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How exactly do deleted answers interact with retroactive reputation calculation with respect to the daily rep cap?

Say I have an answer that earns me 200 reputation in one day. Later that same day, two other answers get one upvote each (but no rep earned because of the rep cap). Then, that first answer (the +200 one) gets deleted (less than 30 days after it was posted).

Once the deletion is processed, is reputation calculated as if that post never existed? Or is the reputation gained from that post simply removed?

From my example specifically, would I have +20 rep for that day, or would I have +0?

This interaction isn't outlined that I can find in any other post including How does deleting work? What can cause a post to be deleted, and what does that actually mean? What are the criteria for deletion? and How does "Reputation" work?.

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2 Answers 2

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Your reputation is recalculated as if the post never existed.

So when the post is deleted, the other votes that previously didn't earn you any reputation will now earn you reputation (provided you didn't still otherwise hit the cap).

This only applies if the post doesn't meet the criteria for reputation retention, in which case any reputation changes from the post will be kept.

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  • From recent experience, it can take an hour or so to recalculate.
    – Gloweye
    Oct 24, 2019 at 20:43
  • I thought there was a way to trigger the recalculation from meta.stackexchange.com/reputation -- but it appears there no longer is?
    – rlemon
    Oct 24, 2019 at 20:55
  • @rlemon It was removed in December 2013, because it happens automatically some time after deletion. (It still exists on Area 51 due to its old code base.) Oct 24, 2019 at 21:27
  • Ohh wow, I guess times flies. I remember learning about this page and that feature. does not feel like 6 years.
    – rlemon
    Oct 24, 2019 at 22:09
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Your reputation is recalculated as if the post never existed.

Almost: as that counter that counts the number of days when you hit that 200 limit (for the legendary badge for example), that counter will not decrease for that day (as long as it increased before that other post was deleted).

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