I noticed this as well. I usually can't resist bashing Microsoft and Steve Jobs (it's funny how I think Apple is a great company but Steve Jobs is the worst, and Bill Gates is a great person but Microsoft is a terrible, bureaucratic company). This has cost me a lot of karma, I think. But I still can't resist. I'm a man on a mission, I guess.

Yeah, pretty weird incentives system. It's difficult to filter and sort comments in online communities in ways that don't lead to such a behavior. But I think people will try to get approval even without any point system.

We fall for Karma points because we crave for external validation and want a feeling of belonging because and although we know that we're ultimately alone in our own brain and reduce those pressing feelings of nothingness using approval.

I think even without a point system, people would try to get approval. The desire is already in us. The environment just mirrors and intensifies this desire, it doesn't cause it IMO.