on 'Smite' and 1 point will be subtracted from their score. I have already given various active members of mywriterscircle.com an 'Applaud', which is how you come to have a Karma score of plus one at the time of writing. Thankfully, I have not yet had occasion to 'Smite' anybody!

The whole thing is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course, but hopefully it will help to pinpoint members who are making a particularly valuable contribution to the forum, or (conversely) anyone whose contributions should be viewed with suspicion.

Any registered member of mywriterscircle.com can applaud or smite other members (though only once per person as far as I know), so please feel free to use this feature if you want to. Otherwise, feel free to ignore it!

Finally, there may well be deeper mysteries to 'Karma' that I have not yet worked out, so if I find out anything else I will let you know here. Obviously I didn't create the software for this forum myself, so I don't know everything there is to know about it. If anyone has any further info or comments on the 'Karma' facility, please feel free to post them here!

Nick GM

[Nick]

As a postscript to the above, I just clicked on 'Applaud' for Wigglyworm again, and the Karma score increased from 1 to 2. So evidently you can give feedback on a member more than once. Use this power wisely is all I can say!

Nick 

[aelfwin]

Nick, I clicked on the applause button and it changed your Karma to 2. Considering that you created the site, I thought I'd click a couple more times and add bravo to the applause. I got an error message tellling me I had to wait an hour before I would be allowed to click againg. Just thought you'd like to know.. Aelf

[Nick]

Thanks, Aelf. Nice to see my karma score going up! Thanks also for clarifying how often you can applaud or smite another member.

I would just add that this feature is optional. If Mywriterscircle.com members in general dislike it, I can ask the board's administrator to disable the feature. Any comments would be welcome.

Nick GM

[aelfwin]

I like the option of both applauding and smiting. The applause for those who've done something great, like getting published or being a source of good tips, etc. The smite as a constant reminder, as though anyone needs reminding, to be considerate, no flaming.   Aelf