Get rid of the whole point system. I go to HN for the community, not to collect points. It seems to provide incentives for the wrong behavior, even tho I understand that it was originally intended to do the exact opposite.
A community stands or falls on the quality of the interactions. Therefore to a certain extent, you have to let it thrive or die on its own.
Solely my opinion, but I see points as getting in the way, motivating bad behavior, and not relevant to why I come to HN.
Karma can also provide a subtle (or not so subtle) incentive to good behavior.
For instance, I've seen many instances of newbies making an "lol" or "wtf?" comment only to be quickly downvoted in to oblivion.
Hopefully it doesn't take much of that for them to get the point.
Also, the downvoting provides a quick and easy way for the community to express displeasure at someone violating the community's norms, without needing to write a long post explaining just why a comment consisting solely of "lol" or "wtf?" isn't appropriate.
On the othe hand, it's clear that karma is not a panacea, that it can be gamed, that it can encourage an echo chamber effect, and that it scales poorly when a site becomes as large as HN.
A community stands or falls on the quality of the interactions. Therefore to a certain extent, you have to let it thrive or die on its own.
Solely my opinion, but I see points as getting in the way, motivating bad behavior, and not relevant to why I come to HN.