The karma system on this site is messed up but it's not Jason's fault. On October 13, 2012, he tweeted me this in regards to karma: "The stats indicate that the karma feature is the single biggest factor in driving user interaction. I'm just even-ing the field." However, lately, the karma has been going to the wrong people.

Let's say for instance that you made a really awesome T-shirt and you went shopping or something. Every time someone says that they genuinely like your T-shirt, you get a dollar. Sounds cool, right? Yeah! Free money just for having an awesome shirt! Sign me up! But that's where the problem lies. Why are you getting the money for being complimented? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't the people complimenting you get the money instead?

Think about it this way: suppose the government made it so that whenever you complimented someone (and meant it), you'd get a dollar and every time you said something hurtful to someone, you'd lose a dollar. Many more people would be giving sincere compliments, right?

Instead of one person doing something and everyone else pitching in and the one person gets all of the credit, everyone gets equal credit. Of course, the person who made the really epic T-shirt should get a dollar for making a really epic T-shirt.

Now what if the person who made the super-awesome T-shirt was hidden in a room? That room would be advertised all over the television and internet saying that the person in that room has an awesome shirt and you have to pay $1 to see it and if you don't, you're a loser! People are going to be curious as to what this awesome shirt would look like so they're going to pay the $1 to get in and see it. Some people may think it's awesome and will think the dollar was worth it. Others, however, thought the dollar was a waste of money. They should get their money back, right? They thought it would be an awesome shirt and it wasn't. That's sort of what the 'subscribers only' feature is like on here. You pay a dollar (karma) to see a shirt that may or may not be good and don't get it back. That's not really fair. (Except on this site, you don't pay karma to see a story. The other person just doesn't gain karma from your visit to their story.)

Instead of karma going to authors for having good stories, the karma should go to the people to promote kindness and more interaction. It should go to those who post stories/update, subscribe to stories, upvote stories, and comment on them. Not to those who just sit around and get karma for having an awesome T-shirt.