Particularly since the first thought I had when I read the '4 karma' norm assertion was "Where is a comment with 4 karma? I need to vote it up." This wasn't contrariness precisely, rather I thought:

• Someone can only introduce themselves here once. That means this isn't a gamable karma source.
• The commenters are lurkers, it really doesn't seem to be a huge problem giving lurkers a few karma when they signal that they are friendly enough to respond to a greeting and have some interest in engaging with the community.
• The primary difference that karma has for new members is that it is a requirement to make posts. Long time lurkers who engage in friendly introductions (in an implicit engagement with community spirit) are not the class of people who I would want to prevent from making posts.
• The only post by a lurker which should not have been made was by someone who would not have responded to an invitation from (mere) Kevin, so this limit wouldn't have helped. In fact, that post was made despite the poster not meeting that karma qualification!
• The only real 'free karma fest' risk here would be if the OP karma-spiralled. In fact, given the *10 multiplier the OP has gained more karma so far than all of the introductions combined!
• It just isn't Kevin's place to specify how other people must vote. Me violating the 4 limit makes it less likely for other more compliant individuals to feel constrained by a barrier that is purely imaginary.