If you try to invert exponentiation where the result of the exponentiation was 0:
5^x = 0 log_5(0) = x
Then the only thing that could produce that result is -inf, because anything greater than -inf just produces a fractional result. So if our full function is floor(log_5(karma)+1)+1, then when someone had 0 karma, they would have -inf voting power.
Nitpicking a misplaced parenthesis: I think the equation is probably
floor(log_5(karma+1))+1
rather than
floor(log_5(karma)+1)+1
I don’t think so. The second equation is negative infinity for karma = 0, which seems not right.
It sounds like you’re agreeing with Unnamed but think that you’re disagreeing?
(Another minor piece of evidence that the second equation is wrong, is that it could be more simply written floor(log_5(karma))+2.)
I believe the equation was constructed specifically to avoid that scenario (but also I don’t know the math to check it myself)
you can think of log (base b) as inverting exponentiation. Here’s a graph to refer to when reading these.
solve for x, and you get:
in other words:
If you try to invert exponentiation where the result of the exponentiation was 0:
Then the only thing that could produce that result is -inf, because anything greater than -inf just produces a fractional result. So if our full function is floor(log_5(karma)+1)+1, then when someone had 0 karma, they would have -inf voting power.