Devs' blog: Article Karma beta testing

By Craig Munro Published 11 June, 2009

Help us roll out a new feature.

Comments systems can be tough places to hang around. The noise, the arguments, the sheer number of people - it can get a bit much. That’s why we’re rolling out a new feature for the comments system: Karma.

What is Karma?

Karma is a way of expressing your love or disdain for posts. Take a look at a comments page, and you’ll spot a little box on the right, next to each post. If you like the post, click the positive button. If you don’t like it, click negative, and the post will shrink down, so you never have to read it again.

Each positive or negative click adjusts the score by one point, either up, or down. If a comment keeps getting scored as negative, and reaches a certain threshold, it will be hidden from the default view, leaving the insightful, witty, and informative comments to shine.

How can I help test the Karma system?

Karma is not available on the live site yet, but we do have a beta site running. Feel free to explore the new system, and give it a test. You can access it here: http://beta-www.eurogamer.net. The beta site is like the regular one in every other way.

Any scores you give to comments on the beta site will carry over to the live site once the test is over.

Adjusting your personal Karma settings

If you decide you’d quite like to see every comment, no matter how low the scores, you can adjust your threshold using the dropdown at the top of the comments list.

A few notes

  • Moderators and staff members are immune to Karma.
  • You can't give your own posts a Karma score.
  • If you are logged out, posts with a score of -10 or under are automatically hidden. This number may change depending on how testing goes.

What if I find a bug?

If you encounter any bugs, please tell us in the comment section below. We’ll post updates here when any bugs are fixed, so you can keep up with developments.

Our plan is to test the beta site for the rest of the week, and then transfer the Karma system to the live site early next week.

Thanks for joining in!

Picture of Craig.

About Craig Munro

Craig is a Senior Developer at Eurogamer. He spends most of his time breaking the site and frantically trying to fix it before anyone notices.

Read more articles from Craig by visiting the Craig Munro archive page.

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Comments (106) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • seasidebaz #1 3 years ago

    Woo, Karmariffic

  • seasidebaz #2 3 years ago

    Just found a bug:

    I think my comment's been given a -1 already and it's screwed the page layout. The message text appears inside the box with username, date and message number in it.

    edit: And now it's got a +1
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 14:20

  • galerian86 #3 3 years ago

    What box?

  • seasidebaz #4 3 years ago

    Also, my second post now has -2 and I can't see it. But the layout's still screwed.

    Appears to only be blog comments, though. Normal comments work fine.

  • Wastelander #5 3 years ago

    Loving would be easy if your colours were like my dreams
    Red, gold and green
    Red, gold and greeeeeeeee-ee-ee-een

  • Wastelander #6 3 years ago

    Alight, who's the critic?

    We'll have no negative marks against the classic works of Boy George around here thankyouverymuch!

  • BravoGolf #7 3 years ago

    Interesting and intriguing idea :)

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #8 3 years ago

    @20charactersmax: If you've already reported bugs in the forum, don't worry about reposting here.

  • Bitkari #9 3 years ago

    Great idea.

    A similar system works really well on Slashdot, and ensures that the site's community is it's best asset, rather than it's heaviest burden.

  • Eraysor #10 3 years ago

    "Moderators and staff members are immune to Karma."

    lol

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #11 3 years ago

    Very nice idea. Eurogamer is certainly in need to some sort of banhammer mechanism, especially in the light of the likes of the Guantanamo game forum thread recently.

    Although this might end up just another mechanism for inflaming fanboy wars.

    The strip across the whole width of the top of the post is a bit much though, isn't it?

  • Jos #12 3 years ago

    I'll second the stuff about the wasted space - looks well clunky...

    Edit - as if by magic it's gone. Clever Craigy!!!
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 15:39

  • seasidebaz #13 3 years ago

    Loving the Karma thing now. It's like PvP but without full loot.

    Could do with more living hardstyle, though.

  • Toothball #14 3 years ago

    Hmm, direct links to comments looks interesting. I'd probably most like to see the ability to quote other comments like you can on the forums here though.

