karma whore

English

Alternative forms

• karma-whore, karmawhore

Etymology

First used around 2000 on the social news website Slashdot.

Noun

karma whore (plural karma whores)

1. (Internet slang, Slashdot, Reddit) Someone excessively dedicated to gaining karma (“a score assigned to a user or post on a discussion forum, indicating popularity or perceived value”), often by disagreeable methods such as reposting content or creating fake stories.
   • 2019 May 31, Brian Burlage, “Confessions of a Reddit 'Karma Whore'”, in Vice‎:

     But the site's system is volatile, and not all original content is well-received. Karma whores know this in their core. Karma whores learn to be clinical and bot-like. Karma whores make nothing themselves and often pull their content from users on other sites without crediting.

   • 2020, John R Gallagher, Update Culture and the Afterlife of Digital Writing, page 54:

     People who aim to accrue karma on reddit are referred to as, even by themselves, as karma-whores.

Verb

karma whore (third-person singular simple present karma whores, present participle karma whoring, simple past and past participle karma whored)

1. (Internet slang, Slashdot, Reddit) To act as a karma whore.
   • 2012, Robert E. Kraut, Paul Resnick, Sara Kiesler, Building Successful Online Communities, page 57:

     Though this might seem to be a performance-contigent reward, there are well-known tricks for posting comments that wil be well-received, even though they contribute little to the conversation, such as resposting popular comments from previous conversations or reciting inside jokes. Such activities earned their own colloquial name "karma whoring."

   • 2012 December 27, Neetzan Zimmerman, “Sister of Sandy Hook Shooting Victim Has Hard Time Convincing Reddit of Identity Because Her Username is 'Pussyrammer'”, in Gawker‎, archived from the original on 13 October 2022:

     But claims of photoshopping and "karma whoring" didn't unmask a troll — instead, it spurred "pussyrammer" to post photographic proof that she was who she claimed to be.

   • 2014, Annika Richterich, “Karma, precious Karma: 'Karmawhoring' on Reddit and the Front Page's Econometrisation”, in Journal of Peer Production:

     A rather simple case of Karmawhoring is embodied in posts providing narrative teasers of possible stories. The respective users assure they would be willing to tell more, if only other users would upvote the post in advance.

   • 2015 January 6, Mark Shrayber, “Man Sets House on Fire While Trying to Boil His Dildos Clean”, in Jezebel‎:

     Here's the whole story, which scores a one on the Reddit karma-whoring scale. That means I totally believe it because I have also accidentally almost burned down everything in my immediate vicinity while being distracted by the TV or the telphone.

References