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This question brought to my attention something that was always there, but few knew: flagging a post as SPAM produces a 2 point rep penalty.

The problem is I just got a 2 point decrease in rep without it showing up in my activity summary (and it's not the first time).

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

If so, this behavior could potentially be exploited, as I don't think this will show up in the anti-vote-fraud script, and furthermore, there's no way of knowing which posts are being flagged.

Could we at least add the rep lost as a flag to the envelope summary as a way of alerting us?
If I hadn't been on the site at that moment, I probably wouldn't had known.

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    I would still like to know (via the question you linked to) whether or not this is intended behavior.... – squillman Feb 26 '10 at 21:36
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    Plus, putting any kind of flag should also appear in the activity. – cregox Mar 11 '10 at 21:00
  • According to Jeff's answer, it's intended @squil – juan Mar 25 '10 at 19:41
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If it affects rep, it should show up in the activity log. If my posts are getting flagged as spam, I want to know so I can act and fix them.

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    I flagged your post as spam to test. It does indeed produce a -2 penalty. I'm voting you up to counter-act that. – George Stocker Mar 23 '10 at 19:46
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    @george - mmmmmmm, spam..... – Pollyanna Mar 23 '10 at 19:49
  • I think it downvotes you, rather than give you the -2 penalty directly @george. But it's the same result – juan Mar 23 '10 at 20:07
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    ...except that it's not visible in the activity list. – Ether Mar 24 '10 at 2:08
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Confirmed; I just flagged a post that was in the flag list in the 10k mod tools and it got another downvote and the poster took a -2 rep (actually, it was -102 since I was the sixth vote).

FWIW, I don't see any posts from you in the flag list on SO.

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    Mine was on meta (I don't actually care about mine, but the issue is the same on all sites) – juan Feb 26 '10 at 21:30
  • @Downvoter: I don't see any flags for you on MSO either – Kip Feb 27 '10 at 6:41
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These downvotes come from the Community user.

Also, these downvotes age away if they do not reach the threshold, and are deleted.

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    Still no reason to not put them in the activity summary... – fretje Mar 24 '10 at 0:31
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    so? you don't know who the other downvotes come from anyway, I don't understand this answer – juan Mar 24 '10 at 0:37
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    I agree with @Downvoter it's irrelevant if they come from Community, Jeff or ponies.. The end effect is the same – Thomas Bonini Mar 24 '10 at 1:17
  • @downvoter see my update. – Jeff Atwood Apr 13 '10 at 23:36
  • I still don't see why that is a reason not to show them, could you please elaborate? also, is the rep lost from those flags restored when they are deleted or only after a recalculation? – juan Apr 13 '10 at 23:47
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    @Jeff: I think the point is not that they affect rep so much as the fact that if I am offending people I would like to know that. Perhaps certain users, who shall remain unnamed, might alter their behavior if faced with a constant stream of flags on their posts. – Lawrence Dol Apr 14 '10 at 1:32
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    It does matter that the downvote comes from the community user, because the flagger is effectively able to downvote without the -1 rep penalty. – Perpetual Motion Goat Apr 25 '10 at 9:41
  • @perpetual yes, but the community downvotes are temporary unless the post reaches the threshold. The community downvotes are auto-deleted after a certain period of time. – Jeff Atwood Apr 25 '10 at 9:52
  • @Koper I'm getting reports that evil ponies have invaded meta. They are randomly down voting people. And since it's ponies, they don't show in the activity summary, making it hard to track them down. Mods have responded in force, attempt to remove any traces of pony, but so far the attempts have been unsuccessful. – Lee Louviere Aug 28 '12 at 14:29

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