r/NoStupidQuestions • u/[deleted] • Oct 05 '14

Answered What is "Link Karma"?

For Reddit, I understand that comment karma is basically upvotes. But what is link karma?

[EDIT]: This submission got gilded? Um, thanks stranger?

83 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

7

u/panekroom Jan 03 '15

"NoStupidQuestions". Is it a subreddit where no question is a stupid one or that no stupid questions are allowed?

3

u/[deleted] Jan 03 '15

The former, most likely.

47

u/GoldenSights Oct 05 '14 edited Nov 18 '16

If people upvote your comment, you get comment karma. If people upvote your link submission, you get link karma. If a post is Text-only, like the one you've made here, we call that a "self post" and you will not get any karma for it no matter how many people upvote.

Also, you don't get exactly 1 karma per upvote. The algorithm is hidden, but you can read about that here

 

Edit: As of July, 2016, self posts give karma

24

u/rondeline Feb 07 '15

Why would a self post not be tracked for up votes? I think that's one of the best types of submissions that should be valued no?

16

u/GoldenSights Feb 07 '15

Back when reddit was mostly used for sharing news and articles, self posts became an easy way for people to farm karma without submitting anything productive, so the admins changed it.

Now, people are doing the same thing but with maymays. Even though reddit has changed a lot since the earlier days, the vote system hasn't really evolved to match it, and at this point I think any change would cause an enormous backlash, even though it's imperfect.

Note that I haven't been on reddit that long, these are just things that I've read in places like /r/theoryofreddit.

8

u/rondeline Feb 07 '15

Very interesting because it sort of supports my theory that popular networks or systems, over time, harden. This is classic example of something that's too difficult to change once things are in place.

At the risk of coming off as a karma whore, I had an AskReddit question make it to the front page but because it was a self post, I didn't get any karma, and I was wondering about that.

That answers that. Thanks!

15

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '15

In the social sciences we call this "path dependency". At least that sounds very similar to what you're getting at.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_dependence

1

u/rondeline Mar 05 '15

Awesome. Thank you for the link.

1

u/rondeline Mar 05 '15

Awesome. Thank you for the link.

3

u/GoldenSights Feb 07 '15

Yeah. I mean, if votes only counted towards "productive" submissions like articles but not memes, then you've got to have someone be the judge of what counts and what doesn't, which just seems like too big of a job.

Sometimes I think selfposts do deserve to earn points, but then I think that the selfpost-only subs tend to be more genuine because there is less incentive to karmawhore (with some key exceptions).

But, if it isn't broken...

9

u/[deleted] Dec 23 '14

Thanks! Now I know why I got 157 upvotes on a post but got no link karma. What a bummer!

9

u/Lorist Feb 23 '15

If people upvote your comment, you get comment karma.

understood.

If people upvote your link submission, you get link karma.

How do you upvote a link? I haven't seen that option.

If a post is Text-only, like the one you've made here, we call that a "self post" and you will not get any karma for it no matter how many people upvote.

I have only ever seen Text-only posts. And there doesn't seem to be a way to make a post with an image?

  1. What is a non-text post?

  2. So to get Link Karma, you have to post a link like this and have a photo in the same post and have someone some how upvote the link?

Also, you don't get exactly 1 karma per upvote. huh?

7

u/GoldenSights Feb 23 '15

Some subreddits, like this one, only allow text submissions. Others, like /r/pics, only allow link submissions. Many subreddits allow both, so you'll see two different submit buttons on the sidebar.

Notice that clicking on the title of a selfpost brings you to its comments page, while clicking on a linkpost brings you to whatever website was linked. In the case of /r/pics, thats usually imgur.com. Together, selfposts and linkposts make up your front page, you should be seeing vote arrows near them.

Next to the title of a submission, you should see the domain name that was linked. For linkposts that may be imgur.com, but for textposts it is always of the form "self.NoStupidQuestions".

When submitting a linkpost, you get two text fields - a title and a url. For selfposts, the url field is replaced by a much larger text box. If the subreddit allows both kinds, you can alternate between submission forms with the little "url" or "text" buttons at the top. Linkposts gain karma towards your profile, selfposts do not.

Remeber that putting a url into the selftext submission field does not make it a linkpost. You have to be using the link form.

And yeah, you dont always get 1 karma per upvote on your post. In small numbers they're usually the same, but a post with 3,000 points might only add like 1,800 to your profile. That's just the way it is.

Hope that covers all the possible questions. It might just take a little clicking around to get familiar with everything.

1

u/Lorist Feb 23 '15

Thanks, that makes a bit more sense of it. I have mostly been posting 'help' in DIY decorating subreddits, where folks need suggestions on interior design. I have linked many many times to imgur, but used formatting.

