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I got a -70, yesterday. I had looked at all the answers previously because the count was way over the average. In all those answers I had been getting negative votes. So it was somebody agreeing with my point of view to mitigate the negatives.

Does this happen with negative votes too? It is checked when somebody votes in a series for or against a person? what are the parameters? within a day? an hour?

Of course I do not mind , and it is reasonable that I will get negative votes if people do not agree with my statements, though I do look at downvotes in case I have made a mistake.

A user who is not so often present now, would, it seems, downvote any answer of mine , as some matter of principle, so I wonder how the check is made.

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    $\begingroup$ It happens to all of us occasionally. For example see Got my first serial downvote. $\endgroup$
    – John Rennie
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 8:42
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    $\begingroup$ The precise parameters that trigger reversal of serial voting are presumably kept secret to avoid abuse. $\endgroup$
    – Qmechanic Mod
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 9:14
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    $\begingroup$ I saw the title and thought "Oh man, another new user thinking people are out to get him/her..." Boy was I surprised! I'm actually impressed you've been on the site for 4 years with ~61k rep and never had votes on you reversed! $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 9:43
  • $\begingroup$ How do you know that someone downvotes your answers just because you wrote them!? $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 12:41
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    $\begingroup$ @MBN he/she was straight forward , left a comment. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 13:03
  • $\begingroup$ Wow, someone downvotes you and in comments says that it's just becasue it was you who answered. This has to be against some rule. $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 14:47
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    $\begingroup$ @MBN there is nothing against any rules. Courteous people do justify their downvote, which is fine. The problem is when it seems that the same person is continually down voting my answer(with a comment with which I do not agree. If I thought the criticism were valid I would change or delete the answer) $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 18:42
  • $\begingroup$ Ah, I see. I thought that the downvote was against you, not because the person had a different opinion but because he/she wants to downvote your answers. $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 8:10
  • $\begingroup$ @MBN the effect was the same, because it was the only consistently negatives I got from a reasonable physicist ( there are some with their own theories that downvote anything that disagrees with them). $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 9:12
  • $\begingroup$ It is not the same, because he is not simply downvoting your posts, he downvotes those posts that he thinks are not good (or have mistakes). It has nothing to do with you. And there is the possiblity that he is correct. $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 11:37
  • $\begingroup$ @MBN I almost complained at one point as it felt like harassment. It was in questions where we both answered and he was emphasizing his pov by down voting mine or by irrelevant comments . I expect that in controversial issues one can state one's pov, agreeing to disagree if there is no clear proof, without being brow beaten or diminished. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 12:52
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    $\begingroup$ @annav, I think it would be sensible to prevent posters from down-voting answers to the same question. $\endgroup$
    – user75650
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 13:12
  • $\begingroup$ @annav: Can you give an example? $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 13:14
  • $\begingroup$ @MBN I was reminded of this by the 70 reputation upvotes I got that were reversed and made me write the post. I cannot now find the questions. I had looked at the upvoted questions beause they came all together, and in each there was an upvote to reverse downvotes. There I could give some examples, but can no longer find them. Anyway for almost a year now this has stopped and I would not like to revive it by pointing it out. $\endgroup$
    – anna v
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 13:40
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    $\begingroup$ I remember this post had -3, I upvoted it because I found it interesting and I thought it was utterly unfair: not only I liked it, (not only it had no criticism), but it was appreciated not only by the OP but by John Rennie. I think I did the right thing and I would do it again! $\endgroup$
    – user75736
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 15:30

2 Answers 2

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Like Qmechanic said, the precise parameters are not known, for good reasons.

The "more or less" description is that if you get too many downvotes/upvotes in a short time span, then the system will recognise those and revert them.

This reverts abusive negative voting, such as people downvoting you because they don't like you (rather than your posts), but also the upvoting, which would happen for example if a friend or someone else upvoted your posts regardless of the merits in the individual answers/questions.

In any case, don't worry about it, the system will revert it by itself. If it fails to do so, then flag one of your posts using the custom reason and state your concern. If needed, moderators can ask the CM, i.e. the developers, to manually invalidate the voting.

You can read more at Why do I have a reputation change on my reputation page that says "serial upvoting/downvoting reversed"? under Reputation & Moderation in the Help Center.

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I am new here (and enthusiast), and I do not know if that refers to me, but I am asking anyway.

I am exploring the site: in all Q&A sites you have favourites, not posts, but users. This is very useful, you surely know: if you appreciate some subject or the way somebody replies, you are informed of the new answer , you can send them a PM , etc.

I, like every new member I suppose, have been impressed by the quality an clarity of some members: John Rennie, Lubos Motl, AnnaV, Rob Jeffries etc., usually I vote a good post, go to the profile, and explore the answers I like. I know you must vote the post and not the person, but I do not vote all posts, just the ones I like. What is wrong with that? Why should one vote one post, wait for an hour and come back to read another? That would make life very complicated, wouldn't it?

I remember that I noticed some posts scoring less than -1, which I found interesting, and I thought that it's inappropriate to humiliate a scientist and a lady with more than one negative vote. -1 would alert readers that someone disagrees and thinks you should take it with a pinch of salt, but that's all! am I wrong?

