I’m good without the totals. Vote numbers really only matter to the post or comment, and even that only as passive feedback from people who didn’t comment in reply.

I think the way it’s implemented is good. You can get your validation by seeing the upvotes on a single post or comment, but since the basic interface itself doesn’t total them, people aren’t as driven to say things just for the upvotes. It’s like those speed signs that tell you how fast you’re going: if you measure something like that, people will try to get the “top score” (which is why most of those have been replaced with ones that just say “too fast” over a certain speed).

Since the counts are there, individual apps can sum them up and display that, but it’s not basic to Lemmy.

I think Lemmy does track it but only some apps actually show you the total karma you have on your account.

My profile on the Voyager app shows the total karma on my posts/comments in my profile.

I don’t really care if it’s displayed or not, I’m just glad it’s not used for gatekeeping purposes. (Must have so much upvotes/karma to post, comment, etc.) I just read that as: “community not open to new members, got it.”

Much to my annoyance many apps will show you a total.

You have 1680 reputation points, at least when I view your profile via kbin. kbin does show reputation totals, unlike Lemmy.

Have fun!