I know that the automatic system can make some weird choices on audits.. But taking a post made by a 3.5k rep poster as a First-Post audit is a little bit off the track..

This screenshot was taken before the audit was completed (we can still see the buttons here ↓) Audit Screenshot


It reads :

This is the first answer posted by a new user. Help them learn to use the site by reviewing their post.

This is obviously not a first answer nor a new user.

How can this even happen?

Or, if it is normal, shouldn't this usercard be "anonymized"? (Is this a bug?)

Added the bug report here

Ok, but that's something you know after you've visited the poster's profile. Meaning you were paying attention. But I agree that it would be better if FP audits displayed low-rep users. –  S.L. Barth Aug 8 at 17:42
Maybe an account merge? –  Joe Aug 8 at 17:44
@S.L.Barth Are you sure that "First-Answers" (even after multiple questions asked) count as "First-Posts"? I didn't look at the user profile until when I posted this question, wondering how a 3.5k rep user can have his post in a FP audit. Also, not a lot of attention is required to notice the gold badge and the 3.5k rep the user has. Which makes the audit quite obvious. Isn't an audit suppose to be similar to real cases? –  Sifu Aug 8 at 17:47
If I remember correctly, audits replace the username / rep with an unregistered user –  Joe Aug 8 at 17:48
@Joe Have you looked at the screenshot I took? –  Sifu Aug 8 at 17:53
@Sifu yes, so it is either a bug in the audit system failing to anonymize the data, or something else going on like an account merge. –  Joe Aug 8 at 18:08
FWIW I've always disliked the way this type of audit was supposed to work; and IIRC some of the first few I got because the quality of the answer had me suspecting plagiarism; which I thought I'd confirmed when I saw the same text by a long term/high rep user after visiting the question outside the audit. –  Dan Neely Aug 8 at 18:23

2 Answers 2

up vote 6 down vote accepted


Cross-site dupe with a bounty: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/237773/…. –  AstroCB Aug 14 at 0:09
I have audited our audit code... :) –  Calvin Smith Oct 31 at 18:53

It happens.

That said, the usercard should have been anonymized when you were completing the audit: that is, you should have seen a blank avatar and/or a low total reputation in the area that denotes the post's author. If it showed the user's real reputation and badges, it is a bug that should be reported.

The real usercard should appear after you complete the audit.

From the review page (emphasis mine):

First Posts

Review first posts from new users

First questions/answers from new users (not experienced ones) are ushered into the queue upon posting, but audits sometimes dip into the history of experienced users, so it all depends on the particular audit.

If you see a high-quality question/answer from a low-rep user, you should be suspicious, because it is probably an audit. In this case, it was a low-quality answer from an experienced user, but it wouldn't be out of place in the normal flow of the queue, since many first posts from new users look like that (link-only, odd exclamatory statements, etc.).

I added the "Bug" tag to my question. As this was obviously not intended. –  Sifu Aug 8 at 18:01
Look at my screenshot. The buttons are still showing, this means that this was indeed before I completed the audit. –  Sifu Aug 8 at 18:02
@Sifu It's interesting that it showed up before you completed the audit. If I remember correctly, it should be anonymized. –  AstroCB Aug 8 at 18:02
@Sifu Looks like a bug. –  AstroCB Aug 8 at 18:08

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