I'd like to preface this post with the fact that, while I may not have a huge post count like others do, I'm an old(ish) poster who's been watching this forum since 2003.
So the OoT has been warned a few times in the recent past about how it treats new posters. The Asylum was made for more "flavorful" posts, etc. etc., we all know how that story goes. I know I'm not one of the OoT or Asylum elite, but I am a long-time reader, so I figured I'd extend this suggestion here to see what the locals have to say about it.
Why not make it so ratings in off-topic forums don't apply to a poster's karma score? For those who care about karma (read as: anyone posting as scholar or lower) this would provide a large incentive to get involved with the community on a more personal level. Even if their posts get sub-d'd or unrated in the off topic forums, it wouldn't effect their overall karma score.
As far as I see it, the point of the karma score system is to point out posters who post beneficial/good/useful information on the games related within the Allakhazam forums, while those who post stupid, nonsensical posts -- in the main gaming forums -- get red arrowed and have their karma score lowered. This system would also get rid of any circle-jerking rate ups that might happen in random +1 threads in those forums.
The only posts that should affect karma, in my opinion, are those that have to do with game-related subjects. Posts in the Out of Topic and Asylum forums, along with maybe the multimedia, site feedback, and any other off-gaming-topic forums, shouldn't affect karma.
So that's my proposal. Make the karma score system only affect the scores of those posting in the main gaming forums, while posts in the Out of Topic and Asylum can still get sub-d'd/unrated without affecting the posters karma score.
Edited, Aug 15th 2009 4:31am by Darqflame