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Over the last few days I have noticed that many high voted questions and answers have been randomly downvoted. Even high voted questions and answers from me have been downvoted. I think it is from one user because when it happens, it happens within a minute or so.

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This has happened more than once and I wanted to ask if other users here also noticed this and if something could be done. Usually when a user gives lot of votes within a short period of time it says Voting corrected, but this particular user is not downvoting enough questions in a single day so that this system gets activated.

Here are some of the high voted questions which randomly got downvoted:

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    $\begingroup$ Unfortunately there's nothing mods can do about this unless it's enough to hit the suspicious voting patterns threshold, because votes are anonymous. I can flag this for review by SE staff and see if there's anything they can do. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 17:00
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    $\begingroup$ This appears to be happenign to me too, my top 5 questions all have downvotes except for one. My top answer does as well. All done within the past few weeks and many happened after i got into an arguement with TheMatrix Equation-balance $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 17:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Starshipisgoforlaunch I did notice the argument going on with TheMatrix Equation-balance. However, if you go to his profil and click on reputation you can see that he did not cast the downvotes because he would have lost 1 reputation for each downvote if he did cast one. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 21:42
  • $\begingroup$ How about the questons @TheRocketfan $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 21:44
  • $\begingroup$ @Starshipisgoforlaunch he did recieve downvotes on his questions, but he didn’t cast many downvotes as far as I can tell. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 17, 2023 at 21:45
  • $\begingroup$ @called2voyage how often does it have to happen to hit the suspicious voting patterns threshold. It has happened today too and I am expecting to happen again. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 18, 2023 at 14:26
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    $\begingroup$ I am getting 3 or so downvotes on my questions mainly every day (always one of my top questions). It is annoying and clearly targeted voting. Unfortunately, I think the number is 5. @TheRocketfan $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 12:13
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    $\begingroup$ @Starshipisgoforlaunch I feel like some fishy things are happening these days on space SE. Maybe the mods can have a look. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 13:16
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    $\begingroup$ Yep. @TheRocketfan $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 19, 2023 at 13:31
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    $\begingroup$ It has to be at least 5 votes from a single user where at least 20% of their votes over at most the past year are targeted toward a single person. $\endgroup$
    – called2voyage Mod
    Commented Mar 20, 2023 at 15:15
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    $\begingroup$ not the first time this has been brought up: Who did I irritate enough for someone to mass downvote some of my answers? $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 21, 2023 at 0:27

2 Answers 2

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Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I will be checking this out but unfortunately due to privacy concerns, I won't be able to identify who is doing it publically. But I will work with the mods to come to a resolution.

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    $\begingroup$ Ok, that is good to know. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 18:51
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you. Will you also be able to reverse the votes? @Bella_Blue Bella_ $\endgroup$
    – Starship - On Strike
    Commented Mar 22, 2023 at 19:42
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    $\begingroup$ Yesterday I saw Serial voting correct and saw that many of those questions which I listed now had their downvotes removed. Thank you for taking some action. $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 24, 2023 at 5:36
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Usually when a user gives lot of votes within a short period of time it says Voting corrected, but this particular user is not downvoting enough questions in a single day so that this system gets activated.

That's an issue with the way Stack Exchange currently handles targeted serial downvoting: targeted serial downvoting is typically only considered when happening on the same day. If the targeted serial downvoting is performed during a longer timeframe (days/weeks/months/etc.), nothing is done.

Here is the feature request on Meta SE: Be more proactive when a user continuously downvotes another user

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    $\begingroup$ that is an issue $\endgroup$
    – The Rocket fan
    Commented Mar 25, 2023 at 8:30
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    $\begingroup$ @TheRocketfan SE is overall not a friendly place towards people asking questions. $\endgroup$
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Mar 25, 2023 at 9:53
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    $\begingroup$ @FranckDernoncourt everyone's experience will differ, but I do know what you mean. Perhaps "friendly" proper is too high a bar for SE - we're encouraged, and encourage each other to be welcoming to new users, but after a while we question-askers have to find a way to "make peace" or at least "find our place" with a given community, or give up on it. There's a few I have never been able to get any traction in. To me it feels like it's a "you're not one of us, you don't think the way we do" situation, but I would guess that users there would find a different wallpaper to cover it with :-) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 26, 2023 at 3:03
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    $\begingroup$ "few" doesn't include this site; perhaps I've actually had too much traction here ;-) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 26, 2023 at 3:06
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh true, I'd be happy if it was neutral. But we're far from it. I wonder how the answerers would feel if we removed their answers if score=0 or less after a while. $\endgroup$
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Mar 26, 2023 at 3:49
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    $\begingroup$ @FranckDernoncourt ha! I'd never thought about it like that. Hmm... maybe that's not a good thing, ya. I don't see it as unfriendly necessarily; starting from a blank sheet of paper developing SE must have been quite a challenge. At least they bumped the delta-reputataion per up vote from +5 to +10 to match answers a few years ago and now at least we are allowed to see our own roombad questions, but ya I don't see why they need to fade into oblivion or be [sent to the "corfnield" just because they didn't get any attention for a while. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 26, 2023 at 4:45
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    $\begingroup$ (cornfield) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 26, 2023 at 4:46
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    $\begingroup$ @uhoh: A question about the cornfield, on one of the more cliquish SE sites. $\endgroup$
    – DrSheldon
    Commented Mar 30, 2023 at 19:18
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    $\begingroup$ @DrSheldon ah thanks! That's definitely the link I should have used. :-) Now I've left an additional answer there. I never felt part of a clique there - the community seems incredibly accepting except for Valorum who used to try to close a lot of my "is there a story about" questions. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Commented Mar 31, 2023 at 0:56

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