    Edit: Oh, this means we can purge all of those "First!" posts. That's worth the asking price alone.
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 15:03

  • Artemus #15 3 years ago

    Beta link is not working on my Firefox (Win 7) for some reason. Had to view on Mac.

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #16 3 years ago

    @Artemus: Which version of Firefox are you using? I'm guessing it might be the 3.5 beta version if you're running Windows 7?

  • mingster #17 3 years ago

    yes crofto this whole thing has been implemented so we never have to read any more of your 'insightful' posts.

  • Eighthours #18 3 years ago

    Interesting idea, this. Remains to be seen how it works in practise when the fanboys of any system have had their evil way with certain comments, but as a principle I like it. Certainly something had to be done to zone out the noise frenzy from insane morons.

  • Toothball #19 3 years ago

    Curious, there are buttons at the bottom of previews and reviews about how excited you are. Wonder what other treasures are lurking there.

    Oh, and we should stress test it a bit. How low do you think karma can go?
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 15:22

  • Artemus #20 3 years ago

    @ craigy

    3.0.10 Firefox on Windows 7.

    OK, just refreshed working now.

  • mcbi4kh2 #21 3 years ago

    Can you se a list of the users who marked the post up or down?

    Also, the beta looks a bit bigger than normal. (Firefox/3.0.10)
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 15:27

  • DFawkes #22 3 years ago

    Go to the Metal Gear Solid 4 review thread and go wild!

    It's functional enough, and as long as there's an option to not ignore anyone (which there is) I like it.

  • Wastelander #23 3 years ago

    If I - a post I've +'ed previously (just alternately clicking the buttons) it goes up and down in twos!

    EG I - 20char's post and it goes to -8 instead of -9 when it's at ten. Baz's 0 post goes to -2 etc.

  • Hunam #24 3 years ago

    Let me just take a moment out of my day to tell you that I hate your stupid karma system and I want it to burn in the lowest depths of hell.

    Also, how is your day?

  • Wastelander #25 3 years ago

    How dare you!

    /GIGASHUNS

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #26 3 years ago

    I've added total Karma scores to everyone's profile pages, if you're curious to see how you're scoring...

  • Markusdragon #27 3 years ago

    Ooh, I like the fact that you can set your crap tolerance beforehand so that if you're a nosey little git like me you don't have to click on a dozen links to see what people got marked down for...

  • seasidebaz #28 3 years ago

    lol -23 karma and counting :D

  • Eoin #29 3 years ago

    If I - a post I've +'ed previously (just alternately clicking the buttons) it goes up and down in twos!

    How else should it work?

    If a post is at +4 karma, and you give it a negative, it goes to +3. If you change it to a positive, what else should it become other than +5? All that's happening is the system seeing you as updating the original value of +4.

  • Wastelander #30 3 years ago

    I hear if you hit -50 you get deported to Eurogamer Russia.

  • jiveguy #31 3 years ago

    Cool. Are you planning on having users recent comments in their profile linking directly to the comment now that they have those fancy number/anchor things? I've always found it annoying that those links went to the start of the comments/thread the post appears in.

  • Wastelander #32 3 years ago

    I figured if something's on 0 and I vote it to +1 then - the vote, it should go back to 0 instead of -1 no?

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #33 3 years ago

    @Wastelander: Nope, it's a two-point swing. It has to remove your original score before it adds your new one.

  • El-Dev #34 3 years ago

    I always thought the heated and lively debates on EG where what kept everybody coming back. Though this is a sensible idea. You should be allowed to chose though if you have to use Karma or not.

  • Toothball #35 3 years ago

    @craigy:

    Hmm, is there no way to neutralise a vote then? Perhaps people might click some karma when they didn't plan to. Might not be all that important though.

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #36 3 years ago

    @El-Dev: set your viewing threshold to 'No threshold', and you'll see every post, regardless of quality. I wouldn't recommend it, though :)

  • mingster #37 3 years ago

    nice one craig the karma rating on profiles is a cool idea.

  • RexRunti #38 3 years ago

    This won't really be stress tested until the next face off article, or when insert over hyped exclusive fails to get a 9 out of 10.

