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I saw what looked like a good answer, and immediately upvoted it.

Then, as a good citizen, I decided to reserve my right to vote until I'd ensured that the answer was valid. So I immediately withdrew my vote. This worked fine. At this point in time I had voted in neither direction.

After following the links in the answer and surveying the other answers provided, I decided that it was indeed a good answer, and I tried to vote it up.

But now I was told I couldn't upvote it, because that would be changing my vote. But I hadn't voted yet.

Hey I know it's a minor case... but it punished good behaviour. So I thought I ought to lodge it.

(similar to, but not a duplicate of, question 6250)

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I was just caught by this too. It's very annoying :( IMHO, if the vote is undone within seconds, this shouldn't be counted as a vote. –  Johannes Schaub - litb Sep 18 '09 at 18:52
@Jeff: What exactly is now "completed"? –  Mehrdad Apr 12 '11 at 2:06
@Mehrdad Cancelled votes no longer count. –  waiwai933 Apr 12 '11 at 4:23
@waiwai: Oh what! GO JEFF!! :D –  Mehrdad Apr 12 '11 at 4:25
This mechanism is basically the same as throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Or using a shotgun to kill a common housefly. There's... 1%? Fewer, far fewer (Jeff's own words). Of people gaming the system (like that or otherwise). But it annoys many more. Net gain: negative. –  Jürgen A. Erhard May 15 '11 at 1:17
I too don't like this system. I voted up an answer, then realised 20min later it wasn't the best solution. But can't remove my upvote :( –  Blackbird Jun 5 '12 at 12:02
It should be possible to change votes forever, at any time. If you're worried about people gaming the system, make it cost rep. Locking-in votes does nothing but degrade the quality of the site by making mistakes permanent. –  endolith May 11 '14 at 6:00
@Leon Bambrick, I agree it was a bad option with SE and it looks as if i'm one of the victim. The same situation happened to me in SO. Hope it will be rectified. –  GIRI May 28 '14 at 3:52

3 Answers 3

up vote 8 down vote accepted


  • has a small window where you may undo a vote
  • locked-in votes can be changed after the post is edited


To be clear, if there is no lit up/down vote arrow on a post, you may vote on it.


You last voted on this question

Mar 28 at 7:55

Your vote is now locked in

unless this question is edited

Where "question" and "answer" are substitutions.

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Keep the lock timer, but only lock votes that are up or down, so you can always vote from a neutral position. –  xan Mar 18 '11 at 0:21
@xan, my thoughts exactly –  Mike Mar 26 '11 at 15:33
@xan this has been implemented. –  Jarrod Dixon Apr 8 '11 at 18:59
@Jarrod: Errrm ... what? I do like this, but didn't Jeff talk about all those possible exploits? Like you answer a question at the same time as two others, downvote their answers and after 4:55 minutes revert your downvotes? Or am I getting something wrong here? –  Hendrik Vogt Apr 8 '11 at 19:16
Isn't the undo window much shorter, @Hendrik? –  Arjan Apr 8 '11 at 19:22
@Hendrik - that was always possible. This fixes the "but I haven't voted" problem where people vote, undo the vote and then try to vote again later. –  ChrisF Apr 8 '11 at 19:23
Is the following course of actions expected? Downvote post → Vote locked in → Post Edited → Downvote retracted → Vote is kept unlocked until a proper up/down vote. This is the current behavior that I'm seeing, and it can make sense, but I just want to check that this is the expected behavior. –  Grace Note Apr 8 '11 at 19:27
And: is a vote that has been undone still somehow tracked? If not, then @Hendrik has a point in that, earlier, such tracking might have been the reason to even lock undone votes? (I like the change though!) –  Arjan Apr 8 '11 at 19:36
@Arjan: As I said, I do like the change, I'm just wondering about what seems like a 180° turn to me. The info about the 5 minutes window comes from Jeff. And in that very post, Jeff talks about how the old behaviour is a measure against possible exploits. –  Hendrik Vogt Apr 8 '11 at 19:40
(See also Jeff's answer about tactical downvoting.) –  Arjan Apr 8 '11 at 19:40
@ChrisF: Right, and as I said, I'm not sure if I'm getting something wrong. However, in that post I already pointed out to Arjan above, I had a short communication with Jeff that left me with the feeling that the locking behaviour had very good reasons in any case. –  Hendrik Vogt Apr 8 '11 at 19:43
@Grace yes, that's what we're fixing with this change. –  Jarrod Dixon Apr 8 '11 at 19:49
@Arjan yes, malicious downvoting is tracked and bans will be administered. –  Jarrod Dixon Apr 8 '11 at 19:49
Excellent, then, @Jarrod. It seems you also addressed this early report at the same time, care to post a response to that degree? –  Grace Note Apr 8 '11 at 19:51
@Grace haha, [status-completed] –  Jarrod Dixon Apr 8 '11 at 19:54

I've encountered the same behavior here today... So far, my guess is that it's due to the recent change to the undo window, but I haven't been able to reproduce it consistently... Until now!

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Downvote a post.
  2. Undo your downvote.
  3. Wait three minutes.
  4. Note that you cannot now cast any vote on that post.
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Nice steps. Note that the problem also occurs if you were undoing an Up vote. –  Leon Bambrick Aug 28 '09 at 4:14

I've come across something similar:

  • Upvoted a good answer.
  • 1 hour passes.
  • The answer is edited. The vote-lock clock resets.
  • I undo my vote b/c the answer changed and I thought it was now worse.
  • Within a few seconds, I realize it was actually ok, and I upvote but it's intercepted with "Vote too old to be changed".

If nothing else, the error message is inaccurate. The vote was 3 seconds fresh.

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Heh... yeah, i've done similar (sadly, when a technical answer is edited, i tend to see at first what i hoped to see - real corrections - rather than what actually was changed). On the bright side, it's prompted me to do more editing of answers, since then i can change my vote! –  Shog9 Aug 29 '09 at 20:48
Ah, didn't know that workaround, thanks for the tip. –  hyperslug Aug 29 '09 at 20:55
I think the message is very confusing...especially if the post does not show as you having voted on it. e.g. voted and withdrawn and then return to the page days later. –  Randy Levy Oct 8 '09 at 4:03

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