If one throws an hojillion low-quality posts up in a day, a few of those will be ranked +1. That grants frequent posters a ludicrously high karma score for what amounts to little overall contribution to the 'community'.
In a way, it's almost an MMORPG -- the longer you stick around and 'grind', the higher your score gets.
In my experience, spamming low-quality posts, not counting the bottom [-8,1] and top [30, inf] gets me an average of about +10 each. The trick is to keep posting comments small (readable at a glance), intriguing (just enough to warrant an upvote), and non-controversial points early on in a popular thread.
If you can't be one of the first commentators, it's best to reply in a way that puts your reply as close to the top as possible - replying to anything "below the fold" is a terrible investment.
[Aside: yes, I'm ashamed to care about karma enough to think these things through, but somehow, I just can't help it]
If one throws an hojillion low-quality posts up in a day, a few of those will be ranked +1. That grants frequent posters a ludicrously high karma score for what amounts to little overall contribution to the 'community'.
In a way, it's almost an MMORPG -- the longer you stick around and 'grind', the higher your score gets.