Karma and weight

This page explains the most confusing thing: why a post with 14 votes has karma as low as −602.

One line

Raw vote count counts people. Karma adds up each person's weight. A person's weight depends on that person's own karma.

Two numbers differ in two places

In the interface, these two numbers appear side by side and are not in the same unit:

Where shown	Number	Meaning
Next to the vote button on a card	raw net likeCount − dislikeCount	How many more people
Next to the author name	authorKarma	Weighted total across the whole account
Karma box on the profile	karmaOf read directly from the chain	Same number as authorKarma

So "14 downvotes" (raw) and "−602 karma" (weighted) can describe the same thing, just in different units.

Unit: 100 points = one full vote

Solidity has no decimals, but the system needs to express both "0.05 vote" and "1.25 votes". So it picks a small unit:

100 karma points = 1 full vote. Like 1 dollar = 100 cents.

weight is how many "cents" a vote is worth. karma is the total "cents" an account has received. Every ranking algorithm divides weightedLikes / 100 before applying the Reddit formula, because the Reddit formula counts in whole votes.

Where weight comes from

A person's weight derives directly from that person's own karma, by rung:

Karma	Weight	Meaning
< 0	0	Muted — the vote has no value
0	1	New wallet: 0.01 vote
1 … 9	5	0.05 vote
10 … 49	25	0.25 vote
50 … 199	100	Exactly one vote
200 … 999	125	1.25 votes
1000 … 4999	150	1.5 votes
≥ 5000	200	Cap: 2 votes

The same table, in the contract:

function weightOf(address account) public view returns (uint32) {
    int256 k = karmaOf[account];
    if (k >= 5000) return 200;
    if (k >= 1000) return 150;
    if (k >= 200)  return 125;
    if (k >= 50)   return 100;
    if (k >= 10)   return 25;
    if (k >= 1)    return 5;
    if (k >= 0)    return 1;
    return 0;
}

Example 1 — an account climbing rungs

1. New wallet A has karmaOf(A) = 0 → weightOf(A) = 1. A's vote is worth 0.01.
2. B (also new, weight 1) likes A's post. Since B ≠ A it's valid.
   • karmaOf(A) : 0 → 1
   • weightOf(A) : 1 → 5 (since 1 karma falls in rung 1…9)
3. A gets 50 different accounts upvoting → karmaOf(A) = 50 → weightOf(A) = 100. From now on one like from A is worth a full vote.
4. A reaches 5000 karma → weightOf(A) = 200 (cap 2 votes).
5. A is downvoted into negative → weightOf(A) = 0. A's vote has no value until upvoted back above 0.

Example 2 — why 14 people but −602

A worked example. One account has two heavily disliked posts:

Post	Raw likes	Raw dislikes	Raw net	weightedLikes	weightedDislikes	Weighted net
18	1	9	−8	5	466	−461
16	1	7	−6	1	142	−141
Total	2	16	−14	6	608	−602

Reading the table:

• The cards show −8 and −6 — that's the number of people ahead. Raw total is −14.
• But the 9 people who disliked post 18 aren't all "worth 1". They already have karma, so 466 points across 9 votes ≈ 52 points/person. Post 16: 142 / 7 ≈ 20 points/person.
• The only two likes are worth just 5 and 1, because those likers have very low karma.
• Karma is the whole-account total, not per post: 6 − 608 = −602.

So: 14 and −602 don't contradict. One counts people, the other sums reputation.

Don't compare raw net with karma

If you want a number that matches karma, add weightedLikes − weightedDislikes. The raw net is just a headcount.

Why negative karma is muted

The floor rung used to be 1: anyone heavily downvoted still kept a small voice. Now negative karma returns 0. The reasons:

• An account downvoted by the whole room shouldn't still be able to "save" itself by voting on others.
• It's not permanently locked: others can still upvote it, and once karma rises above 0 the weight recovers immediately.
• Karma of exactly 0 still gets weight 1, so a brand-new wallet isn't silenced.

Why this design resists clones

If a new wallet were worth 1 whole vote, then 2 clone wallets = 1 normal person. Here a new wallet is worth 0.01 votes:

• A ring needs ~100 wallets to match one normal vote.
• To get one member to weight 100, the ring must upvote it cross-wise up to 50 karma — i.e. ~50 more wallets just to raise one person.

Not an absolute lock, but it raises the price by two orders of magnitude. In exchange, the system stays fair: anyone can vote from day one.

Read directly on chain

Karma and weight don't require trusting the indexer. Check with cast:

POST_REGISTRY=0xaC74A6AF7Ec96e28F2885916673EF3B9aACF10F5

cast call $POST_REGISTRY "karmaOf(address)(int256)" 0xYourAddress \
  --rpc-url https://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz

cast call $POST_REGISTRY "weightOf(address)(uint32)" 0xYourAddress \
  --rpc-url https://testnet-rpc.monad.xyz