  • mingster #39 3 years ago

    lol smelly is already on -32 karma.
    Echoing my thoughts exactly.

  • Gnort #40 3 years ago

    On the beta, comments for videos are white on white, and comments for screenshots are a bit screwed up, too.

  • Gnort #41 3 years ago

    Also, I see there is now a post count alongside each post, so Innes will be able to announce what position his post was in even when he wasn't first, second or third.

    Edit: Spelling
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 17:08

  • dsmx #42 3 years ago

    Sounds like a carbon copy of diggs comment system to me

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #43 3 years ago

    It's no better if not worse that what GT have, if the comment in question isn't to that readers liking not matter how vaid or truthful it is negitive karma it gets, it's wrose because the person marking the comments gets punished by loosing their 'right' to comment by turning 'invisable' - I'm gonna love to see another PS3/360 topic after this.

    What this has really done is basically given the mods a ton of more work to do if EG wants to keep the system fair, fanbois will abuse this system to hell

  • bad09 #44 3 years ago

    looks cool EG great idea, but go easy on me people!

  • Wastelander #45 3 years ago

    That's it.
    I'm hiring a crack team of Chinese gold farmers to +1 my comments all day.

    Those guys will appreciate 80's new romanticism.

  • bad09 #46 3 years ago

    I was a little hurt I was on -2 when I checked my profile :(

  • speedofthepuma #47 3 years ago

    This is going to be a very fun failure.

  • bad09 #48 3 years ago

    LOL -10 on 2 inoffensive posts! This'll work :)

    On a serious note anyone actually gonna filter anyone out, I know I already set it to no threshold, freedom of speech and all that sort of stuff.

    / awaits -20 for above post
    Edited by 1 at 11/06/09 @ 22:03

  • konnsky #49 3 years ago

    yes crofto this whole thing has been implemented so we never have to read any more of your 'insightful' posts.

    Amen! +1 to that!

  • Dizzy #50 3 years ago

    I like this idea.... in a way it is a meta level above the ignore list. Look at it as a common ignore list :) Saves us the hassle of putting people on ignore. Keep up the tweaking to the website EG.... all is good.

  • Bloodhunter #51 3 years ago

    hrmmpphh, i can see why this is good to see how many people agree/disagree, but if someone makes a fair point that say, all the 360 users dont like cant it be abused?

  • kangarootoo #52 3 years ago

    Christ. Maybe my overlong self important monologues will finally be crushed under the weight of public opinion. What is a high-horse riding [sarcasm on] internet revolutionary [sarcasm off] supposed to do?


    It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I expect the limits will need tweaking, as it sounds a bit too easy for a few angry fanboys to stop anyone seeing posts they don't agree with. Being able to adjust your own thresholds is a great addition though, and will likely fix the problem I am talking about.

  • Milk #53 3 years ago

    Great idea, have seen this done on a few other sites and it seems to work well.

    It's a bit harsh to hide peoples posts though isnt it? Perhaps just fade them back a bit if they are deemed to be retards.

    edit - [just seen the threshold button. Cool!]

    /stealth check what score I've got post
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 10:40

  • AphoticCosmos #54 3 years ago

    Good, now I won't ever have to look at Crofto's rubbish again.

  • cyacomini #55 3 years ago

    Anyone who uses N4G.com on a regular basis will tell you 'Karma' will turn in to a bitching tool and will become a complete nightmare to administer

    Hope you are ready for that EG!

  • kangarootoo #56 3 years ago

    A quick nosey around seems to show this new system is working a treat. Almost all of the comments I have seen delisted have been pointless trolling.

    My skeptometer clearly needs recalibrating.


    Maybe N4G.com haven't implemented the system with enough per-user control? Or maybe their readership are just grumpier :) (I have no idea, I've never been to the site).

  • RexRunti #57 3 years ago

    This is a great idea. Actually found myself switching to the beta site after reading a particularly stupid comment. Also thinking about the fanboy abuse I think it will balance out if someone writes

    "XBox > PS3: FACT"

    All the 360 fanboys will give it pluses and all the PS3 fanboys minuses leaving it roughly balanced for all the sensible people to give it minuses too.

