Somebody has gone through all my answers, systematically downvoting every one. I think I know who it is, but I wonder what to do about it. Any suggestions?
Edit My reputation has now been restored, whether by humans or robots I can't tell.
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migrated from math.stackexchange.com Jan 6 '11 at 23:27
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$\begingroup$ Why not just tell the moderators? That's what they're here for. $\endgroup$ – user1736 Jan 6 '11 at 23:17
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1$\begingroup$ I thought maybe the moderators might read my post, user1736. $\endgroup$ – TonyK Jan 6 '11 at 23:21
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7$\begingroup$ Dang, now they've downvoted this one. $\endgroup$ – TonyK Jan 6 '11 at 23:24
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1$\begingroup$ No idea why one would downvote this question. Being stalked could be disconcerting. +1. $\endgroup$ – Aryabhata Jan 6 '11 at 23:35
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4$\begingroup$ @Moron: because it doesn't belong on the main site? $\endgroup$ – Qiaochu Yuan Jan 6 '11 at 23:36
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1$\begingroup$ @Qiacho: Do downvotes carry over with migration? I was under the impression they didn't, I might be mistaken, though... Seems like we are on meta, even though we clicked on it from the main site! $\endgroup$ – Aryabhata Jan 6 '11 at 23:37
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$\begingroup$ @Moron: I guess so. The original downvote was before migration. $\endgroup$ – Qiaochu Yuan Jan 6 '11 at 23:39
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3$\begingroup$ @Qiaochu: Seems to be a strange feature. The -1 was for being off-topic, and it is now born on-topic with -1. Given that most migrations are due to being off-topic, seems like most questions will start out with negative votes on the on-topic site. Also, how does the system deal with the rep imbalance? Anyway... $\endgroup$ – Aryabhata Jan 6 '11 at 23:40
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$\begingroup$ I thought the -1 was for being me. (I assumed it was the same user.) $\endgroup$ – TonyK Jan 6 '11 at 23:48
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The offending user has been suspended for a day and I am sending them an email now.
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2$\begingroup$ Is there any way to remove the downvotes? Clearly the suspension indicates that their actions are not acceptable. $\endgroup$ – Andrés E. Caicedo Jan 6 '11 at 23:41
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$\begingroup$ ("Clearly", I say, without knowing. Anyway, I think the downvotes should be removed.) $\endgroup$ – Andrés E. Caicedo Jan 6 '11 at 23:42
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1$\begingroup$ @ANdres: If the downvotes hit the anomaly checker, they will automatically be removed. See this: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/28756/serial-downvoting-victim $\endgroup$ – Aryabhata Jan 6 '11 at 23:45
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$\begingroup$ @Qiaochu Yuan: Thank you! I have been especially impressed here by two users who have come to my support despite previous run-ins with me. $\endgroup$ – TonyK Jan 6 '11 at 23:56
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$\begingroup$ @Andres: I don't think I can remove the downvotes, but I could be wrong. $\endgroup$ – Qiaochu Yuan Jan 6 '11 at 23:59
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1$\begingroup$ Said user could go through and remove those down votes. It would be a touch of class IMHO. Of course a down vote is legitimate if an answer is believed clearly incorrect. Down votes penalize the caster as well, so this serial behavior reminds me of jstor.org/pss/20076295 an experiment by Zizzo and Oswald (2001). $\endgroup$ – hardmath Jan 7 '11 at 1:56
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$\begingroup$ @hardmath: not if the window for changing votes has passed. $\endgroup$ – Qiaochu Yuan Jan 7 '11 at 12:56
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The daily voting anomaly script will remove any statistically anomalous voting patterns it discovers.
This happens every 24 hours and requires no intervention.
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4$\begingroup$ It checks that day or does it check previous days? If not, and if the downvoter downvoted only once every day, then they would probably remain undetected. $\endgroup$ – Mateen Ulhaq Jan 7 '11 at 1:51
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6$\begingroup$ @muntoo that's indistinguishable from regular activity, then. If you buy enough pseudoephedrine containing products, one per day, at the end of 365 days you can make meth.. $\endgroup$ – Jeff Atwood Jan 7 '11 at 5:28
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3$\begingroup$ True (about the meth part), but if this doesn't take too much CPU, you could check how many times [over a week] user A has downvoted user B, and if user B has received more upvotes or downvotes by OTHER users (C, D, etc). If downvotes > upvotes user A is innocent else, flag him for further processing. Of course, you only check it at downvotes, not serial upvoting :). $\endgroup$ – Mateen Ulhaq Jan 7 '11 at 5:44
