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Based on the question: How does "Reputation" work?

you associate accounts of two or more Stack Exchange network sites, and at least one of those accounts already has 200 or more reputation: +100 on each site (awarded a maximum of one time per site)

The user is only getting Association Bonus when at least one site reaches 200 Reputation.

Does the user get an association bonus if one of his/her accounts had such reputation before but had since been deleted on that site. Case in Point:

https://alcohol.stackexchange.com/users/150/hello-world

The user used to have an account on travel.SE with a significant reputation but had since been deleted and the only site in SE network where it exists the User has only 137 rep but when an account is recreated on the travel.SE site it gets the 100 rep association bonus.

Is this intentional or an uninteded consequence of having had an association bonus on another site based on previous rep elsewhere?

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    I don't see a problem. The purpose of the association bonus is to get past new user restrictions for users unfamiliar with the SE system, so regardless of whether the original account exists, they still meet the criteria (e.g. they know not to leave a comment as an answer)
    – mhlester
    Feb 28, 2014 at 18:07
  • @mhlester Never said that it is a problem. Just trying to figure out how it works.
    – Karlson
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:00
  • Understood. Just talking through the logic.
    – mhlester
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:10
  • A similar question can be asked if the user happens to lose enough reputation for that account to then be below 200 reputation again.
    – Joe W
    Feb 28, 2014 at 19:14

1 Answer 1

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Yes, the association bonus is not set on the deleted account but somewhere else.

The association bonus flag is set on the central Stack Exchange account and any future account will receive the bonus.

This is an unintended consequence; a developer would have to clear the flag manually.

However, this is not a huge issue; after all, the user has learned how the Stack Exchange Q&A model works, and can continue to apply that knowledge elsewhere on the network even if the original account that earned the threshold reputation is now gone.

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    I noticed but is that an intended behavior?
    – Karlson
    Feb 28, 2014 at 18:04
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    @Karlson: This is not the intended behavior; but the issue is minor. Clearly the user has learned how Stack Exchange sites work.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Feb 28, 2014 at 18:07
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    If the user was deleted for reasons of moderation, such as being a sockpuppet for vote fraud, then the ability to re-create an account an immediately be able to vote is a problem.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Apr 23, 2016 at 11:48
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    @Gilles: moderators have other means to deal with such cases. They are generally not a problem.
    – Martijn Pieters
    Apr 23, 2016 at 12:16
  • @MartijnPieters The other means are cumbersome (we have to pay attention to which accounts in the sockpuppet ring have the association bonus, and reach for an employee to delete the associated accounts — more work for everybody, just because someone wanted a bigger number next to their name).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Apr 23, 2016 at 12:38

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