I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “iterations” here. Is it about getting enough votes? Or about what conversion function to use when grandfathering established users?
I think it would be possible to experiment with the current data. You have a record of the dates of all posts and votes so far. Rather than grandfathering in established users with some human-estimated prior, give everyone the same starting score, and try computing their current karma% from scratch. See if it gives you reasonable answers. See if it finds hidden gems. Try a different prior (with enough votes, any reasonable choice should get similar results). This won’t answer questions about incentives, but it will give you a good comparison to the current unbounded karma system.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean by “iterations” here. Is it about getting enough votes? Or about what conversion function to use when grandfathering established users?
I think it would be possible to experiment with the current data. You have a record of the dates of all posts and votes so far. Rather than grandfathering in established users with some human-estimated prior, give everyone the same starting score, and try computing their current karma% from scratch. See if it gives you reasonable answers. See if it finds hidden gems. Try a different prior (with enough votes, any reasonable choice should get similar results). This won’t answer questions about incentives, but it will give you a good comparison to the current unbounded karma system.