This site is based on reddit tech. I joined hacker news, which is related, made my first comment, which lost karma. My karma was at that point slightly below zero. And guess what happened at that point. nobody saw any of my comments from that point forward, because I was below reading threshold, which meant also that my karma was stuck (I think it was -4). I checked, by logging off and looking for my own comments. I fixed the problem by creating a new account, which gained karma steadily.

But what kind of system is one which permanently silences someone who happens to go negative on his first try? Reflection on this soured me toward hacker news and I eventually left, haven't been back. The obvious fix is to start people off with, say, 50 karma points. Give people a chance, don't silence them if their first comment displeases somebody. Which I don't see anybody implementing.

Right now, I have karma below 200. I want to build up karma because I don't want to have to create a new account.

Frankly, though, I don't care for karma. I think the main use of karma is to prevent flame wars, because obviously, if you say something really offensive, your karma will drop off a cliff and go negatively quickly. That's about it. I don't think it is otherwise terribly useful.