As I was closing the reddit browser window for hopefully the last time (though I know I’ll probably go back) I thought what might keep me from returning (besides the endless political hyperbole) would be if I could transfer the karma I have over there to hacker news.
I know its totally meaningless, but I think it would be cool if karma could be exchanged between any site which cares to participate in such an arrangement. I think what’s been missing from the many attempts to create artificial online currencies is the freedom to move your currency between worlds. In fact, it would be really cool if you could move the experience gained in say, World of Warcraft into the new Warhammer online game coming out. It would be tricky to manage, but it would establish that gamers and online denizens are not just wasting time but actually building wealth. The key to realizing that wealth is the ability to move it about. It could also substitute for the efforts to create some kind of artificial online reputation - your online wealth would vouch for you. Your karma or facebook gifts or digg votes or whatever would be traceable, and tradeable. If the exchange was minded by an independent group or corporation and traded in all sorts of online currencies you might actually get IPO’ing of invites to a new beta or something - a place where people could track the rise or fall of startups and online life and perhaps the creation of a currency that could be used to solve the spam problem.
I know Joel suggested 1cent - what about 1/1000th of a karma point? At least then the spammers would have to be bringing some good to the online world they pollute. It’s almost gnostic.