# My thoughts about ‘reputation’ or ‘karma’

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/my-thoughts-about-reputation-or-karma/89566
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [June 10, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/my-thoughts-about-reputation-or-karma/89566 "2018-06-10T22:00:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 45

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### Author: ![FoohonPie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/foohonpie/32/119648_2.png) [@FoohonPie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/FoohonPie)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2018, 1:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/my-thoughts-about-reputation-or-karma/89566/45 "2018-06-25T13:17:46Z")

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That article is a great example of when point systems go awry, but hardly evidence that point systems themselves are inherently a net negative. A poor implementation doesn’t negate the value of a concept. “This point system was terrible, therefore all point systems must be terrible.” isn’t something that I am convinced of.

Similarly, with Discourse’s badges, I don’t think that their problems negate all of their value. As for those problems, my issue isn’t simply that “I don’t like them”, but as I posted earlier:

> [@FoohonPie](#):
>
> Getting these early badges didn’t _encourage_ me to interact with this sytem, they gave me the perception that badges have little worth and therefore are of little interest to me.

There are other problems such as profile clutter, or [members contributing non-constructively](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-has-your-experience-been-with-badges-in-your-communities/69597), but really none of that is ever too damaging because you guys have done a great thing by offering the option to disable badges system-wide, which is awesome.

> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> you aren’t distinguishing between **systems of opinion** and **systems of facts and data**

I am though. To one of my earlier points, system of opinions can also benefit from a reputation metric specifically _because_ they are reflecting something more fluid like social standing.

I’m not necessarily looking for a measure of truth, or that a user is an authority on knowledge. I’m looking for an expression of group dynamics that makes conversations more than just their words. That’s the potential value I see for Discourse compared to Q&A software.

To that end, I am grateful for Discourse’s plugin system. 🙂 Those of us who want this have reasonable means to do it. I’d love to change peoples’ mind on this, and give reputation a better uh… reputation… 🤷‍♂️ by showing better possibilities.

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