Karma

What is karma?

Karma is a way to measure users' activity on Wikidot. Users with high karma are active in developing wikis and post frequently in wikidot forums.

How can I view someone's karma?

Karma level is shown as a bar next to your avatar. The more bars you have the higher karma you have.

Number of bars	Icon	Textual description
0		none
1		low
2		medium
3		high
4		very high
5		guru

You can also see a member's karma by clicking on user's name. There you will find a users Karma along with the users standard profile.

You can easily reach medium to high level karma through normal activity. However, the guru level is reserved for most active members.

How can I raise my karma

In general, the more active you are, the higher your karma is. You can get karma for various activities that include (but is not limited to):

• creating and editing wiki content (pages)
• participating in forum discussions
• participating in open community portals (like Wikidot's community wiki)
• being wiki administrator/moderator/member
• inviting other people to join Wikidot
• having contacts and friends on Wikidot
• using AdSense on their wikis (this actually helps us a lot too!!!)

What are benefits of having high karma?

The main benefit is that other users can instantly recognize you as an influential person and a wiki-expert.

We are also going to introduce some extra functionality for top-karma users. This is in the early stages of planning.

How is karma calculated?

There are many factors in calculating a member's karma. Some of these are listed above. Only a 5-unit bar is displayed to make karma easy to see at a glance.¹

Can someone vote for me so that I can get good karma?

No. Karma is a reflection of your expertise, skill, and how helpful you are in forums. It is not intended to show the popularity of a member.

— I'm very active but my karma is low? What can I do? —

Editing pages is not the only factor taken to calculate karma. There are several factors that we take into account — see above. If you want good karma, try helping members the on community wiki. This will raise your karma.²

I have high karma. Will it drop someday?

The karma levels are recalculated every few days and your karma can go up or down. There is one exception: if you achieved guru karma it will not drop. It is really hard to get to this level and we do not see any point in taking karma back from the gurus.

Can people cheat the karma system?

We are constantly improving the algorithms to measure real activity our members. We don't see any reason why anyone would cheat — even if someone could "cheat" to raise their karma, other members can easily verify his/her web activity and see if they are really active.

Comments

Spammers / Abusive Users

ErichSteinboeck 1212055744|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

> Can someone "vote" on me so that I can get good karma?
> Generally: no.

What about using “flag user as abusive” — how will/should that influence Karma rating?

michal frackowiak 1212056811|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

We are thinking about it right now. I think we will take this into account, but not in a direct way. The last thing we want are "karma wars", but on the other hand we do not want to ignore this input. I am pretty sure we will include this somehow in the next revision of the algorithm — perhaps more tuning will be required.

---

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalfrackowiak.com

Well, I am a wikidot guru, for now, but...

gerdami 1212135520|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Well, I am a wikidot guru, for now, but …
… will my status change over time if my activity weakens ?

---

Aide Wikidot en Français ? Handbook !!!

michal frackowiak 1212138493|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I have just added an answer to this. No, gurus do not loose their karma. It is really not easy to become a guru and we do not see any point in taking this back from users.

So, congratulations to all gurus! ;-)

---

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalfrackowiak.com

gerdami 1212144825|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

So, there is a need for a modification in the
[[module Members OrderedByKarma="yes"]]

Thanks to SuperGuru Michal !

---

Aide Wikidot en Français ? Handbook !!!

last edited on 1212144844|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by gerdami + show more

Interesting Idea

promod 1212177373|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I like the idea of karma. The level meter is an effective visual. What a pleasant surprise to be at the "guru" level and to know that level will stay. Thanks Michal.

Eclectus 1212178029|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I like the idea of Karma. Could the icons (in general) be made a bit bigger? perhaps as a 'wiki appearance' setting?

Phenoca 1212193724|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This is quite neat.
Thanks for the update.

RealG187 1212194055|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Yeah I am a very high

I own a wiki here (bestwikiever) and have it on my homepage and strive to make my wiki as the title says.

How long has this karma system been here? Did my activity before it was implemented affect it?

I just came here one day and my karma was really high and I didnt even know it!

last edited on 1212194101|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by RealG187 + show more

weirded out...

Skyler Tratle 1212206560|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

this is confuzzuling, I'm on, like, every other minute posting! why am I just "high"??? FIX IT!

Virmir 1212209101|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is there no way to hide this in the administrator panel? Or at least choose to keep it off the forums? We'd rather not distinguish ranks for our wiki's members, and a zero-bar is discouraging for new members. I don't think "moving up in rank" is a good incentive to participate.

Thanks.

hide it?

Sulfrum 1212216376|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Is there any way to hide my karma level? I don't like to incentive a race between user in my wikidot. I prefer the meanings of a user work's instead of a click-meter.

---

You'll pay for all your sins. If you already paid, please disregard this message.

Forums

Gabrys 1212219231|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

On forums, karma is the most important. It's like post count (actually even better in our opinion :) ).

And phargtl, high karma is realy high karma, not "only" high karma. Only few have very high, and really small group of users are gurus.

---

Piotr Gabryjeluk
visit my Dev blog

last edited on 1212219538|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Gabrys + show more

Hiding karma icons

michal frackowiak 1212226250|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think there is a very quick way to hide karma icons. One would have to edit a CSS theme (or create a custom theme) and add:

.printuser img.small {
    padding: 1px;
    background-position: -20px center;
}

This would effectively move the icon "out of the sight" and collapse the icon container. Perhaps we will make an option in wiki configuration to disable karma icons easier.

