Does karma affect what you write?
bestes: Isn't the point of karma to make HN a community? Karma is an important way of demonstrating quickly if a link or comment fits within these norms. Community does not have to mean groupthink and I think HN has avoided this, as demonstrated by so many comments arguing both (or all) sides of an issue.
So, yes, I take karma into consideration. Not because I want people to like me, but because I want to add value to HN. It's funny, but think of adding a comment on HN the way I would on usenet, back when the warning about how the post would go all over the world actually meant something.