

Ask HN:  Why is my avg going down... - runT1ME

I've noticed a few times that it seems my "avg:" drops when I'll make a comment that appears to score a few points.   Is there another variable in the equation I'm forgetting?
======
Joakal
I think it's something like: (Total Points / Posts) / Days since registered.

Don't worry about karma anyway. There are some people who will downvote you
even if you're completely right. Don't delete it if it's really contributing
to the thread. Some people disagree with reality.

~~~
allenbrunson
No. pg has posted about this several times. I can't find one of those comments
with a casual search, but it's pretty close to: start with the most recent 50
comments you've made, throw out the highest-scoring one, average the remaining
ones. The focus is to average over your recent activity.

~~~
bartonfink
Just an empirical observation, your average karma seems to recalculate on a
periodic as opposed to a continual basis. I've noticed at times that, after
posting something that gets a lot of upvotes, checking my profile (even when I
don't hit my browser cache) doesn't show any increase to my average, yet
waiting a day or so does.

This is purely anecdotal and unscientific, but it's a consistent observation.

------
angelortega
Joakal is true: just don't think about it. A lot of people will downvote your
comments based on religion (e.g. if you say something bad about Apple) even if
it's true. Just contribute and move on.

------
Mz
My understanding is that it is a weighted average of some sort. I have
sometimes experienced what you describe but I suspect it is a miss-attribution
-- that I happen to have recently had a post voted up x amount, I check my
average karma thinking it "should" go up but it happens to have gone down,
most likely not related to that one post. The avg doesn't update continuously.
I have no idea what triggers the timing of the updates.

Attempting to be helpful to the best of my ability. Ever since I first saw
this I was doing my best to resist the temptation to suggest you must have
stood too close to me at some point. But such humor is often a good way to get
into trouble.

Best of luck figuring this out and, if you do, hey, give me a holler and let
me know what the answer is.

