A counterpoint to this: If a karma system reliably rewards beneficial behavior, "karma whores" can potentially create a lot of real value for more casual members of the community (at the cost of possibly some irritation from active but not addicted members). This may not be possible in all communities, of course, but here's at least one example: http://stackoverflow.com/users/22656/jon-skeet

for the record I agree completely. checks and balances on negative behaviors is stupid and has never worked. what you need to do is set up the incentives so that everyone's goals are complementary anyway. then the users police themselves because everyone is benefiting. you've turned a zero-sum game (status) into positive sum.

(Of course, in several ways, karma is a poor motivator for behavior that is valuable to the community.)

If anything, I say that here at HN we use "karma" as more of an indicator of RELEVANCY. Upmod comments that are relevant to the discussion, and leave it alone otherwise (very similar to the conclusion of the linked article).