Rather than a list of lifetime karma, I would rather see a list of users with the most karma within the last year.

So Influence goes in order of posters with most Karma to least?

This isn't really an answer to the question of influence, but it gives you a start on the question. There's the list of the top 100 people ranked by karma - that doesn't mean they're influential, of course.

So, maybe you should define "influence".

Aight: How about "The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of [the collective mind of the people who read HN] ...something like that.

Hmm.

* How would you measure that?

* How would you get everyone to agree?

Tell me, how else could it be done?

Why isn't Paul Graham on that list? Isn't he influential?

Check PG's profile - he has 124701 (at the time of writing) and would be significantly off the top. He has deliberately removed himself from the listing.

Paul Graham does not post his best writing directly on HN, but he writes really insightful blog posts

which get submitted here (in my opinion some of the most insightful comments posted on HN are from his blog).