I basically ignore karma these days. It doesn't encourage better writing, it encourages more off the cuff funny one liners.

Here's an experiment of mine from a couple of months ago, on a duplicate news post:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=anthon...

Do I really deserve that 69 points of karma? Is that 20 or 30 or 69 times more valuable than other posts where I've spent a lot more effort?

Perhaps this is where some of the 'snark' is coming from. In the race to get more karma, people are looking for the cheap throwaway one liner that everyone will snicker at and upvote.