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There seems to be posts daily about "revenge down-voting" and I feel embarrassed to be adding another, but as with the other users it is something that I find frustrating.

I understand that the appropriate action to take is to flag questions when you have suspicions and let the moderators take appropriate action. I recently did this and unfortunately no down votes were rolled back (not a massive issue as the rep is easily gained back) however more frustratingly two days later I have received another batch of down votes.

Although I will wait before reporting this new possible spate of down votes (this is not what this question is about), I feel a little blind about what is going on with my previous question flag as it was marked only as "helpful".

Therefore I wonder if it would be appropriate for moderators to leave brief feedback about what action was taken (possibly in the form of a comment - such as "warning sent") and even who the anonymous serial down voter was?

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    Note that the moderators do not know who downvoted. Only Stack Exchange employees can find this out. Moderators may be able to infer from context (comments and such) that someone downvoted your qusetion, but they never have hard evidence.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:21
  • Please relax. First batch where 2 downvotes, second batch 4. You probably pissed sombody, but those things happens. Best is often to ignore them. If the batches are getting bigger, the serial vote detector kicks in.
    – Toon Krijthe
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:22
  • @Gamecat It actually spans back over about 12 questions / answers but it is being done subtly. But this isn't really about the down votes it is more about getting feedback about your flag.
    – My Head Hurts
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:26
  • @MartijnPieters thanks, I did not know that. I thought that mods would be able to see who voted on what and where
    – My Head Hurts
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:27
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    You can be sure that they take apropriate measures. Just continue to provide the network with good content and the downvotes are marginal.
    – Toon Krijthe
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:28
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    This is why flagging isn't very useful in this scenario. The only way a moderator can provide feedback is if they mark it as declined. If it was marked helpful, you can only assume that some action was taken.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:30
  • @Gamecat thanks, I'll keep that in mind :) Just a little frustrating as I can't work out who I narked off so much they'd pursue it over a month :p I'm sure it'll stop when they get a job / gf
    – My Head Hurts
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:34
  • @animuson ok, I didn't know that no feedback could be left on a helpful flag either. I have trust in the mods so I'm sure that it will be resolved
    – My Head Hurts
    Commented Aug 3, 2012 at 22:36

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Therefore I wonder if it would be appropriate for moderators to leave brief feedback about what action was taken (possibly in the form of a comment - such as "warning sent") and even who the anonymous serial down voter was?

When I was serial downvoted, I flagged one of my posts. The moderator declined the flag and left a note saying that there isn't really much that can be done about reversing the votes. They were split up, like you describe, into two separate batches.

The smaller of the two batches was not caught by the serial downvoting script, but the other one was. The votes that were caught were all reversed, so the impact was pretty minimal.

A helpful flag means that some action was taken or that the flag was helpful in some manner. It doesn't necessarily mean a moderator took action though. That is between the moderator and the user. Moderators sometimes mark a flag as helpful if it has the potential of being helpful. For instance, some flags on serial downvoters help smoke these people out, so these flags are generally encouraged.

Remember, downvotes are only -2 points, whereas upvotes are +10. Don't let the -1 on your post psychologically mess with you ;) As others in the comments have said, just focus on posting good content and everyone will benefit.

Finally, when serial downvoters are caught, they do sometimes get suspended for "irregular voting activity" or something similar. However, no good will come from you knowing who downvoted you. Voting is anonymous by design, and that's to encourage the crowdsourced benefits of voting.

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