I guess my point is that they ARE visible (karma). Click on a username of someone. Yours is at, "888". Popularity contests are alive and well on hn.

Does anybody actually look at other users points on a regular basis? I think it’s rare which is why it’s not really relevant.

Besides, it’s not even a measure of popularity but more of a lifetime scoreboard. If HN reported something like average points per post or per day, that would be closer to a popularity metric (eg more inline with “number of followers”)

It's magic internet points, no matter how you slice it. Having more or less changes what you can/cannot do on the site.

> Having more or less changes what you can/cannot do on the site.

That’s unrelated to the discussion, which is about how visible internet points affect how users engage with each other’s comments.

Site permissions are a different matter altogether, and not applicable to most social networks.