I’m mostly referring to possibly controversial posts or comments. Some users might not want to risk losing “karma” and therefore avoid making such posts or comments, even if they don’t break rules and are an interesting contribution to a community or discussion.

Some instances disable downvotes. This is an important thing to consider for anything related to post/comment scores.

Edit: I also fear that a karma system would encourage just sticking with the overall Lemmy, instance or community mainstream, more than it is now already the case with up/downvotes and how they affect the sorting of posts/comments.

The description of your community includes the word “music”. I would suggest using the “Smart Sort” option instead.

Thanks for clarifying!