The karma system abused Thread

Heya fellow forumites!

I don't post very often on the forums, but there is something that's been bothering me for some time and I decided to post the topic as an open discussion. In the back of my mind I seem to remember this having been talked about before, but searching the forums brought up nothing, so if it has already been covered at great length, my apologies.

One of my friends here on moddb has been stalked by a karma troll the last three months or so. When it began he got about -15 in karma for every post he made, and it's been almost the same number on each comment since with small variations. This leads me to believe that it's the work of a single person seeing as you in all probability wouldn't get 12 + people in on consistently and consequently tracking and downvoting a single users every comment for a space of three months.

My friend then contacted moddb staff about the issue and was told that 'He had had it coming' and that the proposed solution to the problem was not to post. This, while a solution, works out pretty badly when you're the person in charge of a moddb project page. In order to circumvent the karma troll(s), my friend then created a second account to administrate the project page and got nailed by the system in place to stop multiple accounts.

The ban lasted three months before he was allowed to post again with his original account. At which point the karma troll immediately resumed downvoting all his comments.

Now my worry is twofold; the karma system is too open for abuse. And of course, the point is not that my friend is a saint in everything he writes, but that nobody should be subject to the level of karma trolling over time that he's currently experiencing, no matter the contents of his posts. And if it can happen to him, can't it happen to anyone?

The big question to this whole mess is, with the karma system being as it is with, to the average user, seemingly anonymous up and downvotes is it even possible for the admins to intervene, if they choose to, and investigate?

Secondly, is it possible that there are users on moddb that have circumvented the multiaccount net and are using it actively to game the system? It's obviously working to it's intended purposes, but the trolling gave me pause for thought.

I know there is a big fix coming soon that is intended to fix the rampant bot'ing that's been taking place in recent months, but are there any plans to renovate the karma system?

TLDR;

- Karma system is potentially open for abuse?
- Users might be gaming the anti-multiaccount system?
- Are we protected as users against karma trolling when it happens?

Discussion! Go!

Edited by: DragonNOR

Hello Chaps
We are aware of the karma abuse taking place, Making your complaint on this matter public will only allow others to voice their concerns (this i welcome) that will mirror yours and mine, if a system is being abused, it needs to be moderated.

However as you know, There is no system in place for the site admins to monitor karma abuse, the feature has been requested and is planned to be added, but until then, we have no way to monitor this system therefor help you at this time.

We are not ignoring your or others complaint on this matter, its simply beyond my control.
Kind Regards

Edited by: TKAzA

I figured that was how the karma voting worked, thanks for clearing it up TKAzA
It's also great news that there is a fix in the works. I'll be eagerly awaiting its implementation