Is the problem here our inclination to interpret the number of points or karma as a rating in and of itself? As I understand it, that is just a tally of the upvotes and downvotes.
A 20 isn’t four times as correct as a 5. It isn’t even necessarily perceived as correct by four times as many people since the total number of votes might be larger for the 5 than for the 20.
So if we see a comment rated 20 and think it’s more like a 5, we need to correct our thinking. Because this rating is not a 20⁄20 or some other percentage. The difference between 5 and 20 isn’t necessarily qualitative. Does that make sense?
Indeed. One of the things I don’t like that much about the karma system is that I’d consider 5 upvotes and 0 downvotes to be better than 24 upvotes and 20 downvotes.
Is the problem here our inclination to interpret the number of points or karma as a rating in and of itself? As I understand it, that is just a tally of the upvotes and downvotes.
A 20 isn’t four times as correct as a 5. It isn’t even necessarily perceived as correct by four times as many people since the total number of votes might be larger for the 5 than for the 20.
So if we see a comment rated 20 and think it’s more like a 5, we need to correct our thinking. Because this rating is not a 20⁄20 or some other percentage. The difference between 5 and 20 isn’t necessarily qualitative. Does that make sense?
Indeed. One of the things I don’t like that much about the karma system is that I’d consider 5 upvotes and 0 downvotes to be better than 24 upvotes and 20 downvotes.