Slashdot has had karma for a long time. This FAQ refers to it, and it was last updated almost ten years ago.

http://slashdot.org/moderation.shtml

Good artists borrow, great artists steal.

Wow, I didn't know that. So if we use it, we'll give a double nod - one to HN for our inspiration, and one to SlashDot for being the original. Is that cool?

I don't think you need to keep asking for the OK to use "karma". Just go for it.

I'll add too that you don't need to credit all your ideas in general. There are three factors I can think of that play into this.

The first is the genre you're writing/idea-using within. Academic scholarship has pretty stringent standards for citation, Dave Barry's humor columns, not so much.

The second is the degree to which you depend on the idea. If some idea is at the heart of your work, you should acknowledge it gratefully (and possibly pay license fees for it, depending on the idea's status in your jurisdiction).

The third is the degree of obviousness in your genre. You don't have to cite anyone to prove that 1+1 is 2, unless your name is Peano or Russell and you're working on mathematical meta-logic. Nobody owns common knowledge.

Because karma has been floating around as an idea on moderated-discussion forums on the Internet for a long time (since the Bronze Age of the Internet, if you will), it's pretty obvious. There are also pretty low standards for citation in the webapp world.

And if you want to go further back, who's to say Slashdot didn't steal "karma" after hearing "Karma Police" one too many times, and Radiohead had "Instant Karma" in the back of their head? And John Lennon there is obviously referring to a Hindu system of beliefs that was thousands of years old and will probably outlast all of us.

My point is that there is no way to be completely original. We are all subjugated by the tyranny of profound ideas. You just have to learn to stop worrying and love the bomb.

Why don't you call the point total of a user their "CredRank" too? Your users should already be familiar with the term from its use with your news sources. And you are ranking their "credibility" as well. Or, to soften the association (if you only want news sources to have "official CredRank"), call them "CredPoints".

Maybe just call it "Cred"? or Creds? Credits? Also, you should allow users to transfer them back and forth! I keep waiting for one of these karma systems to actually become a reputational economy.

Thanks for the tips. I like where you're going with this. We might give that a try!

I like tying Cred into the rating.

the usage of karma here in HN/YC is most likely a nod to slashdot, who's called its points karma for forever.

I don't understand the question, its "karma", its a word, used all the time, informally to mean built up good fortune or bad fortune... you don't need to cite anything...

Honestly I'm a little freaked out by how eagerly over gracious to YC this question is...

Dude, I know its sounds eager but I've been burned many times before over tiny things like this. Some people take it very seriously, and I'd rather tread safely than piss people off.

Why not ask the Dalai Lama? He probably knows a bit more about karma than anyone around here.

I like the term Karma, I always thought Mojo would have made a good phrase aswell.