Yeah, this took me by surprise that my little meta game theory comment was rejected so much. I know it wasn't that clever, but still. With down-votes like that, you would think my username was jasoncalcacanis or that I had insulted pg's mother. I'm guessing that people here are looking out at the Redditors like the Romans looking out at the Visigoths. Meta comments are the gateway drug to memes, and nobody wants that!

I now resign myself to an additional -4 comment. Karma comes, karma goes. I guess it all evens out in the end. Funny that.

I didn't reject the game theory comment; I merely played the game according to my values.

By adding my downvote to each and every comment in this subthread, I have imposed a cost upon the average user for attempting to game the karma system with uninteresting comments.

My downvotes signal that I would like to see fewer comments of this type. This comment does so more explicitly; I believe the utility I derive from discouraging karma-gaming comments (even those meant as a joke) is worth the risk of up to 10 of my own karma.

I think it's more that people are insulted or offended by the possibility of generating karma with such a meta karma comment because it's "cheating".