I see a lot of karma etiquette talk here. Are there guidelines for awarding karma points?
One issue comes to mind - the popularity sort combined with the fact that many people often only read the first few comments on any blog.
Well, that's the guideline - an upvote promotes a comment to greater attention on the popularity list, and a downvote demotes it. Those are the facts - everything else is pure theory. :)
Some research says that lurkers make up over 90% of online groups. I suspect that Less Wrong has an even higher percentage of lurkers than other online communities.
Please post a comment in this thread saying "Hi." You can say more if you want, but just posting "Hi" is good for a guaranteed free point of karma.
Also see the introduction thread.