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It seems somebody pursues me, downvoting all my questions and answers:

-2  28 mins ago     downvote    Is Mach's Principle Wrong?
-2  31 mins ago     downvote    Is it possible for information to be transmitted faster than light?
-2  32 mins ago     downvote    Is the universe a quantum computer - is light speed barrier a computational constraint
-2  34 mins ago     downvote    What do you think about teaching Standard Model in school?
-2  35 mins ago     downvote    Is solar wind positively charged?
-2  35 mins ago     downvote    Popular depictions of electromagnetic wave: is there an error?
-2  36 mins ago     downvote    Do all massive bodies emit Hawking radiation?

I wonder whether such behavior should be filtered out?

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    $\begingroup$ There is an automated task that detects and reverse serial up- or down-voting. If this is not corrected in circa 24 hours ping us again and we can escalate to the team to help. (There is also a small possibility that several people all voted against you at roughly the same time, but I kinda doubt it. You?) $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:24
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    $\begingroup$ @Anixx Nobody (except the SE team, I guess) can see who downvoted whom. IIRC mods can see some voting patterns, but if the patterns are fishy, I think the system reverses them anyways as dmckee said.. $\endgroup$
    – Manishearth
    Mar 24, 2012 at 2:42
  • $\begingroup$ Hi! It seems it still did not get reverted automatically. $\endgroup$
    – Anixx
    Mar 25, 2012 at 8:36
  • $\begingroup$ We are talking about 14 points, right? What's the big deal?! $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Mar 25, 2012 at 14:51
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    $\begingroup$ I guess it is time to escalate this to the team. Now I just have to figure out the best way to do that. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Mar 25, 2012 at 17:31
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    $\begingroup$ The deal is not with rep points, but with the votes in answers. Answers with less votes are placed below others and look less credible. Questions with low votes have a greater chance of being closed. $\endgroup$
    – Anixx
    Mar 26, 2012 at 2:09
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, votes do give an indication, but what do you expect, that your answers/questions wouldn't be downvoted! $\endgroup$
    – MBN
    Mar 26, 2012 at 14:06
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    $\begingroup$ MBN, it seems somebody pursuits me and downvotes all my questions. $\endgroup$
    – Anixx
    Mar 26, 2012 at 15:13

2 Answers 2

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I went through the answers and questions that were downvoted by hostile anon, and upvoted the ones I thought deserved it. This type of thing generally leads people to do the same, and is counterproductive for the downvoter. I like your questions and answers (even when they're wrong), because they have original critical thinking, and this is a precious resource. Hope you decide to stick around, despite the unavoidable occasional hostility.

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    $\begingroup$ Oh Ron, this is a good and nice idea. $\endgroup$
    – Dilaton
    Mar 24, 2012 at 8:02
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    $\begingroup$ This is not the first time by the way. This kind of things already happened: meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/585/… $\endgroup$
    – Anixx
    Mar 24, 2012 at 8:09
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    $\begingroup$ Ron, be aware that the script does not like serial up-votes anymore than it likes serial down votes. Nor are the action thresholds public knowledge, so making a concerted effort to be nice to someone can be counter productive. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Mar 24, 2012 at 15:33
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    $\begingroup$ @dmckee: Okeh, thanks--- I wasn't upvoting blindly, I read the answers, and thought about them, so I think it will not register on the script, but who knows. $\endgroup$
    – Ron Maimon
    Mar 24, 2012 at 17:10
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    $\begingroup$ Certainly, but I tend to stick to, say two, votes on old questions at a go to avoid tripping the filter. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Mar 24, 2012 at 18:06
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The team has investigated the situation, and concluded that it does not constitute an "attack" under the current criteria. We have taken steps that should prevent this from being an on-going issue and are keeping an eye on the situation.

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  • $\begingroup$ can you please elaborate, how they consider some incidence as "attack" or otherwise? Because it's highly difficult to distinguish between a DoS, if I may call and a genuine downvote. $\endgroup$
    – Vineet Menon
    Apr 8, 2012 at 13:31
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    $\begingroup$ @VineetMenon: I don't know the answer in detail, the actually criteria are kept secret lest people use the knowledge to launch just-below-threshold attacks. I asked the team to look into it, and they reported back (1) which user(s) cast the votes and (2) that the script had run and had properly not triggered in this instance. $\endgroup$
    – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
    Apr 8, 2012 at 15:03

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