
Remember, "Karma" is for techies! - zaidf

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zaidf
The word karma has evolved and taken a meaning of its own thanks to slashdot's
use of it as a point unit.

But I have to say: I consider myself pretty good with computers and even
program here and there. Yet, for the longest time I was confused about what
exactly "karma" stood for. I knew it was a measurement of some sort(hey what
else can a number be?) but I'd no idea about what exactly having "more karma"
means.

My point is that when you use such phrases, you are assuming a specific kind
of audience. Use of karma for reddit(tech-focused) is fine; even for news.yc
it's fine - but for a consumer website, you should be very careful about
introduction of new words. And say you love the word karma so much that you
insist on using it - in that case, have a page that clearly explains what
karma is assuming that the user knows nothing about it.

Karma is just one example - larger point here is to be careful about use of
individual words that may have a huge role to play in your website. Thing that
triggered me to make this post is I saw another poster use "karma" on their
consumer start-up(bad idea IMO).

This is a mistake that is so easy to commit. Heck we did it when we launched.
A lot of our users that were playing songs on our site had no idea what "Jigg
It!" button meant. After couple user mails inquiring about it, we put up a
tooltip saying "Jigg It if you like it!". Suddenly more people were clicking
on it.

\--Zaid

~~~
staunch
I think the problem you had with "Jigg It" is that you're copying "Digg It"
which is plain English, whereas yours is a made up term that doesn't mean
anything. The closest phrase is "getting jiggy with it", which would be nice
if shortened.

Another thing to consider is that "priesthood" stuff. Users feel good for
knowing stuff about your product that newbies won't know right away. There may
be times when it makes sense to use unfamiliar lingo on your site.

------
mukund
Actual Karma is defined as "The total effect of a person's actions and conduct
during the successive phases of the person's existence, regarded as
determining the person's destiny.". In hinduism there is this concept which
says that whatever a person does is recorded and sum total will reflect in
your next life.

~~~
prakster
Karma simply means "duty". Every other meaning is a derivative of this
fundamental definition of Karma.

From that perspective, using the word Karma with a number is utterly
meningless :-)

------
ivan
Karma is the law of cause and effect. Every effect has a cause and every cause
follows an effect, so karma is suggestible.

