Even though karma is counted on HN as a single score, there are actually two different kinds. The "good user/good comment" kind, and the "this is a story that we all want to discuss" kind. The apple letter got a lot of upvotes because we wanted it on the front page to discuss it, not because we wanted to reward the user in particular.
Perhaps the addition to personal karma should be derived formulaicly somehow from a story's votes and they should be separate?
Perhaps the addition to personal karma should be derived formulaicly somehow from a story's votes and they should be separate?