    Hopefully the sensible people will give +s to overly negative posts (and vice versa) as it's possible certain groups may have problems with

    "I'm very excited by Project Natal"

    because it poses a threat to "their" platform but I would hope that although the post isn't worthy of praise if it had a very negative score people would give it a plus for balance.

  • zabeu #58 3 years ago

    You can rate your own posts by manually constructing the rating request URL.
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 12:30

  • agparrot #59 3 years ago

    Excellent, now I will be prevented the effort of clicking the ignore poster button, by the efforts of the wider community.

  • agparrot #60 3 years ago

    @Eighthours

    Interesting idea, this. Remains to be seen how it works in practise when the fanboys of any system have had their evil way with certain comments, but as a principle I like it. Certainly something had to be done to zone out the noise frenzy from insane morons.

    Hmm, good point, perhaps this will actually grant more power to the raving lunatics, rather than affording more sane people a say in the value of things.

    I suppose it depends on the raving lunatic to sensible person ratio.

    Which probably makes this a bad move, actually.

  • UncleLou #61 3 years ago

    "Cool, now people who hate home-truths can further their denial by rejecting posts from people like myself who often highlight the poor quality of reviews on this website. "

    That's one explanation. The other is that it will be easier to avoid clueless attention whores who ride in on some sort of intellectual highhorse that is actually ant-sized.

  • mingster #62 3 years ago

    lol at ant-sized high horse

  • Toothball #63 3 years ago

    @zabeu:

    Hah, nice catch.

  • Dizzy #64 3 years ago

    "Cool, now people who hate home-truths can further their denial by rejecting posts from people like myself who often highlight the poor quality of reviews on this website. "

    I think we can make up our own minds regarding those reviews. I don't really need somebody to tell me if they are good/bad or how many spelling mistakes somebody made. You would gain more karma by actually adding something to the thread.

  • knightmt #65 3 years ago

    I for one am going to lower my Karma level, I quite enjoy the negative comments.
    I think I will just skip all the neutral onces.
    Especially inventive or abstract swearing.

  • kangarootoo #66 3 years ago

    "clueless attention whores who ride in on some sort of intellectual highhorse that is actually ant-sized."

    I object to the use of the word clueless.

  • kangarootoo #67 3 years ago

    "All the 360 fanboys will give it pluses and all the PS3 fanboys minuses leaving it roughly balanced for all the sensible people to give it minuses too. "

    That kind of assumes that sensible people equal the number of fanboy lunatics... :(

  • Fodder #68 3 years ago

    I quite like the system that stackoverflow.com uses, where down votes cost some of the voter's Karma. That way you're encouraging people to up vote good stuff, rather than down vote things they don't like. Genuinely rubbish posts still get voted down, but people can't go on mad down vote rampages every time somebody says something they don't like about their favourite console.

    Might help prevent voting wars, too, as people with -ve karma wouldn't be able to down vote others' posts.

  • kangarootoo #69 3 years ago

    Now that, is a very good suggestion.

  • Eighthours #70 3 years ago

    Hopefully the sensible people will give +s to overly negative posts (and vice versa) as it's possible certain groups may have problems with

    "I'm very excited by Project Natal"

    because it poses a threat to "their" platform

    Yeah, that's my only worry with the system. Hopefully the number of people tragic enough to do this sort of thing won't be enough to tip the scales, as it were.

  • kangarootoo #71 3 years ago

    I've been checking a few profiles at random, and not a single one has positive karma. Only 2 had 0, everyone else was negative (-5 being rhe rough average). What a negative lot we are.


    As an aside, I expected my own to be far lower than it is. I don't expect to get off that lightly once the system goes "live".

    Edit: Hehe, it negative-doubled in the time it took me to write that :)
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 15:17

  • RexRunti #72 3 years ago

    Hmm, just had a look at the "PSP Rip-Off Apology" article. There's like three posts in the positive and pretty much all the rest are negative. Makes me wonder if someone has just scrolled down the page hitting every minus, there should be away of stopping people abusing the system. Showing who did what is one possible soloution, but that might lead to reprisals. Perhaps a limit per thread based on the number of posts?

