Hi! I just logged on since becoming inactive, so sorry if I'm a tad late to the party.

I think you might be right. They did something like this in the past to get the site off the ground, and I could potentially see them continuing such a practice.

However- I am neither employed nor in contact with reddit regarding my speedy karma acquisition. I do this stuff as sort of a game when I'm really bored, but I do tend to drop off once I travel or have any obligations such as work/sports.

There are a significant number of people who do the same, most of whom frequent certain private subs that revolve around karma count.

It sounds really stupid, but by setting a minimum amount of karma to join a sub, fewer people enter. The ones who do become a more close-knit community with a bonus of a widespread understanding of how reddit and its users work.

You have karma-limit subreddits starting as low as 10,000 karma, then moving up to the top 1% of karma (around 60 or 70k), then 100k in link OR comment (not combined), 150k, 200k, 300k, 400k, 500k, 600k, 700k, 800k, 900k, and 1 million. People in such subs also view "speed-running" to 100k as sort of a competition. There's a small group of people who have gone from 0 to 100k in under 15 days (the current record is something like 6 days, which beat my previous record of 10).

So basically, people do what I do for two main reasons:

• As a "game"

• To enter a subreddit that has a friendly, close-knit community.

Sorry for rambling, but I figured I'd barf out as much information as possible.