Having to do with Chatroom Karma
I have frequently seen this used in online chatrooms, IRC and, of course, the catbox. It usually follows a statement which someone considers to be outstanding, often humorous. An example is given below, to illustrate my point. I apologise that it relates to me.
<wertperch> call will be impressed to know that I am using lynx
Siobhan feeds wertperch some chocolate and sage-tea to make him feel better :-P
<call> wertperch++
wertperch feels all l33t now, and allows himself a small preen
Siobhan also wonders what this ++ business is about???
<wertperch> Siobhan: It's a kind of geek applause
It has to be said that the reverse is true, and the decrement operator -- does the reverse, momentarily damning the recipient with public humiliation of a minor sort.
Update
Here on E2 these days, E2D2 keeps track of all of these things, both the increments and the '--' decrements. In the chatterbox, you can discover someone else's karma by typing something along the lines of "E2D2, karma <username>" and in due course, he (for E2D2 is a male 'bot) will reply. Do not, however, be tempted to retrieve your own karma in this way. You have been warned
SharQ says re: ++: Also, in #everything, writing SharQ++, CowbotNeal keeps track of all the ++ and adds them to your karma. Writing "Cowbotneal, Karma SharQ" would return "SharQ has a Karma of 3", for example
Myrkabah says I always thought the "++" thing had to do with "doubleplusgood" from 1984.