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View submission: Reddit and Karma Explained
We’ve just learned what Reddit Karma is and how you can get it. We’re now going to learn that it can be taken away…
To borrow a well-known phrase: *“The value of your karma can go down as well as up and the resulting access to Reddit from it is not guaranteed at any time.”* The good news is that there is no attrition rate on karma. Spend six days, weeks or months away from Reddit and (barring up or downvotes received) your accrued karma will be much the same as you left it.
However, gather enough downvotes and you will see that you can get negative karma. Both negative and positive karma are capped on individual posts and comments, but negative karma can build up very quickly. A phenomenon on Reddit is known as the “Hivemind”. Things often happen on Reddit that are inexplicable and therefore attributed to the Hivemind, such as mass downvoting. Sometimes a post will get a downvote and for no other apparent reason than the ‘bandwagon effect’ others will downvote it too until it gains negative traction and is r/DownvotedToOblivion.
The amount of negative Comment karma displayed on a user's profile page is capped at -100 and Post karma can't go below 0.[1] However, that’s only a visual display. It does not reflect the total negative karma that might have been accumulated invisibly in which case, even after many upvotes it will still show as -100.
1: https://www.reddit.com/r/changelog/comments/2d0rdg/reddit_change_total_comment_karma_shown_on_a/
Negative karma will therefore be hard to come back from especially if you acquire it early in your Reddit journey. It will even stop you from just commenting on some subreddits if they are configured to preclude accounts with negative karma; one of the ways subreddits defend themselves against potential trolls.
Ways to avoid getting negative karma include:
Of course, Reddit is not all “sweetness and light”, and you might find yourself dealing with unexpected conflict, in which case you might find this guide useful: Knowing Your Audience, Asking Questions and Dealing With Trolls[2].
2: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/oddwsk/sunday_funday/
You may come across Karmafarms: subreddits advertising free upvotes or karma. Do not be tempted by them no matter what you might read or be told elsewhere. The ‘users’ there are mostly spambots engaged in a ‘voting-go-round’ for many reasons (more later) that you absolutely don’t want your account associated with. You will know from the name of the sub if it’s a Karmafarm; most make no attempt to hide their purpose and even have the word Karma or Upvote in their name.
Posting in subreddits meant for “gaming” the Reddit system can also get you banned from an increasing number of subreddits who use User-History Based Moderation[3] or you might even receive a Shadowban[4] from Reddit itself. We have seen plenty of Redditors to whom this has happened and it is frustrating to deal with on both sides.
3: https://www.reddit.com/r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit/comments/110nh0k/userhistory_based_moderation/
4: https://www.reddit.com/r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit/comments/110nafl/shadowban/
Asking for (or offering) upvotes or Karma with no other effort to engage or query being made will not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. This is not a Karmafarming sub, and any attempts will be deleted and a ban imposed for repeated infractions.
Names of Karmafarms should not be mentioned in this sub. Posts or comments suggesting, hinting, naming or linking to Karmafarms will be deleted with a clear warning and a ban will be imposed on repeated attempts.
We can warn someone against Karmafarms without naming them. We do NOT promote the use of Karmafarms, and a name or link to one is absolutely a promotion whether you meant it that way or not.
You should also make sure you don’t talk *about* upvotes or karma outside this subreddit. In almost any other subreddit, the very mention of the words can be interpreted as karmafarming which will be heavily downvoted and can even get you a ban in some places.
There are very few places on Reddit that will address genuine queries on Karma, and we want to assure you that you can safely talk about and ask genuine questions about karma here at r/NewToReddit so long as there’s no bragging, offering, trading or begging for upvotes or karma, and NO mention of karmafarms by name.
There's nothing here!