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YC: How I Earned Karma While I Slept
4 points by edw519 on Feb 17, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments
I posted one mundane remark yesterday and woke up to see that my Karma has risen 12 points!

While I slept! Wow!

The secret: get others to debate under your small post.

I'm working on better techniques.

My goal: 1 Karma point per word.

Here's the actual thread:

7 points by edw519 16 hours ago | link <A rather mundane, but potentially controversial remark.>

5 points by curi 16 hours ago | link I don't agree; blah blah blah

  3 points by dfranke 16 hours ago | link
   I don't agree with you; blah blah blah
 
   4 points by curi 15 hours ago | link
    Obviously you haven't read:
      http://www.amazon.com/BlahBlahBlah...
 
    4 points by dfranke 15 hours ago | link
     Not so: blah blah blah

     5 points by curi 15 hours ago | link
      Oh really? Blah Blah Blah
 
      4 points by lg 10 hours ago | link
       To both of you: blah blah blah
 
       1 point by curi 10 hours ago | link
        I insist that blah blah blah

        4 points by yters 10 hours ago | link
         Counterpoint: blah blah blah
 
         3 points by curi 9 hours ago | link
          You should read this: http://www.curi.us/blahblahblah
          Or this: http://www.curi.us/blahblahblah
 
          4 points by yters 9 hours ago | link
           You forgot blah blah blah
 
           1 point by curi 6 hours ago | link
            If it's any help: more blah blah blah.
 
            3 points by yters 6 hours ago | link
             I should rephrase it: blah blah double blah.
  
             1 point by curi 5 hours ago | link
              You still don't understand.
             
              Read this: http://www.amazon.com/MoreBlah

              2 points by yters 4 hours ago | link
               Yeah go ahead.
(edw519's note: In all fairness, this is the only response that I included verbatim.

Because it's the only one I read.)

                1 point by curi 3 hours ago | link
                 So some good goals, in my opinion:

                 Long term: blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

                 Medium term: blah blah blah

                 Short term: blah

                 2 points by thaumaturgy 3 hours ago | link

                  > you will be contradicting yourself, because blah blah blah :-)

                  Also...different blah blah blah
 
                  1 point by curi 2 hours ago | link
                   On subjectivity, I think that blah blah blah

                   1 point by thaumaturgy 2 hours ago | link
                    The point is even more blah blah blah
 
                    2 points by lg 6 hours ago | link
                     Clarifying blah blah blah
 
                     1 point by curi 6 hours ago | link
                      I think we are talking past each other.

                      You are talking about bluh bluh bluh

                      I am talking about blah blah blah


I thought the purpose of HN was to judge the quality of applicants to YC, not by your karma score but by sampling the quality of actual posts.

So although your karma is increasing, if you're planning on applying, it doesn't give you much of an edge.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm just speculating.

+1 for hacking the karma system.


It's not the purpose, just an additional benefit. The main reason we made News.YC was that we wanted a good news site for our own use.


In the time it took you to write that you could have found and submitted several things that improved the quality of the community... When people start trying to game the system it detracts from what news.yc is supposed to be.


Fair enough. You can look at my profile to see that I DO submit often. Problem is, I never know what others will find interesting.


don't worry about it, I just upmodded you.


Who cares? Seriously, everyone needs to get over the whole obsession with karma? It's really stupid.


isn't that what they call trolling? Granted, you're probably being sarcastic.


Probably?!?

Yikes, either lots of people here have no sense of humor, or I've failed to convey the level of sarcasm. In all fairness, I take all the blame. From now on, I will put <sarcasm> and </sarcasm> tags on posts like these. I guess it's had to tell if you don't know me and can't see or hear me.

I really don't care about karma, but I find it fascinating because I have no idea how it's calculated. Sometimes I think if I posted the cure for cancer, I'd earn 1 point, but if I make one smarta$$ remark, I'd earn 48 points (actually happened once, I don't know why).

I have no plans to apply to ycombinator, but who knows, that can always change; this is such a great group, you'd be a fool to not have it on your "options list".

I do know that I have found a home. It's hard to describe, but I get something here that I have found nowhere else. I participate frequently. That, probably more than anything else, explains my karma score.

As far as this post is concerned, I just found it amusing that responses to my original post went on and on all night. Sorry if I failed to convey my sense of amusement.

(Also, to the guys who were "sparring" in the OP, certainly no harm intended. Just a suggestion: keep your posts short enough for those of us who only take 5 minute breaks. Oops, time's up. Back to work.)


Clarifying: hey mine were pretty short bla bla bla


Easy to do when you omit the "h" from blah


Blah blah blah.


the thread, for reference: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117128


i disagree with this technique


my posting technique is unstoppable?




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