The whole concept of karma is really painful and not only in the context of HN. It's like the GDP, it says absolutely nothing valuable about a country. In a place where people are healthy, food is good and grown locally, the GDP would inherently be lower then in a country spending billions after a nuclear melt down.<p>For those considering reputation/karma as an indicator of aptitude, I think I'm not the only one who would definitely <i>NOT</i> hire someone with a huge HN "karma" or stackoverflow "reputation". Having lots of points in these games means that the person has spent a lot of time submitting content, answering questions and commenting. I consider that this time would have been better used to write open source code, to directly teach neighbors, teenagers, friends or if the person is a real expert, to create a website with all the good advices, tips, tricks or simply contribute to a wikibook.
By answering questions on stackoverflow, the person is essentially teaching neighbors, teenagers, and "friends" by creating an open "wikibook".<p>Teaching is one of the best ways to learn something. If you can successfully teach a concept, then it shows deep understanding.<p>As long as HN or stackoverflow doesn't take up too much productivity, having a high reputation/karma could be a good thing. It shows passion.
It's still useful for gaining privileges on websites such as deleting, downvoting and editing others' post. But I have to agree with you, it doesn't make a person any better, just more active on the website.
<i>Having lots of points in these games means that the person has spent a lot of time submitting content, answering questions and commenting. I consider that this time would have been better used to write open source code, to directly teach neighbors, teenagers, friends or if the person is a real expert, to create a website with all the good advices, tips, tricks or simply contribute to a wikibook.</i><p>Really? Should people also spend all their time contributing to open source instead of exercising? Cooking? Painting? Why judge someone's technical merit on the fact that they find it enjoyable and stimulating to spend some of their free time actively participating in online communities?
Karma is just a metric and should be treated as such. If someone is judging someone else by their karma score, that says more about the judger than the judgee.
It's not a bad way to gauge your own knowledge and expertise. If others generally find your advice/tip/suggestion useful, you will know when they up vote you.<p>I agree karma isn't the end-all-be-all solution, but it may serve as a reality check for those who think they are hot stuff. It can be both a humbling tool as well as a confidence booster.