13

I always thought that one can change a vote on a post only a few minutes unless it is edited.

So how could someone undo his vote on that Post today since no one upvoted or edited it today?
I am sure I'm just missing something.

Rep Stat

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
11

Usually, it's 5 minutes exactly. Here, there are 2 possibilities as to what could have happened:

  1. Since you edited your post shortly after posting, someone could have upvoted within that initial 17 minute window, and decided to undo it later.

  2. If someone with edit privileges really wants to undo their own locked vote, they can edit the post themselves, undo their vote, and then undo their edit. If this is done within the editing grace period, their edit disappears forever.

Improve this answer
13
  • But I edited it 2 weeks ago and today the vote disapeared. Or do you mean one can change his vote forever if a vote was before an edit?
    – juergen d
    May 22, 2012 at 14:36
  • 2
    So it was option 2.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:38
  • @Dennis: Ah now I got it. He can undo his edit.
    – juergen d
    May 22, 2012 at 14:39
  • 1
    No, there's no time limit between an edit and a vote. Merely between a vote and another vote (or a retraction). So even though two weeks past, if the original vote was prior to your edit, the voter would still have been able to retract it. And no, lunboks - it is not possible to completely hide an edit to a post by rolling it back within the grace period. In fact, rolling back an edit immediately creates a new revision and ends the grace period. [Ah, Dennis points out that you can - this is a bug.]
    – Shog9
    May 22, 2012 at 14:41
  • 2
    @juergend: Exactly. I'm not proud of it, but I have done exactly that a few times to correct an undeserving downvote. But option 1 is theoretically possible (albeit unlikely). You can change your vote forever if the post was edited.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:41
  • 1
    @Shog9: Regarding your edit: That's not true. If you undo your edit within the grace period, it disappears from the revision history.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:51
  • @Dennis: if this is true, it's a serious bug. Show me.
    – Shog9
    May 22, 2012 at 14:51
  • @Shog9: Notify me when you see the edit.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:53
  • @Dennis: yes, I see the edit.
    – Shog9
    May 22, 2012 at 14:54
  • @Shog9: And now, you don't.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:54
  • 4
    Ok, that's very bad, @Dennis. Please write it up!
    – Shog9
    May 22, 2012 at 14:55
  • 1
    @Shog9: Done.
    – Dennis
    May 22, 2012 at 15:08
  • 3
    @Shog9 This is quite old, and has been mentioned on meta many times in the past (usually in comments, but a couple of times in answers). Quite frankly, it's handy and will be missed
    – Lorem Ipsum
    May 22, 2012 at 16:13
1

Probably whoever had upvoted it before it was edited unupvoted it. Sounds unlikely, but possible. Why would they do that is beyond me... Unless--unless they're gunning for Electorate.

Badge fraud anyone?

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    I think if you unupvote the vote goes away, so it doesn't count towards Electorate.
    – yannis
    May 22, 2012 at 14:32
  • ...Or they simply hadn't been back to the answer in that time, and upon revisiting it decided it wasn't worth the vote.
    – Shog9
    May 22, 2012 at 14:42
  • @yannis Electorate is for question votes. You also need them to be in a certain percentage of total votes. Hence the answer -1
    – Manishearth
    May 22, 2012 at 14:43
  • @shog9 Yeah, though the post was improved. And there's no fun in saying that ;-)
    – Manishearth
    May 22, 2012 at 14:46

You must log in to answer this question.

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