Then you are not talking about Karma at all.

You are talking about what points look like during a discussion as votes (again an instance may not even display them). That isn't karma at all, its just votes on a single page.

I hear that you are saying they might affect behavior during a single discussion.

The one thing very different I guess is forums do put things in order. In this type of forum you can comment in any part of the chain which is probably more interesting when comparing the two.

I still use traditional forums, hell I admin one. I certainly am not against them.