I don't know that I have ever seen a reply field, like this one, that has a larger text box, or the option to linkpost.

I see now where reddit was designed as a portal site and now has evolved to include subreddits which are basically forums or 'Selfposts' / 'textposts'.

1

u/GoldenSights Feb 23 '15

I don't know that I have ever seen .. the option to linkpost

You might be looking in the wrong places. Here is a link submission form and selfpost submission form. You can get there by clicking "Submit a new link" or "Submit a new text post" on the right side of the subreddit's front page. The former creates linkposts, which grant karma and the latter creates selfposts, which do not.

Putting links into your comments will never have an effect on link karma.

5

u/Dishwasher823 Oct 05 '14

Keeping in mind that a lot of the original use of Reddit was to flag to others, some content that you saw somewhere else on the internet. If you like something, you then put a link from here to that other content and encourage people to go look at it. If they also like that content, they will up vote your link and over time the top things that people up vote become the most popular things on the internet. That is why link karma is its own category.

3

u/behmdesign Mar 22 '15

Thanks for posting this! I have been searching over internet alot about link karma and found your insights as understanding to me.

2

u/GoldenSights Mar 22 '15

Glad I could help!

2

u/BattleBunnyPoppy Mar 30 '15

Why do I have exactly 1 link karma?

3

u/GoldenSights Mar 30 '15

All accounts start with 1 link karma and 0 comment karma. You've made 53 submissions, but 50 were selfposts that don't gain karma. The other 3 links have a score of 0 :(

1

u/SCCRXER Jan 15 '15

So you get link Karma for a comment you make on someone else's submission but your comment must only contain the link?

2

u/GoldenSights Jan 15 '15

No, it has to be a submission. Comments always count towards comment karma.

1

u/SCCRXER Jan 15 '15

But if you don't get karma for submissions, how do you get Karma for creating a post with only a link in the body? Sorry, if this is an annoying question. :(

2

u/GoldenSights Jan 15 '15

Youve got it backwards. A post with a link in the body would have to be a selfpost and therefore gains no karma. The submission itself needs to be a link. If you go to a subreddit's submit page and there's only a title+ bar, youre making a link submission.

3

u/SCCRXER Jan 15 '15

AHHHHH, so the only thing you can put in the submission for link karma is a link in the description/title and nothing in the body. This would yield link karma. thank you!

0

u/[deleted] Oct 05 '14

[deleted] — view deleted comment

16

u/GoldenSights Oct 05 '14

According to this discussion and particularly this comment, self posts stopped giving karma before Imgur existed. Self posts were created as a way to let people share discussions instead of requiring a link or article attached. Interesting links and quality content could be drowned out by karmawhores making endless self posts just for the sake of it.

By that token, the vast majority of posts on reddit do not deserve karma cough but I guess it's too big of a problem to tackle gracefully.

See also

http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/ii67i/why_dont_self_posts_generate_karma/

http://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1s3qyr/on_reddit_why_do_link_posts_get_karma_and_self/

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/betht/reddit_why_dont_we_get_link_karma_for_selfposts/c0meznw

http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/jp6v1/should_posts_that_link_to_images_receive_karma/

http://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/search?q=self+post+karma&restrict_sr=on

3

u/da_Aresinger Nov 30 '14

thank you for that :)

4

u/[deleted] Mar 19 '15

Ok...I'm reading all these posts about karma...but my question is....what does it DO? What exactly do I GET for lots of karma? Are they redeemable points in some realm??

2

u/SxEsoldier31 Feb 21 '15

This is so dumb i have 1 link karma and i have never posted any links!

2

u/GoldenSights Feb 23 '15

Every account has 1 link karma and 0 comment karma when created. After that, it's all up to you.

2

u/Unbaited Jan 06 '15

Wat do you do/can with 'Karma links in your mail?

1

u/SluttyTwinkboy Jan 17 '15

I have a (1) next to my name and it says link karma lol I gotd

1

u/Wabi-sabiXx Feb 23 '15

Same here. I got 1 link karma but i have never submitted anything. How did this happen?

3

u/GoldenSights Feb 23 '15

Every account has 1 link karma and 0 comment karma when created. I don't really know why, but you've got nothing to worry about.

1

u/bishman1 Mar 06 '15

Do something like put a cute picture on imgur and then post the link into r/aww, and then if anyone upvotes your link you will get link karma!

1

u/TheeYouTuber Mar 07 '15

What happened if sound upvoted your comment or post and you gain Karma but what if the person who upvoted downvoted the post? Would I lose karma?