Hey! Thanks to the whole Reddit mess, I’ve discovered the fediverse and its increidible wonders and I’m lovin’ it :D

I’ve seen another post about karma, and after reading the comments, I can see there is a strong opinion against it (which I do share). I’d love to hear your opinions, what other method/s would you guys implement? If any ofc

  • jayrhacker@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I can imagine some tweaks to help improve how karma is implemented:

    • Use Bayesan Inference to produce a ‘shit/shinola score’ for contributors instead simple up/down vote totals

    • Experiment with different recency biases for the score; you can trust that people will change over time

    • Generally figure out what you’ll be using karma for and make sure you have a way to measure how well it’s working

    • VGarK@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      I’ve googled Bayesan Interference, however I don’t understand what you meant by it. Could you elaborate please :)

      • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Here is a good general explanation of Bayesian inference.

        I think @jayrhacker@kbin.social is suggesting using such techniques to predict “troll” or “not troll” given the posting history/removed comments/etc. My personal thought is that whatever system replaces karma, it should be understandable to the typical user. I think its possible Bayesian inference could be used in developing the system, but the end system should be explainable without it.

        • VGarK@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          Thanks for the link. To anyone that does’t know about Bayesian inference, do check it out!

          Now I have an existencial crisis thanks to the video 😂 the funny part is that thats the same thing used to detect spam email…

          • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Spam detectors are pretty opaque by their nature. In contrast, karma is pretty easy to understand: “x number of people upvoted comments or posts from this user”. This lets people understand a score even if they don’t agree. If a karma replacement behaved like a spam detector, it would probably just annoy people.

            Sporting brackets may be a better analogy. They are developed with statistics in mind but are understandable to the average sports fan. I think a karma replacement should have similar properties.

            • VGarK@lemmy.worldOP
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              1 year ago

              That sounds awesome! You seem to be quite knowledgeable about mathematics. May I ask what is your background?

              • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Computer science. However, statistics is more of a hobby than anything. I am just intrigued by the idea of federated social media in general so I have thought a bit on how I would personally make it work. Perhaps I will make some more in depth blog posts about my ideas at some point.