27

I noticed that when I downvote a post then delete it, the vote does not count against my daily voting cap, but I do get credit for having voted. I just keep getting the "You have X votes left today" message. I've voted 70 times on Stack Overflow today, and I could continue as long as I can find posts to delete (not hard).

I think not counting votes on deleted posts is the correct behavior, but those votes should probably also be deducted from my total.

(Note: I recognize that this is an extreme edge case that would be very hard for a non-moderator to exploit, and there's no real gain to be had. "Just stop doing that" is a likely and acceptable response from the dev team.)

Improve this question
15
  • 2
    Huh. I was pretty sure that this wasn't the case, and had thought I had tested it back when I was just a pro-tem. Guess I didn't test thoroughly enough.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:48
  • Doesn't seem like a huge problem to me; since downvote rep is returned when a post is deleted it doesn't seem like a bad idea to track votes for normal users on deleted posts. They still voted, IMO they deserve the credit. As a mod I promise not to delete posts just to downvote them.
    – Ben Brocka
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:49
  • @GraceNote meta.stackexchange.com/a/127455/166936
    – Ben Brocka
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:50
  • 16
    That's surely a suspension for voting irregularities right there.
    – Matt
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:51
  • Oh, now I remember what I tested. I tested daily close votes on posts that get deleted - you don't get those back. I never tested actual up/downvotes.
    – Grace Note StaffMod
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:52
  • @BenBrocka Yeah I see your point, that might be by design. In that case I might have it backwards and maybe those votes should just count against the daily vote limit? (Or maybe it just isn't worth worrying about.)
    – Bill the Lizard
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:53
  • @BilltheLizard them counting against the daily limit could make sense. It's probably fairly rare that you vote on enough to-be-deleted posts in one day...and if you do, technically you did vote 30/40 times.
    – Ben Brocka
    Jun 1, 2012 at 13:55
  • 3
    As a side note, getting the vote back is intentional (though that's contrary to Grace's answer elsewhere), as is including deleted votes in your profile counts.
    – Tim Stone
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:01
  • @TimStone Hmm... that does make it seem like they made it this way on purpose, and I should just stop exploiting it.
    – Bill the Lizard
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:04
  • 2
    Yeah, it's possible that this is [status-completed] when they send out Rebecca to attack you with the pointy stick of anti-exploitation. You've been warned.
    – Tim Stone
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:09
  • Ah, so that's how I got more than 40 votes on a day... I'm not a moderator but I downvoted some posts that I flagged. Nice trick given that there are lots of answers in the flag review queue that will definitely be deleted (meaning that your reputation loss gets reimbursed).
    – Wladimir Palant
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:25
  • 2
    I have had more than 40 votes in a day when I vote for posts that are subsequently deleted, too.
    – Andrew Barber
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:28
  • green of envy (I'm out of votes at Programmers third or fourth day in the row)
    – gnat
    Jun 1, 2012 at 14:48
  • 1
    Shhh, don't tell the kids...
    – yannis
    Jun 1, 2012 at 18:48
  • @shog9 what will happen if revisions-status by design tag is removed? can it be removed? is it possible?
    – TheFisherMan
    Jun 2, 2012 at 5:54

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
26

As touched on by waffles in regard to badges, this is by-design. For most users, if they're down-voting stuff that is then quickly deleted, they're down-voting exactly the right things. Punishing someone for having perfect down-voting accuracy seems wrong.

Of course, in your case you could abuse the hell out of it if you wanted to by just deleting everything you voted on until the day rolls over and then undeleting it again. And then rolling around in your pile of illegitimate votes, cackling madly.

But if we're gonna trust you not to delete capriciously for other reasons, or suspend users who look at you funny, or send Welbog poems via the mod-message function... Then we should probably trust you not to misuse votes too. And if you feel something deserves an extra slap before it goes in the trash, that's fine.

Improve this answer
7
  • Hey! Where are my poems?!
    – John
    Jun 1, 2012 at 15:51
  • 2
    Did you ever send Bill a poem? Quid pro quo man!
    – Shog9
    Jun 1, 2012 at 15:53
  • @Shog9♦ Welbog?
    – Daniel
    Jun 1, 2012 at 15:53
  • @Daniel Welbog
    – John
    Jun 1, 2012 at 16:10
  • 3
    Dear Bill, suspensions are red, chat flags are blue. I wrote you a poem, so write me one too? :P
    – John
    Jun 1, 2012 at 19:04
  • 11
    I heard some mods, when they really didn't like a question, would close it, downvote it, and then delete it. I would never do such a thing myself, of course.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jun 2, 2012 at 4:18
  • 2
    Well, sometimes, I just can't help it. Certain questions just make me black out and scream Niagara Falls ... Slowly I closed .. pixel by pixel ...
    – Tim Post
    Jun 2, 2012 at 14:42

You must log in to answer this question.

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