Why Do Kids Need 10 Days And 100 Positive Karma To Post Online? Tips For Parents Of Kids In Hobby Communities
Last Tuesday, my 13-year-old was slouched over our kitchen table, half a bowl of cheddar goldfish gone stale next to his open Chromebook, when he huffed so loud I looked up from folding laundry. “What’s wrong?” I said. He turned the screen toward me, bright error text staring out: In order to post your account must be older than 10 days and have 100 positive karma. He’d made the account the day before specifically to share the custom Lego Hogwarts MOC he’d spent three weeks building, saving his allowance for extra dark grey bricks and spending all Sunday snapping photos from every angle. “I’m not a bot,” he said. “Why won’t they let me post my thing?”
I remembered when I made a Reddit account 11 years ago to share a baby blanket I’d knitted for my sister, got the exact same error, and I was just as annoyed as he was back then. I sat down next to him, the edge of the table digging into my knee, and said I’d walk through it. It’s not personal, I told him. Most spam and bot accounts get made and used the same day, pumping out scam links for fake toys, malware downloads, or hate speech. Mods can’t keep up with checking every new account, so this rule weeds out 90% of the bad stuff before anyone even has to look at it. That still didn’t fix his frustration, though—100 positive karma sounded like an impossible mountain to climb when he started at zero.
He’d seen random online advice telling new users to spam “cool!” or “great post!” on every thread to farm karma, but I told him that just gets most people flagged anyway, and it’s a lame way to join a community. Instead, I pointed him to the pinned daily discussion thread at the top of the Lego forum, the one that exists just for casual chat and quick questions. I told him to scroll until he saw a question he could actually answer, no acting required.
First one he found: “What Lego set should I get my 7-year-old nephew for his birthday? He loves dinosaurs.” My kid’s cousin is 7, and we got him that exact big T. rex set for Christmas last year. He typed two simple sentences: “I got this for my cousin last Christmas, he hasn’t stopped playing with it. The pieces are big enough that he doesn’t lose them every five minutes.” Within eight minutes, that comment had three upvotes. Next, he saw someone complaining that their Millennium Falcon decals kept bubbling, and he commented that he uses an old expired gift card to smooth his down, and that got two more upvotes. By the end of the 10-day wait, he’d answered 12 questions, commented on three other people’s MOCs he actually thought were cool, and hit 127 positive karma.
We used the waiting time to tweak his post, too. He’d originally ordered his photos wrong, and forgot to mention that he’d modified a $20 base set to add the extra astronomy tower he wanted. He added that little backstory, which made the whole post way more interesting than the rushed first draft. When he finally hit post, he got 47 upvotes in the first three hours, and half a dozen people asked questions about his design. He spent that night answering every single one.
I’ve talked to a lot of parents who just get annoyed at these rules, or make an account under their own name to bypass the requirements so their kid can post right away. I get the impulse—waiting sucks when you’re 13 and you’re really proud of something you made. But this rule ended up teaching my kid something I haven’t been able to teach him with any number of lectures about online behavior. Online communities aren’t just places to drop your own stuff and get likes. You have to contribute a little first, get used to how the group works, before you share your own work. It’s reciprocal, even in a random hobby forum. That’s a lesson that translates offline, too—you don’t just join a new soccer team and get to start the first game without showing up to practice and getting to know the other players.
If your kid hits this error one day, the concrete stuff I’d tell you to do is this: First, validate the frustration. It’s okay to say “that sucks, I’d be annoyed too” instead of just brushing it off as a dumb internet rule. Second, sit down for 10 minutes and show them how to get karma the right way—point them to the daily open thread, tell them to answer questions they actually know something about, don’t spam generic comments. Third, use the waiting time to tweak whatever they want to post. It’s rare that a post needs to go up that day, and a little extra editing never hurts. You don’t have to do anything fancy, just walk through it with them so they don’t get discouraged and leave entirely.
Last weekend, my kid was scrolling the new queue and saw a 12-year-old asking why he couldn’t post his custom Minecraft Lego set. My kid commented back, explained the 10 day 100 karma rule, told him to check the daily thread and answer a couple questions, and that it’s not as scary as it looks. That comment got 9 upvotes. I don’t know if that new kid stuck around, or if he ended up posting his set, but it was cool to see that little loop close. Some of the weird, annoying-seeming rules online turn out to be a little more useful than they look at first glance, even if they still feel frustrating when you’re waiting your turn.
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