karma is more or less similar to the
karma on slashdot. It is a rating system where in a user gains
karma every time someone
applauds them and loses it every time someones
smites them. Of course admins can just give or take away
karma on whim (that explains why I have so much
karma 
).
Of course the usage of this term here stems from the gross misunderstanding by the Western world of the Sanskrit word
karma (कर्म). While it actually refers to the concept of "action" or "deed", they have taken it to mean the "rating" that God gives you for your actions. This is made clear by statements like "doing bad things brings bad karma to you". It is further extended to imply that if you have bad karma, bad things happen to you (simple Googling brought up this interesting link that illustrates this misunderstanding:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/96318/what_brings_good_or_bad_karma_to_you.html).
Everyone can give themselves a "custom title" to themselves in their profile and mine is
God 
.
Newbie is a concept maintained by this forum software to indicate that someone is new to the forum. Everyone here is currently a newbie considering that the forum itself is so new.
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