I was talking with a couple of my fellow players and sometimes GMs about it, and I've always been one who cut slack on the karma debts if the player roleplayed the awakening of the ability well enough (or gave a discount... simply because usually they were going to be burring Karma out the butt to get up to speed)

I also apply it to removing disadvantages too (wanted, etc)

I seem to have run into these views:
1 - no discounts, just standard good RP karma
2 - maybe discount the cost in Karma some depending on how well they Roleplayed, but still have to pay Karma
3 - total wipe if they do it right on the karma cost
4 - total wipe or discount on the costs based on how well they RP it.

Which do you think works best, I lean towards 4 always.... good RP should be rewarded

I haven't had much Latent abilities in my game. Personally, I think they player should have a character who is viable in other areas without that latent ability, that way when it comes into play they don't HAVE to immediately sink a ton of karma in to "get up to speed", they're already a good runner in other ways.

That said though, good role playing should always be rewarded.

Well take the TM latent ability, I've had a good hacker use it... but once it went live he had to build up tasking and complex forms... (I rule that a TM still uses std comptuer skills, just even latent ones do it a little differently and get a few raised eyebrows but that is about it... after all watch two guys do something in RL.. they have their own way of doing the same thing on computers)

Had spellslingers with latent awakening, usually went face/weaponmaster types (some went sami/rigger)

Fun ones are the latent surge or drake ones... skill sets don't matter so much as abilites gained when they go active.. usually try to tailor based on the character's past actions (aka a face might get glamor as a surge, a yakuza type might awaken as a oriental dragon, etc... the annoying twit gets the bone spikes power...)

Screw good RP, they get karma for that: +1 or +2. They certainly don't get whole qualities free.

Yeah, that's essentially what I meant, Yera.

I've been in a game with a magician who had the balls to come to the table as a latent drake, because of RP fluff. Itfit their magical tradition(they have spirit-animal twins, reflections of themselves, and that character's happened to be a dragon. )

Serious respect. 120 karma debt is nothing to laugh about. Especialy by RAW(you can't earn any until its paid off), and especially on a mage.

That being said, on discounting qualities.

Its very typical in most games, to give a player a 'that was awesome or hilarious, have a karma' point when they do something outstanding, flat-out amazing, or just makes the table fall over laughing. Most tables i've run into do something along those lines.
To me, waving away the entire cost of a quality seems excessive, unless there's a -very- good reason for it. If you're feeling like your player is handling a latent-ability situation well, and worthy of a pat on the back - then do what you normally do, and give them a karma point for being awesome. Just apply it directly to the cost of the quality instead.

Well another thing I've done in the past is floating Karma debts... they can put some of the debt off... some paid up front, the rest at 1-2 karma per run minimum and the other Karma being able to go towards character development..

Some disadvantages really seem excessive to hav e Karma cost for removing them, on top of highly expensive nuyen costs to deal with them (especially if they are nullified with good rp)

A good example is say Bad Rep, if you track down the person that created the situation (mondo time and resources) and get them to confess and get the word out.. it counts imho as a full run to be sure, and shouldn't have a Karma cost to remove

Now with the drake, TM or mage abilites... a couple sessions (with or without the group) can be just them coming to terms with the changes (no karma or awards of nuyen.. maybe loot) and roleplaying off the debt. I've had them do short storys and the like for when we can't do a full session or in person too.