Well, this post won't help ;)

In all seriousness, I really wouldn't worry about it at all.

If you're not just being yourself, asking questions with candor when they come up, and chipping in with answers when you can, you're going to miss the point of HN.

I agree, but I also think it's a tricky subject. Doing things for the sole purpose of increasing your karma would probably be considered a negative behavior. On the other hand the community gives karma to reward behavior it approves of (and vice versa), so it isn't right to completely ignore it either.

I would say my contribution so far hasn't been too popular, so I'm going to look for more popular items.

Yeah, true, okay, I will just be myself but start becoming more active.