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I have already contacted the administrator about it, but he said that the votes on my posts and comments seem legitimate as far as he checked.

But I still highly doubt so.

Here is a pattern that I notice:

  • On every single post and comment I made, without exception, there is at least one downvote.
  • Also, these downvotes keep appearing all at once (i.e. when the mass-downvoter sends his next wave of downvotes)
  • My score recently dropped from +12 to -19 within one hour without any new posts. The only way this this could have happened is that someone speervoted me.

I highly suspect that it's the same account downvoting everything I post and comment, because the happenings speak in favour of that theory.

These targeted downvotes can impossibly be legitimate.

I am writing this because many more people might be affected. It is a loophole and might discourage many more users.

I suggest implementing automated algorithms that prevent speervoting, which is an abuse of the voting systems.

Also, I kindly ask any administrator to confirm that the mass-downvotes on my submissions and comments are not coming from the same user.
I have already contacted the administrator about it, but he said that the votes on my posts and comments seem legitimate as far as he checked. But I still highly doubt so. Here is a pattern that I notice: * On **every single** post **and** comment I made, without exception, there is **at least one downvote.** * Also, these downvotes keep appearing **all at once** (i.e. when the mass-downvoter sends his next wave of downvotes) * My score recently dropped from +12 to -19 within one hour without any new posts. The only way this this could have happened is that someone speervoted me. I highly suspect that it's the same account downvoting everything I post and comment, because the happenings speak in favour of that theory. These targeted downvotes can impossibly be legitimate. ---- I am writing this because many more people might be affected. It is a loophole and might discourage many more users. I suggest implementing automated algorithms that prevent speervoting, which is an abuse of the voting systems. Also, I kindly ask any administrator to confirm that the mass-downvotes on my submissions and comments are **not** coming from the same user.

24 comments

[–] Handroid7 [OP] -1 points (+0|-1) Edited

The top admin/dev gave you an answer and you didn't like it.

I had the impression that he did not look deep enough.

For the guy running a modabuse sub that's all about censorship abuse

…which is legitimate. Internet users deserve to know in advance what to expect in which community.

it seems weird that you want us to silence them.

Not necessarily. I just wanted to use the site normally. I am not advocating to suspend them. If I don't want to interact with someone, I simply block him. I don't mind what ever the other user is doing, as long as it does not interfere with me. But I have seen behavioural patterns that suggest that someone (presumably the user Mumbleberry, who has downvoted over 100 thousand comments and submissions in total on Voat) is only downvoting for the sake of downvoting, and chasing users he does not like across platforms.

Why does it matter if it comes from just one user?

If they do it to one user, they probably do it to many more users and could do it to many more in future.

Most of Mumbleberry's comments are insulting random users, which I could not care less about because I can just block him and done. But his misuse of the voting system is tampering with other user's normal usage of the site.

What kind of detection specifically?

I have rethought it and have realized that automating it would be rather hard and could lead to alot of false positives.

But I think that a system that sends a warning of suspicious behaviour to the administrators would be good.

What does fix mean?

Nullifying the votes and ghost voting seem effective.

Also, thank you for your comment.
[–] Polsaker 1 points (+1|-0)

I had the impression that he did not look deep enough.

Trust me I looked deep enough. While I can't tell you who it was or if it was one or many accounts I can assure you that the downvotes weren't made by suspicious accounts or through the abuse of the voting system.
[–] Handroid7 [OP] -1 points (+0|-1)

Trust me I looked deep enough.

Thank you for your help.

Although I am still sure that one person is downvoting everything I post, if you say that's not the case, there is nothing I can do about it I guess.

I have noticed that even this harmless comment also got downvoted.

It's a comment that simply says:

I see. Thanks for the advice.

There is no way that a downvote on that comment can be legitimate or reasonable. I am sure that the same person (Mumbleberry from Voat, who downvoted over 86000 comments there) is downvoting everything I post. He will probably downvote this comment as soon as the next time he checks my Phuks account.

By manipulating the votes, he actively discourages people from using the platform.

It's not that I care about the vote counts, but that it is easily possible for anyone to game the voting system and selectively prevent people from having conversations and using the platform normally.
[–] pembo210 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

You've mentioned that guy multiple times in my dev thread now, spouting all kinds of stats about him. These are serious accusations against another user here. Most of us have known each other over 5 years and we built this place from scratch.

You either need to show some real serious proof that your guy is here(because I never heard his name until you said it), or I need you to stop accusing phuks people of stuff and leave us alone. I can see all your downvotes and while yes, you're getting some flak as a new user, I know none of them are your guy.

I barely know you and at this point, you sound like a smear campaign against someone I don't know that's from a site I don't use anymore and don't care about, instead of a new user trying to get help and navigate a new community.

edit: again, thank you for expressing your concerns and I'll continue to tinker with voting stuff as we keep devving.
[–] Polsaker 2 points (+2|-0)

Going deep into negative score won't prevent you from posting. You'll just have to keep completing captchas when posting.
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