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In this discussion (not feature request), waffles answers:

... if we find that people are abusing the system their accounts may get suspended.

I would consider that kind of behavior abuse.

Well this user sure qualifies.
He has 11 Stack Exchange accounts and has in the last day spammed at least 8 of them to gain the Suffrage and sometimes Vox Populi badges.
That's over 250 votes† in just a few hours! (And he voted on 20 of my posts within 14 minutes -- while voting on other user's posts too.)

I guarantee that he's not voting on those posts for/by their merits.

Here's when he scammed the Suffrage badge per site (while also gaming the Vox Populi on some sites):

  • Wordpress             - 2017-03-11 16:23:15Z
  • Stackapps              - 2017-03-11 17:41:41Z
  • Askubuntu              - 2017-03-11 18:08:13Z
  • Magento                 - 2017-03-11 19:25:10Z
  • Serverfault             - 2017-03-11 19:55:16Z
  • Drupal                    - 2017-03-11 20:00:49Z
  • Opensource          - 2017-03-11 20:03:13Z
  • Expressionengine - 2017-03-11 21:11:40Z

Note that he got the badge on three sites within an 8 minute span (but that might just be job run times).

Please revoke badges gained through improper voting. And, maybe also warn/suspend such abusive voters.


† His account vote totals don't show all votes as some serial voting was reversed -- but none of the ill-gotten badges were.

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  • 1
    Revoking badges does absolutely nothing unless the votes that awarded the badge are also reversed. Otherwise the system would just award it again because they're still eligible. Unless they cast all of those votes towards only a couple users, that's not gonna happen. We have deleted users in the past for mass voting with no thought put into the votes, but that was for users who were trying to game the Civic Duty or Electorate badges on multiple sites, and causing a lot of damage with bogus votes. We're not gonna go around deleting users for 40 votes.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Mar 12, 2017 at 15:13
  • How do you know that it was that user who invited your posts?
    – John Militer
    Mar 12, 2017 at 15:49
  • @John, his vote totals before and after the votes were reversed coupled by the fact that NOBODY on stack apps votes 30 times a day unless they are trying to game badges. There's simply not enough posts, let alone related posts, for that there.
    – Awesome Poodles
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:22
  • @animuson, many of the votes were reversed. For example see this account. The user now only has 12 votes total but still has the Suffrage badge!
    – Awesome Poodles
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:25
  • 3
    We're still in the area of "who cares" though. It's just a worthless bronze badge that does absolutely nothing but increment a number. And taking it away will only cause them to try again in a way that won't be detected. Do we really think their votes will improve though? I mean even if we could reverse the votes, I'd rather intentionally leave the badge just so they don't even attempt to cast more useless votes on the site.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:30
  • @animuson, I can't begin to list all the things that are wrong with that attitude, both morally and practically. How about you do the right thing (which is to un-decline this request and pass it on to SE devs) and make the world better in whatever small way you are able, knowing that it might not be enough, but it's a step forward. "Don't Let the Perfect Be the Enemy of the Good."
    – Awesome Poodles
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:48
  • 4
    No. This feature will never be implemented, mostly because it's a complete and utter waste of time. We get that's not a popular opinion, but they're just badges and people need to stop worrying so much about users having one more than they really should. We're not working on this.
    – animuson StaffMod
    Mar 12, 2017 at 21:50

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