5

Strangely, happened after I visited mSO and complained about SO flinging their crap in our direction, but that's got to to be just a coincidence, right?

Anyhow, serial downvoting:

enter image description here

Solution...?

10
  • Isn't there some sort of mechanism that catches this (including rep farming)?
    – pauska
    Oct 26, 2012 at 13:23
  • 9
    I wouldn't be so quick to point the finger to a mSO user as the cause. You are kind of a dick on SF too. ;)
    – MDMarra
    Oct 26, 2012 at 13:25
  • @MDMarra Well, sure. But when looking for deviations from pattern to explain anomalous behavior, I don't think that observation does any good. :p Oct 26, 2012 at 13:35
  • It's actually two users, and one of them has a history... Regardless, the vote-fraud detector will figure it around midnight UTC (8PM EDT).
    – Chris S
    Oct 26, 2012 at 13:38
  • @ChrisS Thanks. Does kinda make participation seem pointless for the day. I may have to resort to the horrors of working. And on a Friday... the inhumanity! Oct 26, 2012 at 13:44
  • Scratch that... It's one user and his sock-puppet. He wont be bothering you for at least another 7 days. He doesn't have a mSO account linked, so I'll have one of the mSO mods look for his IP.
    – Chris S
    Oct 26, 2012 at 13:49
  • @ChrisS Could be that MDMarra's right, and I pissed off someone on SF. Stranger things have happened than MDMarra being right. :) Oct 26, 2012 at 14:01
  • Care to update us on this? Have the votes been reversed as they should have? Oct 29, 2012 at 8:16
  • @JohnGardeniers Added an answer for you, since you asked. Oct 30, 2012 at 0:55
  • This just happened to me... meta.serverfault.com/q/5896/13716 What a bunch of crazy negativity on SF. Oct 17, 2013 at 0:47

4 Answers 4

10

Just like serial upvoting, serial downvoting is detected and reversed.

The last time I looked, the reversal was done daily, shortly after midnight UTC.

5

There's a vote-fraud detection algorithm that runs once (twice?) a day and will reverse those votes assuming that it's actually all from the same person - which seems pretty likely given the time frame.

5

Don't worry about it. There are scripts in place to detect and reverse downvoting of that extent. (and it's not exactly subtle is it?) Check back again tomorrow and you'll see all the numbers back in green with "Serial Voting Reversal".

4

What the auto-script looks like and does - reverses the points on the next day. Seems somewhat exploitable.

enter image description here

2
  • Exploitable? Yes, made me wonder what happens if the downvotes are then removed. Does the reversal then stay in place giving a bonus?
    – Zan Lynx
    Nov 7, 2012 at 19:10
  • @ZanLynx I was thinking more along the lines of rep whoring for the Epic/Legendary badges, but that's an interesting thought too... Nov 7, 2012 at 19:33

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