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Currently it's possible to cast 2 downvotes on a post. You can flag as spam, thus casting a free downvote where you don't lose the 1 rep, and then actually downvote. It might be that you can't cast an actual downvote after the graceperiod on the vote from the flag has expired. I just flagged a SF question as spam and it allowed me to also downvote it right away. I did remove the downvote so as not to double dip and now I can't go in and downvote it again.

Or is the double downvote by design? I hope it's just a bug, given the change in weight of downvotes sometime in the next 6-8 weeks.

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    what makes you think "flag as spam" is equivalent to a downvote? do you lose rep? – quack quixote Feb 25 '10 at 22:43
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    @quack: you as the flagger don't lose rep, but the flagee loses rep – squillman Feb 25 '10 at 22:47
  • @quack: have a look at the rep on this user: serverfault.com/users/31055?tab=reputationhistory#tab-top 6 downvotes and one of them is my spam flag. -12 rep on the one question the user has asked. – squillman Feb 25 '10 at 22:49
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    I see 8 downvotes on that user for -16 rep, you may have been caught with a caching thing. – Lance Roberts Feb 25 '10 at 22:59
  • @Lance: I looked at the user's rep graph right after I flagged it, downvoted and removed my downvote (which all happened within about 10 seconds). It was 6 downvotes and -12 rep. The only thing would be if the -2 from my (rescinded) downvote got stuck in the total, but that -2 is redeemed when a downvote is rescinded. – squillman Feb 25 '10 at 23:14
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    See: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/22174/… – Shog9 Feb 25 '10 at 23:17
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    Just tested it myself and it did indeed cost 2 rep for the flagee. This does not apply to wiki posts, just like downvotes. – mmyers Feb 25 '10 at 23:17
  • @mmyers: I'm guessing I was the flagee? :) – squillman Feb 25 '10 at 23:22
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    OK, the FAQ says they do, but I've never seen it. Is this a new thing? – Lance Roberts Feb 25 '10 at 23:24
  • @squillman: Nope, this was on SO. And I made sure it was actually spam before I flagged. :) – mmyers Feb 25 '10 at 23:25
  • @mmyers: ah, heh. Just wondered after a flurry of 3 downvotes on this question. Thanks for the confirmation that I'm not just dreaming it. – squillman Feb 25 '10 at 23:27
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    +1 something new every day – juan Feb 25 '10 at 23:29
  • @down, you got that right, I'm in shock that I never realized this. – Lance Roberts Feb 25 '10 at 23:35
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    wow, i didn't know flags cost the flagee 2 rep. i knew about the 100 rep for 6 flags thing, but this was new to me. – Kip Feb 26 '10 at 1:01
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    @earlz there is logic in place that will identify serial (chain) voting patterns and remove them when detected. I don't think that this would get covered by those algorithms. It's not that huge of a deal right now, but in the future when downvotes are more heavily weighted it could be a bigger problem. Plus, the question is whether or not it's intended behavior (ie- is it a bug or no?) – squillman Feb 26 '10 at 2:54
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Those downvotes come from the community user, but will age away if the post does not reach the offensive threshold.

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I just got a 2 point decrease in rep without it showing up in my activity summary (and now that I think about it, it's not the first time).

Could this be as a result of a flag as spam on one of my posts?

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R.E. not being able to re-downvote - just make an edit to the post, then you can, right?

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