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Possible Duplicate:
How do I read the history of my reputation?

My reputation score has gone down, but the reputation tab in my profile does not indicate why. Is this a bug? What else could have caused it?

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    I'm proposing this as a FAQ because it's a question that actually gets asked frequently.
    – Pops
    May 22, 2012 at 15:07
  • www.stackoverflow.com/reputation
    – Alex Lockwood
    Jun 20, 2012 at 21:28

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Unexplained changes in reputation are often reported when deletion is involved. Such changes are hidden by default, but it is possible to see them by enabling the "show removed posts" option on the bottom of your profile's reputation tab.

"show removed posts" on own profile's reputation tab

There are two main types of deletion for the purpose of this post:

  1. deleted posts When a post gets deleted, the votes cast on that post are also deleted, so reputation gained from the post gets erased. For more, see the FAQ entry on deleted posts.

  2. deleted users When a user gets deleted, all votes that user ever cast are also deleted, and any reputation changes they caused get undone. This includes users who asked for their accounts to be deleted, users who were deleted by moderators for inappropriate behavior and users who were destroyed (a more severe kind of deletion used for spammers).

Note that this can also apply to unexplained increases in reputation if a deleted user had downvoted you, or you had downvoted an answer that was later deleted.

Without looking at the details of your account, we can't be sure that you're not seeing a reputation calculation bug. However, moderators are the only people who can see those details, and bugs have rarely if ever been at fault in the past.

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