Why does social media need karma ratings?
The problem with socially-oriented websites in the past was ever-present bully who reigned supreme over your beloved newsgroup (old school!) or message board. You know this person: Always online with a vicious, contrarian viewpoint just for the sake of mixing things up. They bend statistics, use questionable logic and half-truths (at best). But since the site administrator can’t possibly monitor every post & discussion (nor do they want to tacitly endorse things they allowed to be posted), it becomes a free-for-all. The site gets polluted with petty arguments while the good people give up and leave.
We can’t let that happen on social media sites whose essence is being a 2-way street. I think we need to implement the notion of community standards for our actions online. Here’s what I have in mind. Say you’re on a local newspaper website that invites users to comment on articles. Fair enough. I register and add my opinions about the various articles. Other readers should be able to vote on my postings with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Over time, I end up with a karma rating (similar to eBay sellers/buyers) that suggests the quality of my contributions to the website. New visitors to that website see my ranking and have an idea what others think of me. It quickly helps them discern the helpful, engaged citizens from riff raff who argue for the fun of it.
Now here’s the rub. I don’t expect everyone to agree with me. But I do expect them to rate me based on my intelligence, authenticity, courtesy and respect. Even when I disagree with someone, if they make a well thought out case and maintain a respectful tone, I’ll hear them out. I’ll give them a good rating. But if they cross the line of decency and civility, they should rated accordingly.
The more participants in a karma rating system, the better. If I have a low karma rating after 500 different people have voted for me, I realize that I’m pissing off a lot of people and it’s probably not because of my dissenting opinions. I’d better shape up or else.
The final step would be to allow individual users to completely block my posts from appearing to them. If I were at a community gathering (say the local town festival), no one would be obliged to listen to me ramble. They’d walk away and avoid me all together. Same goes for online communities who are made up individual users who abide by common standards. Either play with respect and decency or get out of town.
The specifics of how karma ratings will be implemented remain to be seen. Bottom line? Everyone should be accountable for the quality of their contributions according to the community standards. I say thumbs up. What do you think? Please leave me a comment below…
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