Karma totals as an anti-spam mechanic are easily subvertable if you just get bots to upvote each others posts, and because it creates the appearance of a legitimate user it’ll enviably create a account selling industry where spammers and corporate/political shills can just buy a “legitimate” accounts to just bypass karma restrictions.
Right now it might seem strange to buy a lemmy/fediverse account, but if the site ever gets big, then buying accounts would be a good investment for the wrong people.
In the end it just puts up a barrier for new users with an legitimate interest in sharing with the community.
I think we should have karma totals to serve the same purpose as it did on reddit, to keep bots, spam and throwaway accounts out of communities.
Karma totals as an anti-spam mechanic are easily subvertable if you just get bots to upvote each others posts, and because it creates the appearance of a legitimate user it’ll enviably create a account selling industry where spammers and corporate/political shills can just buy a “legitimate” accounts to just bypass karma restrictions.
Right now it might seem strange to buy a lemmy/fediverse account, but if the site ever gets big, then buying accounts would be a good investment for the wrong people.
In the end it just puts up a barrier for new users with an legitimate interest in sharing with the community.