I agree with you there, there is definitely a mad crawl to get karma and keep it. I think even I can say I'm guilty of that, or have been in the past. When I first joined Reddit I honestly didn't care about Karma, browsed around and did whatever I felt like, mostly comments.

Then, once I got my first "good", high karma post (a rage comic nonetheless, shudder) I got hooked. I was more active and browsed for ages just to accumulate comment karma and to a lesser extent link karma. I never "whored out" per se, and never lied for karma, but I did try and capitalise on puns, memes and more rage comic crap once or twice.

Anyway, as that time elapsed I got tired of doing stuff for karma. I like to browse smaller subs and contribute to the discussion, but even there you get flooded by downvotes for sharing an opinion.

I once got downvoted just because I said I thought cloning was ethical but suggesting that some people might not give clones equal rights. Apparently the whole of Reddit (and the world) are super liberal rights givers, because the mere suggestion that some people do not want others as equals solicited many downvotes. That was on a science-sub. I can't even get discussion there.

So yeah, I hope I'll leave Reddit at somepoint. I still browse and comment now, but Hubski is a place to chill and have some discussion. Funny thing is, it's like Reddit is my drug and Hubski is my rehab. Eventually I'll quit but it's hard to go cold turkey for the time being. Well done on your second post. I haven't been here long either but I hope you like it as much as I do so far!