What is Mana?

[Larry Herman]

What the heck is Mana?  I mean  I know what it is in the Biblical sense.

[smankow]

Larry, in the biblical sense, it is spelled manna

 

here is the definition from wikipedia:

Mana is a traditional term and a concept among the speakers of Oceanic languages, including Melanesians, Polynesians and Micronesians. It is an impersonal force or quality said to reside in people, animals and inanimate objects which provide an observer with a sense of wonder or respect. In anthropological discourse, mana as a generalized concept has attained a significant amount of interest; often understood as the precursor to genuine religion. It has commonly been interpreted as "the stuff of which magic is formed", as well as the substance in which souls are made of.

After reading this, I still don't know what "mana" is.

 

Steve

[Doug Mahoney]

High-Tech Complementing

I found the following explanation on the web site for the Forum Company:

"WowBB uses an advanced iterative algorithm to determine the most respected users. A user "adds mana" to other users she respects, and the more mana she has, the more the increase in recipients' manas. A user can also change her mind, and remove mana from someone to whom she added mana before. However, the more members a member adds mana to, the less the effect of those mana additions.

For example, let's assume that your mana is 3 out of 4. If you want to add mana to someone then you basically add him/her 3 points divided by the number of members to whom you added mana before. If you added mana to one member before, the amount of mana you would add is 3/(1+1)=1.5 points. This is a dynamic process. Whenever someone adds or removes mana, the manas of all members are calculated from scratch.

Finally, mana takes the normal distribution rule into account, and it gets increasingly accurate as you get more members."

Source: (http://www.wowbb.com/faq.php#3.2)

[sandor]

you got it Doug.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mana

think of it as another word/type of karma

[72911]

I want my mana mama!!