zlacker

Have comments start at -1.

(Or, better yet, -thread_depth).

>>tptace+(OP)
That's kind of a "my amp goes up to 11" kind of thing, isn't it? You're just changing the label for "no votes either way."

>>chc+U1
No, it assigns a cost of 2 points to commenting.

>>tptace+(OP)
I like this. Have both comments and submissions cost you Karma. This way you would think twice before adding your 2 cents.

>>SandB0+G2
It could discourage dialogue. Some very good, troll-free, threads are also very deep.

>>SandB0+G2
The problem with this is new users. When you join the site, you have 0 karma, and so would go negative if you posted a comment (assuming, of course, that you can go negative. I'd rather not experiment with that).

Of course, pg could make new users come in with 10 or so karma, just to get them started.

Now that I think a bit more about it, this could be a really good idea. It would limit new user's ability to comment and influence things until they have gained community approval of their comments and thoughts. And if they don't get that approval... too bad. If they aren't adding anything worthy of some upvotes, they are adding noise, which detracts from the experience of everyone else.

>>trober+6a
You'd get a lot of people creating multiple accounts to game this.

>>SandB0+G2
Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for explaining. My assumption was that, since the initial "1" doesn't add to your rep now, votes would still be the only thing that actually affects you.

>>tptace+(OP)
That would probably make things worse. Populist snide remarks would still get lots of votes, but intelligent slightly longer comments that just don't attract attention would carry a risk.

>>rbanff+v9
Perhaps after a certain number of comments in a thread, it would no longer cost karma to make additional comments? For the first one to three comments, it requires a 2 karma down payment, following which you're free to have open dialogue.