the main thing about karma is that it's not based on specific posts, but on your overall opinion of a person. i can't decide whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.
the other thing is that there are only 10 possible "ranks." that's good because it creates less divisions between people, but it's also not-so-good because it makes it harder to assign people to usergroups. you want to make sure someone's really trustworthy before they get access to the VIP gallery and forums. with karma, a single positive rating rockets you all the way to 5.
i think we should decide on credits, karma, or rep and just stick with one thing. i'll accept whatever moo decides on. i guess my personal vote would be for rep. it's not a perfect system, but i think it does a better job than karma or credits of sorting out the people who can be trusted from the people who can't. and i think keeping the site safe should be our number one priority.