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After asking a question about my reputation and whether there had been another recent recalculation, a number of responders pointed me to one of the "hidden" features of StackOverflow, the Reputation Audit/Log

I'd known about this when it was first introduced, but had completely forgotten about it by the time I asked that last reputation related question. Since I've re-discovered the rep. audit, I have another question which is simply,

Why is my "status bar" reputation value different from the "audit log" value ?

To further illustrate my point, here's a lovely screen grab that I've put together using my leet MS Paint skillz ;)

alt text

(All figures correct as at 24th May 2010 09:29:00 UTC)

I've been watching to the two values for a few days, and they're always different. I'd have thought that the same reputation calculation algorithm would be used in both cases, just that the reputation audit/log shows the running totals as it were. I'm guessing there's two different algorithms at work here, but if that's the case, why?

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2 Answers 2

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Your reputation value, as it's displayed on the site, is denormalized from the underlying data. The reputation report shows the true value at the time you request the report.

The values will differ as posts you're involved in get deleted:

  • Questions or answers which you downvoted
  • Your own non-CW questions where you accepted an answer (non-bounty)
  • Your own questions or answers that were voted upon (either + or -)

You can request for a moderator to recalculate your reputation by flagging one of your own posts for moderator attention.

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  • I guessed there would be something like this at work. However, surely the "status bar" rep total could be done in "real-time" and simply cached until it changes since that reputation audit routine runs pretty quickly as far as I can see.
    – CraigTP
    Commented May 24, 2010 at 11:41
  • @Craig: I assume the denormalization was done for a good reason. Remember that while it may run quickly for you or I, there are quite a few very active users with more rep than us, which would take far longer to recalculate. You may want to upvote this feature request.
    – Jon Seigel
    Commented May 24, 2010 at 16:35
  • Good point. I'm guessing Jon Skeet's rep audit takes just a little longer than mine to recalculate! ;) Thanks for the link on the feature request. Very interesting.
    – CraigTP
    Commented May 24, 2010 at 22:23
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If you delete answers with downvotes, your reputation does not change, right?

But thats only true until your reputation get recalculated, you will get those rep back. and /reputation show your real/future reputation without deleted/migrated posts.

On the other hand, if you delete your posts or the questions you've answered got delete, with upvotes, you are going to lose those reps on rep recalc.

If you want your reputation to be synchronized with /reputation (for now), you could request for rep recalc, by flagging one of your post for moderator attention, and ask for it.

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