    Edit: Just looked at some other threads and the same thing seems to be happening.
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 15:30

  • UncleLou #73 3 years ago

    Mine's positive. HA!

    Of course, this very post here might change that dramatically.

  • UncleLou #74 3 years ago

    Hmm, just had a look at the "PSP Rip-Off Apology" article. There's like three posts in the positive and pretty much all the rest are negative.

    Yeah. In the iPhone Peggel thread, each post has -8 or -9. Some stealth Apple/Peggle hating group, me thinks.

  • kangarootoo #75 3 years ago

    Now we're talking. I'm down to -67 as I write this :)

  • RexRunti #76 3 years ago

    OK UncleLou, FluffyTucker and Grayson how are you doing it? Essentially everyone on the entire site is now super negative apart from a few exceptions who appear to be super positive.

  • mingster #77 3 years ago

    Yup it looks like someone is abusing this system alrerady..
    fluffytucker it looks like you.
    Also your idea of only being able to minus a post if youve already got a plus from a previous post like currency would be the best way to go.
    Then if you post something sensible you may then gain karma to vote on other people..

  • WJF #78 3 years ago

    Will this be the death of the '+1' posts?

    /hopes

    I agree with the above posters - there has to be a penalty attached to serial '-' voters as it's currently breaking the comments section. Except UncleLou's posts.

  • UncleLou #79 3 years ago

    I'll freely admit something here smells a bit funny. It can't be the group of minions I pay to follow me around here, can it.

    Honestly, I have a suspicion, but I don't know what's happening.

  • Gnort #80 3 years ago

    Hackers on steroids!

  • Toothball #81 3 years ago

    Yeah, we'd definitely need something to stop people just -1ing everyone, as then you can't read a comments thread without turning off the filters.

  • kangarootoo #82 3 years ago

    That "karma cost to negative" system that someone* mentioned earlier sounds like a reasonable solution.

    *I don't know who it was, I probably can't see the post anymore.

    P.s. My score is -69 now. Do you see, 69. Hehe snort.

  • kangarootoo #83 3 years ago

    I'm reading through some of the other threads and there appears to be no consistency (exluding my own posts, the consistent factor being that I wrote them). Its almost impossible to tell what it is that people are objecting to when they tick the negative box. Its not much of a filter system unless it actually filters the content in some recognisable way. Unless people just enjoy pressing buttons...

  • agparrot #84 3 years ago

    Well at least you can spot people who have socks - their scores will be positive!

    I can see the validity of the system, but I can't see it working on Eurogamer... all that stuff in the forum about it balancing out because people will stop mucking around with it and use it properly is... well... it sort of ignores the sort of thing that happens every time there is a Beta Key release.

    Or a PS3 review.

  • kangarootoo #85 3 years ago

    "Well at least you can spot people who have socks"

    I read that literally and thought I was really missing something. I was almost one step away from looking at my shoes with a puzzled look. What a tit :D

  • agparrot #86 3 years ago

    You actually looked at your feet, didn't you kanga? I can tell.

    red minus please.

  • kangarootoo #87 3 years ago

    Granted :)

  • kangarootoo #88 3 years ago

    Jesus!

    I got two positives for my socks post. I swear, I can't work this shit out.

  • kangarootoo #89 3 years ago

    @agparrot

    I felt bad, so I plussed up your previous post.

    This is turning into some kind of moral chess.

  • agparrot #90 3 years ago

    So how does it work exactly?

    If one person posts a single comment, and gets downgraded by 10 people, their Karma is -10 Right?

    But if one person posts ten comments, and gets downgraded by 10 people, does their Karma score become -100?

    I'm just wondering if post-spewing Karma-whores will actually be making themselves, you know, a bigger target?

    Anyway, the last place I remember integrating any kind of Karma system was gamefaqs, in the olden days, and that place has improved immensely as a result, so I'm, y'know all for it...

