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Just recently I have seen reputation added back from serial down votes, but I have also seen reputation taken.

Is there a way to check if you are being serial down voted by the same group of people? If the same 3 people down votes every so so question you have can they get you banned or suspended?

Update: I have noticed when you edit in a short period of time reviewers tend to be the same people and are more likely to down vote. Many of my down votes could be coming from that since I do edit often? Reviewers on some sites could just be the down voter type?

Is there any way to check to see if someone is down-voting you but with time restraint or with strategy not to be flagged and reek havoc on another account? Can someone down vote all of a user's posts over time and not be flagged?

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    by knowing the patterns the system uses to detect serial voting which i'm quite sure only SE Employees will know and wont make public (can't find SO Meta where they say that it's not made public) – Memor-X Jan 27 '17 at 4:26
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    Its worth noting that making such patterns helps users to circumnavigate the serial vote detection system. Its better that we don't know. – Gnemlock Jan 28 '17 at 7:53
  • If you have another question, ask it as another question. However, the extra question you added here has been asked before and will be closed as a duplicate. – ArtOfCode Feb 8 '17 at 18:45
  • see meta.stackexchange.com/questions/142319/… for where @ArtOfCode is hinting at. – rene Feb 8 '17 at 18:49
  • Unaccept won't help you, no one can remove your post any more. I suggest to re-accept my answer (so it will be avoided from deletion), and then you can ask the CMs on the /contact page to detach this question from your account. However, I think you are not in such a danger. In your case, I would simply learn. – peterh says reinstate Monica Jan 14 at 14:02
  • @peterh I have been look at space.se – user312109 Jan 14 at 14:09
  • @Muze What is there? I tried to compansate the unfair attacks you've got, as usual. Maybe I misclicked somewhere? – peterh says reinstate Monica Jan 14 at 14:29
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    @Muze Don't worry on the suspensions, YOU are using the sites correctly and not those continuously harassing you! There are 160 SE sites, they can't ban you everywhere. But a possible network-wide suspension from the SE is possible, try to avoid it as you can! Never use multiple accounts, or do things what would annoy them. I think they let your problem to the sites, so you are free to play on the ones where you weren't suspended until now. You can also try contact them (/contact form), explain the situation, and say them that you are trying to survive, and try to follow the rules. – peterh says reinstate Monica Jan 14 at 16:42
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    @Muze If they answer, hear it and follow. If they see that you are right, it will be probably enough to avoid a possible network-wide ban. I see your posts are improving on the long term, hopefully also they. – peterh says reinstate Monica Jan 14 at 16:44
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Some signatures:

  • Multiple downs are coming to your older posts not having a significant visit count
  • Downs are coming in correlation with your unrelated activities (particularly if you are having some heated debate on the meta)
  • Downs are coming to nearly all of your posts, unrelated to their usefulness, shortly after you created them.

For example, every time I post here on MSE, I nearly always get a downvote on the spot. I suspect, it is the same person (his activity shows somebody capable to use the SE in work time, and he is probably in the U.S.). I have no way to do anything. The standard SE answer for the problem is that until they step over some patterns (for example, 5 down/day), which is handled automatically by the system, they won't do anything. But it doesn't cause too much trouble for me, so I can ignore it. Actually, this time I worked hard to finally put MSE out of my network flair.

In my experience, organized herd downvoting is quite normal on SE, especially for people with differing opinions. It is absolutely legal here, until somebody gives you more than 5 downs in a single day (e.g. they give at most 2).

There are worse and better SE sites, and there is also a long-term fluctuation in their activity. For example, 2014 was a very bad year on SO. I think, there is probably a background fight between SE and the herds. Here could be a problem that these herds are mainly following the SE lines & policies, but they are too vehement.

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    pictures or it didn't happen... – rene Feb 8 '17 at 12:51
  • @rene For what? – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 12:54
  • @rene I hope you can now see already your picture. Here. It is the vote count to this post. – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 14:00
  • @Cai Thank you very much! – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 14:01
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    I still don't see it. This is just down voting of an answer by multiple users which is not serial down voting. I would need to go over your profile to down vote all your other questions (I don't want to lose rep over it) which I did not do yet. I stopped when I down voted this one. – rene Feb 8 '17 at 14:12
  • Here is an example of serial down voting. I'm sure you can add examples of your own profile. – rene Feb 8 '17 at 14:20
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    These downvotes appear to be mostly in reaction to the post indulging in conspiracy theories, whining, and insulting nearly everyone. I'd say that's the system working as intended. – SevenSidedDie Feb 8 '17 at 16:03
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    @SevenSidedDie Yes, you are right - although I didn't insult anybody, except the serial- and hird downvoters. But this is exactly why you are right. – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 16:09
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    Considering that what this post calls “herd voting” is more usually called “consensus” and is an intended core design feature of SE and why SE is useful to us users, I'll stick with “insulting nearly everyone” as an important third factor in the current voting. (Also, the serial-downvote example pattern appears to be inaccurate.) – SevenSidedDie Feb 8 '17 at 16:17
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    @SevenSidedDie Refering "consensus" is not okay to justify an unwaited yearlong cage on blurry reasons. In my opinion, the real reason of the downs were that I explained their signatures. – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 16:20
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    Incomprehensible sentences like that first one may also be responsible for some downvotes. – SevenSidedDie Feb 8 '17 at 16:26
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    @SevenSidedDie The first sentence: "Some signatures:". May I ask you what is incomprehensible in it? – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 16:27
  • SevenSidedDie referred to the first sentence of your comment, "Refering "consensus" is not okay to justify an unwaited yearlong cage on blurry reasons." Often I can decipher your sentences by translating them word-for-word into German, but that one draws a complete blank, no idea what you could mean. – Daniel Fischer Feb 8 '17 at 18:53
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    @DanielFischer Not German is my first language :-) I tried to explain that people can't be "temporary" suspended on a "consensus", they should be suspended only on rules. – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 18:56
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    @DanielFischer I see you are most active on the MathSE. It is a friendly site, with a good and peaceful athmosphere where the community is bound by the love of the Mathematics. In my opinion, it is the exact opposite of the PSE. It is a harsh environment, particularly for young enthusiasts like Muze. – peterh says reinstate Monica Feb 8 '17 at 19:00
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Just to be clear, community moderators can't see specific votes, only patterns in aggregate. In most cases, you likely aren't being serially downvoted, and if you are, we have systems in place to reverse those votes automatically.

But if you're sure there's a broader problem that's not getting addressed and want an employee to take a look, contact us.

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    I think what the OP (and myself actually) wants to know is how do you know you’ve had votes reversed as a result of being serially downvoted? – Notts90 Dec 20 '17 at 23:41
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    If you get votes reversed from serial voting, the reputation is clearly marked as such, and you're told about it. If you're not told about a serial vote reversal, it didn't happen. @Notts90 – Nij Apr 16 '18 at 3:20

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