On StackOverflow a user posted a straight up lie as an answer to someones question a few moments ago, I down-voted it and commented on why it was wrong and provided linked evidence. The user realized he was wrong and deleted his answer and since then in the past 3 minutes... every 60 seconds one of my old questions has been down-voted for no apparent reason. I am loosing reputation quickly, what can be done to stop this pathetic behavior?

Edit: since posting this one of the 3 serial down votes has been removed, the other 2 are still there.

share|improve this question
-2 reputation is hardly losing reputation quickly. Don't worry about this. If it's serial downvoting, it should be reversed. Just keep focusing on writing good quality answers and you'll gain reputation a lot faster than some yahoo can try to take it from you. :) :) I only see 2 downvotes... This happened to me too. Don't let it bother you. You're better than that other person. :) –  jmort253 Feb 25 '13 at 5:41
That user has indeed cast exactly 2 votes today so far. So your suspicion isn't unfounded. –  Mysticial Feb 25 '13 at 5:42
Thankyou, at the time he had done 3 down votes (1 every 60 seconds) I just assumed it would keep happening but then I posted this and it stopped. (And now one of them has been reversed.) –  Albert Renshaw Feb 25 '13 at 5:42
@jmort253 3 downvotes are unlikely to be reversed as serial downvoting. (totally agree with the rest) –  Asad Feb 25 '13 at 5:42
@Asad - Looks like just 2, unless that person added 1 more. –  jmort253 Feb 25 '13 at 5:44
@jmort253 Well, I had 3 of them when I was writing this but I went back to SO and only 2 were there so I'm assuming that they just un-did one of theirs. Anyways, all is well now, I hope... –  Albert Renshaw Feb 25 '13 at 5:45
@AlbertRenshaw - Just a tip, take from this what you will, but I saw your comment on the deleted answer, and it was a bit combative. Just know that if you address users in this manner, some will try to find ways to "get back at you". While said user is still "wrong", I'd suggest a lighter touch next time when disagreeing with someone. ;) –  jmort253 Feb 25 '13 at 5:47
@jmort253 Thankyou! I just didn't want that lie being spread, however, you're right... it was very combative. –  Albert Renshaw Feb 25 '13 at 5:49
@AlbertRenshaw: The word "lie" implies deliberate deception. I see no evidence of that in the answer you commented on. Do you have evidence that the poster believed the answer to be false when he posted it? –  Keith Thompson Feb 25 '13 at 7:06
Albert, all he said was that Apple was rejecting all applications that have buttons which hard-quit the application. For a while they did indeed reject all applications which had this, and they very strongly discourage this behavior. Your statement of "Stop making up lies based on nothing other than what you "feel" is the truth" was way over the line, and I'm not surprised someone might react strongly to this. He was not knowingly spreading fabrications, and said that his basis was that Apple rejected his own application which had a button like this. –  Brad Larson Feb 25 '13 at 15:44
add comment

marked as duplicate by Josh Caswell, slugster, hims056, Diago, Servy Feb 25 '13 at 6:39


1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

SO has anti-serial-voting scripts that run periodically, you can hope that they will detect and remove the serial downvotes - assuming that is what is happening (because it might not be - maybe they are just regular down votes). And you might not like this bit but I'll mention it anyway: he still has the right to down vote your posts, obviously we would prefer his down votes to be based on technical accuracy and answer quality rather than simple revenge.

While rep is precious when you don't have much, don't panic too much because excessive downvoting will get detected pretty quickly. It takes one upvote to negate 5 downvotes, so just concentrate on answering a couple more questions.

Next time think twice about leaving comments when you down vote - or more specifically think about how you phrase those comments.

share|improve this answer
add comment

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .