What other less-toxic system could work instead of karma? - eviltoast

Hey! Thanks to the whole Reddit mess, I’ve discovered the fediverse and its increidible wonders and I’m lovin’ it :D

I’ve seen another post about karma, and after reading the comments, I can see there is a strong opinion against it (which I do share). I’d love to hear your opinions, what other method/s would you guys implement? If any ofc

  • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Here is a good general explanation of Bayesian inference.

    I think @jayrhacker@kbin.social is suggesting using such techniques to predict “troll” or “not troll” given the posting history/removed comments/etc. My personal thought is that whatever system replaces karma, it should be understandable to the typical user. I think its possible Bayesian inference could be used in developing the system, but the end system should be explainable without it.

    • VGarK@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for the link. To anyone that does’t know about Bayesian inference, do check it out!

      Now I have an existencial crisis thanks to the video 😂 the funny part is that thats the same thing used to detect spam email…

      • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Spam detectors are pretty opaque by their nature. In contrast, karma is pretty easy to understand: “x number of people upvoted comments or posts from this user”. This lets people understand a score even if they don’t agree. If a karma replacement behaved like a spam detector, it would probably just annoy people.

        Sporting brackets may be a better analogy. They are developed with statistics in mind but are understandable to the average sports fan. I think a karma replacement should have similar properties.

        • VGarK@lemmy.worldOP
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          1 year ago

          That sounds awesome! You seem to be quite knowledgeable about mathematics. May I ask what is your background?

          • FearTheCron@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Computer science. However, statistics is more of a hobby than anything. I am just intrigued by the idea of federated social media in general so I have thought a bit on how I would personally make it work. Perhaps I will make some more in depth blog posts about my ideas at some point.