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For example, total score -3 you seeing is no meaning here, since +2*5 + -5*2 === 10

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Points from counter upvotes should be ignored from reputation total.

And this can relieve sympathy upvotes too.

Edit: Ok, after few analysis, there is only few users with maximum of 430 reps earned on the site from this kind of upvotes on Stack Overflow. So, this is kind of pointless.

points, userid
(430, 24213)
(421, 10661)
(270, 5640)
(254, 69307)
(250, 95976)
(214, 3146)
(184, 154152)
(172, 6801)
(164, 193619)
(161, 1790)
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marked as duplicate by random Apr 28 '11 at 2:23


Sympathy upvote. –  Anthony Pegram Apr 28 '11 at 2:16
Y'know what's cool about this? Even with the sympathy votes, I still gained more rep than you did for this post, since it brought attention to my own (which was already declined (and which I stole from a post UserVoice (and which was probably stolen from something TheTXI said on IRC))). Talk about your ill-gotten gains... –  Shogging through the snow Apr 28 '11 at 3:52

1 Answer 1

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Sometimes the masses are wrong. Sometimes you get a bunch of pile-on downvotes because somebody misunderstood the answer and then a couple of others got click happy. Maybe the answer got edited and those new upvotes are more meaningful than the old downvotes. Or maybe they're just sympathy.

If the answer is bad, then it will still have a net lower vote count at the end of the day and will serve as sufficient warning to new viewers. The fact that the user may or may not have lost sufficient rep points is secondary and ultimately not all that important, in my opinion.

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I think the case of masses are wrong is quite rare compare to correct rate. I don't have a data query to prove yet, but quite sure the other side is the issue, than those special cases. –  YOU Apr 28 '11 at 1:56
The point wasn't so much that the downvotes are completely wrong, but that the upvotes may not be completely wrong, either, and more than that, it's not all that important. Bad answers move down, good answers move up. Rep is a secondary concern, and a consistently good answerer will gain more rep and a consistently bad answerer will tread water. If I'm budgeting site features, I'd guess that sympathy vote reputation is a low priority. –  Anthony Pegram Apr 28 '11 at 2:04
Reps involve privileges on site, Its important IMHO though. –  YOU Apr 28 '11 at 2:06
Yes, they do, but sympathy votes are not predictable nor are they consistently offsetting. 2 downvotes on A, 4 downvotes and sympathy upvote on B, etc. Maybe you lose rep, maybe you come out ever so slightly ahead. You are not well on your way to having access to mod tools with this strategy! –  Anthony Pegram Apr 28 '11 at 2:12

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