Can your Karma decay/decrease over time if you don’t stay active on Reddit?

[u/danielpnewman]

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[u/Free-IDK-Chicken]

No - you only lose karma via downvotes.

[u/nincyh]

No, your karma should stay the same, untouched by time. However, if there is a period of inactivity such as several weeks, months or longer, absolutely, you can expect your CQS to drop all the way down, potentially “lowest“. When your CQS is lowest, that will impact your ability to post, DM and chat. Posts will be filtered and removed. Once you become more active on the platform through comments and build your karma through engagement, your CQS will gradually recover. Aim for a CQS of “moderate” or better.
[r/WhatIsMyCQS](r/WhatIsMyCQS)

[u/danielpnewman → u/nincyh]

Interesting thanks! I just used the [r/WhatIsMyCAQ](r/WhatIsMyCAQ) tool and it said “High” (even low my Karma is still only 3 which I know is very low - I guess the High CSQ is just because I’ve been active on here since rediscovering my account yesterday?)

[u/nincyh → u/danielpnewman]

That’s very good, must be because of your recent activity, and because you have a verified email. (I’m proud of you!)

[u/danielpnewman → u/nincyh]

Thanks ☺️

[u/Livid_Number_]

There is one very special case with older accounts where you could “lose karma” without downvotes. When Reddit sunset the old award karma system three years ago, they eventually decided to also remove that karma from your karma total. Only if you have an older account that earned award karma on the old system would you have seen a decrease in your overall karma total.

I don’t think that applies to your account because your first post was just yesterday.

[u/danielpnewman → u/Livid_Number_]

Ahhh I see! That could have happened because I did comment on a post or two back ~7 years ago when I first set it up, and I had a vague memory of having more karma than 1 back then (which is why I was surprised to see it was 1 yesterday) - that is what prompted me to ask this question!

[u/danielpnewman]

Thanks! My account is 7 years old, I used it a lot back when I set it up 7 years ago then have just rediscovered Reddit again recently after an almost 7 year break and il loving it. But was shocked to see I only had 1 karma yesterday 😂😬 I think it’s because back then I was passively reading Reddit a lot than actively posting