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If people would just stop caring about meaningless numbers displayed next to your username, the world would be a better place. Specifically, the world of community-moderated sites wouldn't have to put up with crap submissions that exist solely to gather up-votes.

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What makes you think that karma is meaningless? I find it meaningful.

Sometimes I read a troll-like post, and check out the user that wrote it. If they have 3000 karma, it is likely that I am missing their point, and need to think some more. If they have -10 karma, then they are probably just a troll.

I know it's "bad" to judge someone by a number... but we do it because it is usually helpful.

What you describe is the intended, valid use of the metric. What I am complaining about is people who care on a personal level about what their own karma is, and who do things just to inflate that number. Facebook/Myspace "friends" whom you don't actually know? "Vote up if *" posts? Lolcat or comic or whatever posts? I know HN is (mostly) blissfully free of these things, but they are a direct consequence of the karma system.

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