Main benefits to karma are feedback for writers (both informative and hedonic) and sorting for attention conservation. Main costs are supporting the underlying tech, transparency / explaining the system, and dealing with efforts to game it.
(For example, if we just clicked a radio button and we had eigenkarma, I would be much more optimistic about it. As is, there are other features I would much rather have.)
Main benefits to karma are feedback for writers (both informative and hedonic) and sorting for attention conservation. Main costs are supporting the underlying tech, transparency / explaining the system, and dealing with efforts to game it.
(For example, if we just clicked a radio button and we had eigenkarma, I would be much more optimistic about it. As is, there are other features I would much rather have.)