    ... and being sarcastic.
    Edited by 1 at 12/06/09 @ 17:59

  • bad09 #91 3 years ago

    "I've been checking a few profiles at random, and not a single one has positive karma. Only 2 had 0, everyone else was negative (-5 being rhe rough average). What a negative lot we are. "

    Yeah it's only been a day and it's pretty silly TBH most are negative from what I can see. Myself I've dropped to -58 overnight, and only posted like 3 or 4 times since yesterday, they weren't even slagging anyone off, or their console of choice! Still let the children play, gives 'em something to do and I've always had bad karma anyway! :)

  • BartonFink #92 3 years ago

    I guess it will work. Seeing a lot of pointless posts being buried fairly swiftly, also the blatant trolls and idiots seem to be getting buried too.

    Good stuff so far.

  • Thornhillboy #93 3 years ago

    Just wondering, will there be a way to turn off the karma setting, so you can read all posts? I just checked the beta version then, and it seemed that a vast majority of the posts were blocked, which just looks rubbish.

    I quite like reading stupid posts, and my opinion on what makes a 'good' post is inevitably going to be different to other people's views. Its really not hard just to ignore the fanboys...

  • BartonFink #94 3 years ago

    Just set your threshold to 'No Threshold'

  • Thornhillboy #95 3 years ago

    Ah ha, brilliant. Thanks.

    Good idea then Eurogamer.

  • AphoticCosmos #96 3 years ago

    @ Kangarootoo

    Yeah, a lot of the rating down is completely inexplicable. Lots of perfectly reasonable responses in many threads are being massively rated down.

    Hell, I was at +7 yesterday, now I'm at -30 despite not having said anything really objectionable or fanboyish [IMHO anyway]. Bizarre. Perhaps people just like pressing the big red button?

  • rauper Verified Managing Director, Eurogamer Network #97 3 years ago

    There's a group of people messing with the system - we're looking at how to limit what damage a few troublemakers can make and will be adjusting the system accordingly (before it launches).

  • Figgernaggot #98 3 years ago

    I can't see any comment rating system. Couldn't yesterday either. :(

  • Figgernaggot #99 3 years ago

    hurf durf /reads article properly

    yeah it's working

  • FooAtari #100 3 years ago

    Sounds good rauper. I can imagine what users might be doing this...

  • Metalfish #101 3 years ago

    To be fair to those abusing the system, that kind of behaviour is precisely what betas are for.

  • Xerx3s #102 3 years ago

    "There's a group of people messing with the system - we're looking at how to limit what damage a few troublemakers can make and will be adjusting the system accordingly (before it launches)."

    /forms angry lynch mob

    BAN 'EM!BAN 'EM!BAN 'EM!BAN 'EM!BAN 'EM!

  • Dizzy #103 3 years ago

    Check out this thread: [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/brink-preview/comments
    ]http://ww w.eurogamer.net/articles/brink-...[/link]

    Very funny how some people have marked down so many posts for no obvious reasons. A good example of the people messing with the system. TBH it might be hard to solve this... a lot of sites use "moderation" points that you earn for posting positive stuff and how long you have been an active member, maybe EG should use something similar if not it will just be abused by a few who have personal problems with some of the posters and will mark down anything they posts thus excluding them from teh comment section.

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #104 3 years ago

    @sigmagoat: The Karma clicks are excluded from our traffic audits, so they won't count towards our stats.

  • ChthonicEcho #105 3 years ago

    So, what's up, guys.

  • kangarootoo #106 3 years ago

    Good work on monitoring the way the new system is working EG, and an extra +1 for the karma clicks sitting in the audit DMZ (I made that term up just now, to make myself look all knowledgeable.... should have probably kept that under my hat).

    I was thinking, does this mean I should eventually clear out my ignore list? As I suppose a system like this is supposed to be a better version of the same thing (even a massive troll might say something interesting from time to time, and an ignore list misses those rare events).

  • craigy Verified Senior Developer, Eurogamer Network #107 3 years ago

    I've just applied a small update to the beta site, meaning you can no longer construct rating URLs in order to give your own comments positive karma.

  • Xerx3s #108 3 years ago

    I gave Craigy a -1! \0/

    You may touch me now.

    /gets hit by lightning