[maemo-community] Reforming Karma

[From: Jonas Hurrelmann]

On Friday 03 October 2008 12:06:58 Andrew Flegg wrote:

> I like sqrt(N), but probably X * sqrt(K * N), rather than X * K *
> sqrt(N) (where K is small to take into account number of lines IRC
> need more to be considered valuable), and X is the overall weighting
> of IRC contribution.

As most aspects of Karma are quantity driven, I suppose it would make sense, 
to estimate the average numbers of lines in a mailing list post and bring 
those to a similar level. In this way I would consider 10-20 lines on IRC the 
same as one mailing list post. Again, keep in mind that neither mailing list 
nor IRC can be measured in quality, just in quantity. Also keep in mind, that 
the off-topic discussions that happen from time to time are an important part 
of socializing within a community. 

In general using some function to smooth out higher numbers is a good idea and 
I second that it should also be applied to mailing lists and maybe even blog 
posts.
Following this, a mailing list post could be a*sqrt(posts), where IRC would be 
a*sqrt(lines/15), with some common weight "a" to be comparable with other 
forms of contribution.

Best wishes
Jonas