But.. I am sure that I upvoted many more posts by John Rennie than by Anna and those votes, surely double have not been reversed, so I think the program must be faulty.

I do not remember which posts I voted, and of course in a few weeks it will be absolutely impossible. I wonder what happens if by chance I should vote again a post that has been reversed.

*I am asking if it is a problem to vote (deliberately or not) again a post on which a vote has been reverses. Of course now I'll vote a post after an hour or so

*I am sorry if I was not clear or if I have been misunderstood, I'll try to express a few opinions:

  1. It is a pity one cannot have favorites (persons) and follow as one likes
  2. I do not see the reason to give a question* 16 negative votes. This is in itself an exaggeration, I think, but that becomes absurd when the answer gets 27 positive votes. So, the question was not so not-useful/stupid, after all? And if it was stupid, how stupid can a question get? A proverb tells: "the only stupid question is the one you never asked". Again, I think, and I may be wrong or you may disagree, I think that is a superfluous humiliation
  3. I can find an answer interesting even if, for an expert or a specialist, it has some minor or major mistake.
  4. The vote-reversing system is an illusion, because naive voters like me are checked, while voters in ill-faith know how to elude the program, voting after some time or I do not know when/how. I hope this is clear and that can be agreed.
  5. In other sites there is a list of well-defined rules, if I have overlooked it , tell me where it is , if there is not, it should be made so that newcomers can know exactly what to do

Thanks, you have been very helpful and understanding!

As it was recommended in a comment, I'll post some remarks as a separate question.

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    $\begingroup$ Not sure I understood your point entirely, but FWIW you can view your own voting history by going to: physics.stackexchange.com/users/75736/gwen?tab=votes so you don't have to guess weeks later what you voted for or did not vote for. $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 11:04
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    $\begingroup$ And I'll also point out that nobody else can see that page, only you can. $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 11:05
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    $\begingroup$ "and I think that it's inappropriate to humiliate a scientist and a lady with more than one negative vote" - it's your vote and you may choose to up-vote an answer to offset down-votes if you wish however, an adult, scientist or not, will hardly be humiliated by something so trivial as more than one down-vote for an answer here. $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 13:00
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    $\begingroup$ @gwen No, but there is a history of it so you don't need to remember or not. Even easier -- if you read a post and it doesn't have your vote on it, vote how you'd like. If it was previously reversed or not. If you can vote and you wish to do so, do it. $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:08
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    $\begingroup$ And also -- if, as it seems on your edit, you are not intending to answer the posted question but ask your own, specifically "Is it a problem to vote again on a question which previously had my vote reversed?" then you should post it as a question here on Meta and not as an answer to this posted question. $\endgroup$
    – tpg2114
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:09
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    $\begingroup$ @AlfredCentauri (4 comments up) I would amend that to say the following: please please don't upvote a post merely to offset downvotes! But if you insist on doing so, nobody will stop you. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:59
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    $\begingroup$ By the way, downvoting to -3 hides a post from certain pages on the site. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 16:00
  • $\begingroup$ @DavidZ, I agree and nice amplification. $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 22:48
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    $\begingroup$ AlfredCentauri, "...however, an adult, scientist or not, will hardly be humiliated by something so trivial..." That sounds rather hypocritical from you: have you forgotten some questions: this, and just recently: this, etc..? If you think it is not humiliating, and if you are an adult, why do you delete your answers were they are downvoted? $\endgroup$
    – user59485
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 7:00
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    $\begingroup$ @GreenRay I don't know why Alfred deleted any specific answer, but one might delete an answer if it is perceived to detract from the value of the site, not because one is embarrassed about it. I've deleted some of my own answers for this reason. (In at least one case the answer had 5 upvotes, but in other cases they had downvotes.) $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 9:30
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    $\begingroup$ @angel for example, one might consider an answer to detract from the value of the site if it is wrong or misleading, or does not address the actual question, or if another answer is posted which says the same thing in better words, or so on. Note that I said might. It is up to posters to choose whether to delete their own answers (when they are allowed to do so by the system). Wrong answers with negative scores are left hanging around because their authors choose not to delete them. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 10:15
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    $\begingroup$ @angel I have deleted answers on occasion because (i) I realise after I have posted them that I have made a mistake and one that either cannot be rectified (or that I do not know how to rectify). (ii) Someone points out to me that I have made an error and either I do not know how to fix it, or someone else has written a better answer that does not make the same mistake. (iii) My answer is very similar to another answer but clearly inferior. Off the top of my head I would say that (i) is the more common scenario. $\endgroup$
    – ProfRob
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 14:16
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    $\begingroup$ @angel (5 comments up) I don't follow you either. You say a lot of things about this hypothetical person, but I don't quite see how they're relevant here. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 15:23
  • $\begingroup$ @GreenRay, I've copied your comment (to me) to my about box so that I can enjoy it each time I check my profile page. Cheers, $\endgroup$
    – Alfred Centauri
    Commented Mar 24, 2015 at 21:08
  • $\begingroup$ I'm putting this comment discussion in a chat room so it can continue there (if people like) without getting in the way here. Though I will also leave the comments here, unless they cause a problem. $\endgroup$
    – David Z Mod
    Commented Mar 25, 2015 at 7:13

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