I nicked the following off the site which created this forum component, if it doesn't go well, I'll just trun off Karma again - looks kidna naff!
Ahhhh, what beauty Karma is...
You grow your Karma with the true Hindu virtues of patience, friendship and altruism...
More on Karma can be found here
Now, to save everybody some time:
Basic definition: Karma is a sanskrit word and a concept of eastern religions. Simply explained, it is a sum of all that an individual has once done during many lives and is currently doing. The effects of those deeds actively create present and future experiences, thus making one responsible for one's own life.
So, to summarize: it is the sum of what you do and what you don't.
Now, to cut to the cheese: other board users can let your Karma increase by applauding you (thumbs up) or smite you (thumbs down). You can not manipulate your own Karma, actually, it's punished if you do... you go down 5 points for trying alone...
Even Adminstrators can not alter their own Karma! (Unless they hack the database, but that's pathetic).
A user can alter 1 user's Karma every 24 hours with either +1 or -1 point. A moderator or administrator can alter as many user's Karma by as many points they like.
The whole idea of the system is this:
You can have users that post little but their post are always very good. Some people post much, but they never get further than 'Yeah' or 'Me too'. The first will have a low post count, the second a high post count. Now, which of the two is more useful or credible?
The first! And other users can reward him/her with a larger Karma and the second with a low Karma (even a negative Karma is possible). That way, other or new users can see that the person posting valueable posts with a low post count and a high Karma is more trustworthy and valuable to your community than someone with a high post count but low Karma...
The second poster will have a higher ranking, because that's based on post count. Karma compensates/relavates this because a 'Junior Boarder' can have a huge Karma and a 'Platinum Boarder' a very low or negative Karma...
Hope this helps!
