Ask HN: Increasing Karma Implies Decreasing Variance?

Anyone who's followed some of my threads here know that I don't shy away from controversial arguments (some of which got downmodded to hell), despite being in the top 15 on the leaderboard.<p>Let me be clear - I clearly do enjoy the game of accumulating karma points, but I enjoy the game of speaking my mind far more.<p>I've seen plenty of controversial arguments (some of which got downmodded to hell too) from other "high karma" people, so I don't think this is a problem here, though it may be a problem in other communities.

Would some please explain how the article's actual headline: Do influential people develop more conventional opinions? led to this being a Ask HN question. Is the question suggesting that more karma = more conformity with mainstream views?

I don't think it applies to Hacker News, because no one "games" karma, and having a high score doesn't seem to give anyone special influence over site content.<p>Wikipedia certainly has this problem, though. It seems to appeal to those with the petty-tyrant mentality, too.

The simple answer is no. Case sample: Rush Limbaugh<p>An interesting theory.