I hope this helps.

I would also stress this: it is very very easy to increase the ranking up the "medium karma" level and "high" is just a matter of time once someone starts using Wikidot. We are quite sure the system is motivating enough. So far we are receiving many positive feedback on this. Please, give it some time. We will also watch the karma levels closely and try to improve the algorithms.

m.

---

Michał Frąckowiak @ Wikidot Inc.
Visit my blog at michalfrackowiak.com

last edited on 1212229244|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by michal frackowiak + show more

Please don't whine

u9 1212232834|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

pfargtl, you are acting like a child. This is exactly the kind of whining behaviour they are trying to avoid by keeping the algorithm secret. Most guru's have been members for 400+ days, and you have no idea if/how they are more active then you.

/u9

Dump this

ESelf 1212240725|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I use these wikis for professional groups.
We don't care about these games.
Provide a simple way to opt out.

Kaedrin 1212377523|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'd like to be able to disable it for my site as well.

Phil Chett 1212398770|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

@ Eself & kaedrin

Michal HAS provided a simple way to disable it!
(took me less than two minutes)

---

Rickyrab 1212430025|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I'll keep mine. No harm, no foul. :)

This is neat

Linus 1212432077|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I really like this. I've created several wikis that I use for class projects and this gives a visual (though imperfect) way to see who's active in each particular project. Thanks.

karma

Vru 1212444044|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think is great idea :-) Thanks ;-) Maybe one day.. Guru!!! Grrrrreat :-)

Hey all I don't know what I'm Doing!

taylorv49017 1212546414|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This site is very interesting. I have been reading some of your post and I must admitt you people are way smarter than I seem to be at this stuff. But I'm glad because all that does is inspire me to learn from you guys and to try to catch up like heck!:)

(BR) i want more karma.... ^^

RicardoQA 1212611028|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

some day i become guru…

hauhauahua

AoiMasamune 1212781162|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Wow, I accidentally became a guru.

I had no idea this system came out until I saw a red bar by my name several days ago. I finally got curious enough to try and figure out what it meant, and now I'm like, "How did that happen?".

I have put in a LOT of work on my wiki(s) though, and made a ton of progress in my CSS skills.

Side note: I don't really have any feelings one way or the other about this system. I think most of my members will just ignore it. Those that point out how high their rank is in an attempt to belittle others, or brag, (even if they are gurus) are likely to be laughed at. At the very least they'll be ignored. So I'm not worried or excited really.

Removing karma

bgarrity 1212784950|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

If I don't want to use the karma function on my wiki, is there a way to remove it?

brandonkey 1212915902|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

it's stuff like this that makes wikidot the best freaking wiki-hosting site out there. it's all about ease of use, innovation, community, and leadership that is realistic and responds to the userbase. I myself am a relative newb, but I've liked everything I've seen so far. watch out world, in the summer, I'm gonna unleash the awesomest wiki ever. one hint: politics

Woww, only one to go!

EVotingCC 1213091909|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I also favour the idea! Cool way to visualize the competence of users.
I'm working on becoming a guru… just now.
;-)

Greetz 2 all the wikidoters and all the very helpful folx out there who helped me in the beginning with my wiki!
Daniel

hmm

Open Space 1213108619|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

it's nice to have some karma. wish i could have more of it :)

A possible benefit of being a guru: >20 wikis?

Fabio Carrera 1213152683|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I finally caught on to the karma-meter, which I had noticed but not paid much attention to until right now.
I am honored to be a "guru" (forever apparently!), so I suggest that one instant benefit that may be easy enough to provide to gurus like me is the ability to manage more than 20 wikis. I personally hit the 20-wiki max a while back and I must say that it has made me look elsewhere for a wiki outlet… I enjoy wikidot and found it very very useful, but this limit has been a hindrance for me. What do you say?

Interesting

JGidwani 1213169143|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Fascinating system with the Karma… It gets exactly what us nerds love, recognition :-D You're just not going to find me placing my Karma rating on any business card or using it as a pick up line. ;)

last edited on 1213169171|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by JGidwani + show more

Karma

bexx (Icicle Leader) 1213635487|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think it is a good idea.Makes it easy to see which members you can trust and who has the most info.

Storage Space bonus

David Marseilles 1213917292|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I know you already doll out extra to those who need it, but how about gurus getting some extra automagically?

Maybe a private gurus-only lobby, and some sort of guru + management pow-wow every so often?

I'm not there yet, but that's something to shoot for.

confused

feelinglost 1214627535|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Im new member so DOnt' really understand what I have to do..but…I will become Guru someday!!1

Karma

homytrang 1214843503|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I think it is fair for this activitive because we have to do hard if we want to have a high karma.
Therefore, i like this progress. I will try my best and hope someday i can get the Guru.
Goodluck to every one.

Cool

speaksforth 1215020231|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

I like that someone chose to use the word "karma" instead of all the overused ranking nomenclature. Thanks!

What I'd like a high-karma privilege to be

Alan Canon 1215108095|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

…to be permitted to delete files that I myself have uploaded.

I upload new versions of our subtitle work on a frequent basis, and it annoys me that I can't delete my old versions. I hate cluttering up the file lists.

K-a-r-m-a

Huy Nguyen 1215151035|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Before joining the wiki team, I wonder how it is going to help me.
After all, I like the way "karma" rating the level of your activities. One more thing that I would like to say is " Good luck to everyone"