What do users mean by "karma farmer" or "karma whore"?

Both terms describe users who post content primarily or exclusively to accumulate karma — Reddit's vote-based reputation metric — rather than to contribute genuinely to a community. The logic of karma farming is straightforward: karma is earned by getting upvotes, and the easiest path to upvotes is to post content that requires little originality and carries little risk of rejection. This typically means reposting already-popular images or threads, posting in large default subreddits where even mediocre content gets seen by millions, or sharing emotionally manipulative content (cute animals, uplifting stories, viral memes) that generates reflexive upvotes without demanding critical engagement. The term "karma whore" is more pointed and pejorative, implying a kind of degradation — someone willing to do anything for approval metrics, regardless of quality or integrity. A karma whore in an advice or confession community is someone who posts exaggerated or fabricated stories designed to provoke sympathy, outrage, or laughter because those reactions translate into upvotes. The stories may be completely invented or heavily embellished, but as long as they generate emotional reactions from readers, they serve the karma-farming purpose. Why do users criticize this behavior? Because karma is supposed to be a rough proxy for community contribution — it should reflect that a person reliably posts thoughtful, original, useful content. When karma farming floods communities with reposts and low-quality material, it degrades the signal value of the metric and pushes genuinely good content off the front page. It also erodes trust: when you realize many top-voted posts in advice communities may be fabricated for engagement, you start questioning the authenticity of all of them. It is worth noting that karma itself has no monetary value by default, making the social criticism of karma farming somewhat ironic. Critics of karma farming are often also deeply engaged Reddit users who care about community quality, which means both the farmers and their critics are, in their own way, taking internet points seriously.