I just realized that lemmy doesn’t have karma like reddit. I’ve never paid much attention to karma. But even so it does seem to play an important role in moderation on reddit.
For instance, many subs put a karma restriction on who can post which helps decrease trolls.
And while it’s true that karma gives an incentive for people to seek karma I think it’s overall regulatory principle might be worth considering as a trade off.
Karma farming is bad. Forcing people to have karma to post encourages karma farming.
Karma on Reddit is nothing more than a score in what was likely ab effort for “gamification” to increase engagement. That type of thinking is at the root of a lot of issues with social media.
I’d even be ok with the up/down votes going away all together, or at least the reporting of them. I think it stops people from posting or commenting, because they are worried not enough people will be interested in it.