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I was just on this question (What is wrong with this?), using OSX 10.7/ Chrome 19, and the vote numbers kept 'flickering' to different numbers 4-6 times a second, usually within +/-2 votes from what it started at. There was no change in the expanded vote count, and this happened with the questions vote count and some of the answers vote count as well.

Just for clarity's sake, the question's vote count changed from 2->3->4->3->4->2->3 every second, for 1-3 seconds. Even after refreshing the page, this still occurs. It starts intermittenly in the first minute or so of page load

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  • 2
    There's also something odd going on with random bold parts. ;-)
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:37
  • 1
    Someone is probably playing with the vote button.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:38
  • @Arjan I've always done that on SO to make it easier for people to skim my posts, but I don't frequent meta very often, so it might come off wrong here. sorry bout that
    – JoeCortopassi
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:39
  • Well, I find it annoying on SO too. (Just makes me feel folks think that their answer is more important than those of others... But that's just an opinion, of course.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:40
  • @Arjan by the way, this is most definitely no relation to the link you posted
    – JoeCortopassi
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:40
  • Errr, I think it answers it. You're seeing the live update (and like Mystical wrote: maybe someone is just clicking the buttons), what else is there to it?
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:41
  • Oh, my bad, I missed the most important part: "no change in the expanded vote count" -- why wasn't that bolded? ;-) Still @Mysticial is right I guess, that could be an answer then?
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:44
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    @Arjan how does bolding selective text within a question imply that the question itself is more important than others? I do this as well to assist readability for people already reading my question, not to draw attention to my question as a whole. Bolding and other formatting does not show up in the question list, so it's not like paying for bold or other nonsense on eBay to make your question stand out. Can you explain how using the facilities we have to format question text means we think our question is more important than other questions?
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:50
  • I wrote "answers", @Aaron. (But that doesn't mean I like excessive formatting in questions either.)
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:57
  • @Arjan ok, still I don't see how adding emphasis to part of my answer means I am trying to make my answer stand out as opposed to making that salient point more readable or more likely to be picked up when skimming.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:58
  • Sure, @Aaron, selective is not always excessive. But if almost every line has some formatting (or worse) then that bothers me.
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 19:03
  • @Arjan then you should be careful to qualify your criticisms lest they sound like sweeping generalizations.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 19:04
  • Well, "it" in my second comment (to which you responded) referred to what I called random formatting (and a smiley), @Aaron, at that point not knowing where these comments would end.
    – Arjan
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 19:08
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    @Arjan I think that's definitely subjective. Reviewing the revision history, if I read just the bold parts, I understand exactly the crux of the issue the OP is bringing to light. I understand your objection to random bolding, but please apply it where there is actually random bolding. As your comment stands, I feel that people will take it that they should completely stop using formatting for emphasis, and in some cases that would be unfortunate because I, for one, find it quite useful.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 19:09
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    @Arjan It is no less of a joke than your initial comment, which inadvertently started all of this time-suck in the first place.
    – Aaron Bertrand Staff
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 19:25

1 Answer 1

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Somebody was either playing with the vote buttons or was changing their mind very quickly.

I've seen it happen before, where someone clicks up and down repeatedly many times. The result is that the vote count will flicker between 3 values. (in your case, 2-4)

It's normal, don't worry about. If a dev looks at the uncollapsed vote-history, there will a LOT of upvote/unupvote/downvote/undownvote events.

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