3

I saw this user got ten reputation from this question, but the question was put on hold and the user got one downvote from it. How could he get ten reputation from it?

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3
  • 4
    2 upvotes after the 3 downvotes
    – juergen d
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:18
  • You can't get negative rep. If the upvotes are after the downvotes he will get the 10 rep
    – John Palmer
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:18
  • Indeed the question is terrible. I've just downvoted it.
    – Bathsheba
    Dec 9, 2013 at 12:06

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
8

When the user has only 1 rep the downvotes don't change anything. So when the 2 upvotes were applied, it became 11.

1   -2 1
1   -2 1
1   -2 1
1   +5 6
6   +5 11
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2
  • It should be a bug?
    – Danubian Sailor
    Dec 9, 2013 at 12:32
  • Not necessarily. Can also be a design decision.
    – Devolus
    Dec 9, 2013 at 12:46
5

The downvotes happened before the upvotes, so he didn't lose any reputation from it (you can't have negative reputation).

enter image description here

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  • But doesn't he then lose the reputation still from the downvotes?
    – LightningBoltϟ
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:21
  • Apparently not.
    – Stijn
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:22
  • @Me123: No, because you cannot go below a reputation of 1.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:27
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    Apparently the algorithm doesn't apply the rep in retrospect. Probably for performance reasons or the algorithm becoming more complex. You would have to recalculate the rep every time for the history.
    – Devolus
    Dec 9, 2013 at 11:29
-3

Reputation is floored at 1. So a new user will gain net positive reputation if downvotes are followed by upvotes even if, in normal circumstances, it would have the net effect of decreasing reputation.

Personally I think the floor is flawed: it can artificially inflate new-user reputation due to sympathetic upvoting.

Look at, for example, what you can do with 15 rep: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/help/privileges

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  • 3
    I disagree. How much can you really inflate this way. To 10 or 20? Won't make a big difference. Starting on SO is not easy and at least you are not punished for mistakes too severely.
    – Szymon
    Dec 9, 2013 at 12:18

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