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I recently lost 2 points of rep, with the reason "User was removed". It's likely that this is because I had received 2 points for a suggested edit, and then lost it when the user and the user's posts were removed. No sweat, happens all the time.

However, I have the Copy Editor badge, and 539 edits, which means I no longer receive rep from edits after I hit 500. With that in mind, if one of my suggested edits was removed and I lose 2 points, shouldn't I automatically get 2 points back from one of the subsequent edits I made after hitting the 500 threshold?

To take this to an admittedly absurd extreme, what would happen if all 500 of my suggested edits were removed? Would I lose 1000 reputation with no way of getting it back, as technically I've hit the 500 edit threshold?

Is this a bug, or a feature, or something that was never considered in the design?

UPDATE

Because of some of the confusion generated by the ambiguity of the message "User was removed", I have raised a follow-up question. Just in case you're interested.

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  • For anyone investigating this: Simon didn't get any rep for this suggested edit on November 16th, so was indeed capped – Richard Tingle Feb 13 '14 at 9:38
  • I'd say this is [edge-case-by-design]. Reputation lost due to the various cap is generally not returned. For example, if you hit the rep cap before the end of the day and receive additional upvotes, then have a downvote or 2 before the end of the day, the earlier upvotes won't offset the downvotes. Not quite the same situation, but similar. – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 9:38
  • Actually, after thinking about how removals impact the rep system, I'm not convinced my previous comment was accurate. When a post is deleted or a user is removed, the rep is treated like it never existed, which means a replacement should count. And it is very possible it has counted, but your rep has not recalculated. Check out stackoverflow.com/reputation and see if your rep matches up. – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 9:51
  • @psubsee2003 Thanks for that, my rep does match up, total reaches 2093 in both cases. – Simon Adcock Feb 13 '14 at 9:55
  • @SimonAdcock maybe related, but something is not quite adding up here. I don't think "User was Removed" indicates you lost a suggested edit. Did all of your questions have an accepted answer previously? I'm specifically looking at File Upload fails, but jqXHR returning status 200 in IE8 – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 10:04
  • @psubsee2003 - I can confirm that it does not have any deleted answers. As I'm a 10k+ user I can see if a question has deleted answers which was accepted. :) – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 10:08
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    @Ɍ.Ɉ thanks, I was actually just going to ask you to check – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 10:09
  • @SimonAdcock something is not adding up here. "User was removed" traditionally references votes and not edits or other events. I'm not convinced this is an edit that was lost, but something else. If you had hit the rep cap previously, I would say it was an upvote you received that you only earned a +2. – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 10:12
  • @psubsee2003 - I just glanced through Simon's reputation graph and it seems that he has not hit the rep cap even once since joining SO :( – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 10:17
  • @Ɍ.Ɉ the -2 for edits used to show the specific post. When did that change? – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 10:23
  • Thanks @Ɍ.Ɉ, correct on all points. I did some checking before I posted this, and I'm pretty sure the only way I could have lost 2 points is through a post I edited having been deleted. – Simon Adcock Feb 13 '14 at 10:23
  • @psubsee2003 - I was about to ask the same thing. Having read all the points you raised it struck me that the link to the deleted post would usually be shown in the reputation page. Not sure if it has been changed or what. I'm wondering myself. – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 10:26
  • @SimonAdcock - Yeah am guessing it to be that only just that I have a couple of minor doubts lingering regarding it. If only I was moderator... :) – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 10:27
  • @psubsee2003 yes, I think if an individual post is deleted (through moderation or user deletion) you get to see the title of the specific post in the rep feed. But if all of a user's posts are deleted, it doesn't show you which ones in the reputation feed. It seems a little inconsistent, but it has been happening for a while. See my -2 reputation loss on July 25th 2013 stackoverflow.com/users/2118700/… – Simon Adcock Feb 13 '14 at 10:30
  • @SimonAdcock yeah I saw them when I was hunting. Definitely does not seem to be a brand new UI change, but I've been a 2K for almost a year now (I think), so I'm not familiar with recent changes to implementation in that regard. Everytime I've ever received a -2 for an edit removal, I think I've been given the title of the post. – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 10:33
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You can earn reputation made from suggested edits only till either of the following happens.

In your case, even though you had few more edits posts after your 500 mark, since you already earned the Edit Privilege you won't get any more reputation from edits(present or previous).

Q. To take this to an admittedly absurd extreme, what would happen if all 500 of my suggested edits were removed? Would I lose 1000 reputation with no way of getting it back, as technically I've hit the 500 edit threshold?

Say if you were to lose a few more reputation because of posts getting deleted and your reputation falls below 2k, you may get some reputation for the edits after hitting the 500 cap till your reputation reaches 2k again. This is most likely a guess as I have not come across such a situation nor have any substantial proof to support this.

Update: With Simon confirming this, my guess a few lines above this now has a proof to support it.

I can confirm that before I hit 2k rep but after I reached 500 edits, if I lost 2 points from a post being removed, I instantly regained it for a subsequent edit.

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  • But he is not talking about +2 for an edit now, he is asking about a replacement +2 before he hit 2K (which was recently) but after he maxed out his rep from edits. – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 9:40
  • @psubsee2003 - A replacement edit would have fetched him the +2 now if his total reputation was below 2k. Since he has already earned the edit privilege there is no rep gain from edits(present or previous). – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 9:43
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    Of course, if he was <2K and were to make an edit now, he should get another +2 (at least that is how it should work). But that is not what he is asking. He has previous edits in which he did not get the rep because he was capped at 1000 rep, from well before he hit 2K rep. That's what he is asking about – psubsee2003 Feb 13 '14 at 9:46
  • @psubsee2003 - Exactly what am talking about. He indeed hit the 500 edits mark and no edits post that earned him reputation. But the edit privilege takes into account 2 aspects. Either reach 2k or hit the 500 edit cap. So even though he lost reputation from a edit which was before hitting the cap, the current reputation is such that won't let another edit replace those 2 reputation as he has already hit the other cap(2k) rep. It is a 2 lane road. You either hit the edit cap or gain the edit privilege and bam, no more reputation for you from edits(older ones or newer ones). – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 9:50
  • I see, so as long as I don't lose rep through other sources, I won't ever drop below 2k (the point at which I received the edit privilege)? I think that's acceptable. I can confirm that before I hit 2k rep but after I reached 500 edits, if I lost 2 points from a post being removed, I instantly regained it for a subsequent edit. – Simon Adcock Feb 13 '14 at 9:51
  • @SimonAdcock - I can confirm that before I hit 2k rep but after I reached 500 edits, if I lost 2 points from a post being removed, I instantly regained it for a subsequent edit. - That proves my most likely guess mentioned in the answer. I hope it is clearer now :) – SudoRahul Feb 13 '14 at 9:52
  • I tend to agree, thanks for helping clear that up :D – Simon Adcock Feb 13 '14 at 9:55
  • What about edits to tag wikis? They are also suggested edits (below 20,000 reputation points). But aren't they somewhat separate from the rules you stated? You may want to adjust your answer. – Peter Mortensen Nov 11 '17 at 14:05

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