Does the Karma system work?

[VandaMan]

Good news and bad news, I have a fresh example of how the karma system can fail, but I also have another red karma. ()

I was given karma from two people for my previous post in this thread, a green one and a red one. The green one says nothing, the red one reads:

Karma is used as a important tool, in which you can agree or disagree to someone post. As long as your post to someone is respectful and the post is contructive, you will probably get good karma.

Yes, karma should be used as a tool to tell others something about a forum user. It's obviously not, since my post was "respectful and constructive" in every way, and the very person telling me respectful and constructive posts should get good karma, is the one that gave me the red karma.

In this forum, good karma is heaped upon people you like, and red karma is frivolously thrown at anyone you dislike. It says nothing about your posts. Giving red karma to someone because they don't believe the karma system works... were you trying to be funny?

[Godot]

well it appears the karma system is broken again or there is a new way(new to me at least) to manipulate it.
on june 16 someone dropped a red one in my box, now this doesnt hurt my feelings at all but I'd sure like to know what the post is they consider "Tasteless" (their words): in the section where the referenced post should be it simply says N/A.
I'd sure like to know how that works. I was under the impression you had to have a topic of disagreement and not use it to simply insult people. The way the system seems to work now makes it too easy for
the sneaky low life cowards of questionable parentage. If they can call me tasteless I'd at least like the opportunity to return the favor.

[Mattdoesrock]

If it's N/A it means that your post has been removed.

[backe]

Other than the "unsigned" negative karma, I think the system works well. I'm not necessarily worried about people "karma-nuking" but more concerned about people posting negative karma and then "signing" it as someone else.

[Godot]

not worried about the unsigned thing, I am wondering about the
relevent thread involved. It simply says N/A , how is that possible?
Is there a method to circumvent the identification of the related thread ?

[Gawyn_Trakkand]

N/A usually means the thread involved was removed or the post that you made was also deleted after the karma was made.

[Minorian]

One big problem with Karma is, when you post on subjects such as balance, the class you say that is overpowered rages and gives red karma, even if you didnt deserve it. A while back I posted about OP hunters and how I didn't think I would ever be able to take one out as a knight. I got red karma back saying

Fuck you noob, learn to play

The post I has made wasn't insulting or anything, I was just observing how I didn't think Knights have much if any of a chance. It is to easy to hand out red karma with the current system.

[UmarilsStillHere]

Its fairly clear that if you want to talk class/realm balance you need to do so very carefully, people tend to get trigger happy on the reds for posts talking about their class/realm.

Personally I dont think Karma is ment to be used as a cheap way of saying 'Your wrong/I disagree' with no real expansion, if someone dosnt agree with what you saw but jumps for the karma button instead of taking their time to write a constructive post, to me, this shows they cant really justify what they are arguing.

I tend to only give out Red Karma to posts that are laden with personal attacks, aggressive off-topic sections, or riddled with Caps, Swears and no real arguments for/against the threads point of disscussion.

To me, the Karma system dosnt work for example one part; the distribution system 'you need to spread more karma bla bla' seems made for a more active forum, often I go to give someone karma, get this message, and cant even think of the last time I gave them any.