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Himarm was suspended today after making a joke that he targeted another user with 100 downvotes. He was obviously kidding, because his profile shows that he has made a total of 107 downvotes in two years on the site.

enter image description here

Unless we're supposed to believe that all but 7 of those votes were for the same person, he clearly didn't target anyone. Shouldn't a suspension for voting irregularities be based on evidence more compelling than a silly comment?

He posted screenshots of his downvote history, which seems to confirm that he hasn't targeted anyone:

enter image description here

In this history, the user he jokingly claimed to have targeted was downvoted not 100 times, but only eight to ten times. The history shows 73 total downvotes, presumably because it omits deleted questions and answers.

enter image description here

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    Permalink to his statement in chat: chat.stackexchange.com/transcript/message/25035676#25035676
    – Ryan
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 18:50
  • bookmarked chat history just focused on the images and relevant message
    – phantom42
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 18:56
  • serial downvotes can be reversed. Looking at the history now it is impossible to distinguish whether that happened or not. Therefore you can't draw useful conclusions from looking at the history now.
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 19:26
  • @KateGregory - They can't be reversed after a couple of minutes, unless you edit ng you voted on. In any case, it seems clear that serial voting wasn't really the problem.
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 19:29
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    Not reversed by the voter, @WadCheber, but by the system. It can take up to 24 hours.
    – Kate Gregory
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 19:31
  • @KateGregory - If that were the case here, he would probably have gotten in trouble earlier. The votes wouldn't have been reversed in the 30 minutes between the comment and him posting the pictures. And again, that wasn't the problem, apparently. He was naughty in other ways.
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 19:38

2 Answers 2

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Shouldn't a suspension for voting irregularities be based on evidence more compelling than a silly comment?

Of course.

We investigated this user's history in response to their statements in chat. We won't discuss the specifics of what we found but rest assured, there's more going on here than meets the eye, and the appropriate action was taken. The user can engage in discussion of what took place themselves if they wish, after they return.

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    Does that mean that 10 dv's in two years amounts to "irregularities"?
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 18:58
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    @WadCheber I'm not commenting on that at all. I'm saying we wouldn't suspend someone purely because of merely joking about bad behavior.
    – user1027
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 18:59
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    So are you saying that there was an irregularity in his upvote pattern? cause I can't see one in his downvotes.
    – Ryan
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 19:06
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    @ryan Neither you nor Wad seems to understand that you're asking for private information that will stay private.
    – user1027
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 19:09
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    @Keen - no, I got that. That's why I disengaged. Stuff I won't know and don't want to know.
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 19:26
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    Something else clearly came to light, and I'm not stupid enough to push it any further.
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 19:26
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Thanks everyone who attempted to help in my plight, and I apologize to everyone for my dis-honest behavior.

At first the notice I received did state that I was suspended for serial down-voting which I did not believe that I had done. However, as the mods dug deeper they found a second account I had originally created to ask questions on SO, as this account was down-voted and no longer allowed to ask questions. after a time I found that I could up-vote my own questions, which I started to do on less well received answers or questions of mine across various sites. For this I apologize for padding my rep.

In the End my suspension on Scifi.SE is still tagged as serial down-voting, while my suspensions on Skeptics and History are due to my sock-puppet. I assume it was simply easier to leave the serial down-voting suspension with the equal penalty to un-suspending /re-suspending for alternate reasons.

Thanks again for everyone who tried to help, and sorry for my actions. -Himarm (him-arm, not hi-marm)

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    Needs more tacos.
    – Wad Cheber
    Commented Nov 5, 2015 at 23:22
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    Wow, your honesty and confession is inspirational; I wish more of us had this attitude.
    – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 7:23
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    Glad to have you back, @Himarm. See you in Mos! :-)
    – Praxis
    Commented Nov 6, 2015 at 23:48
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    Just for clarity: when I wrote above "I wish more of us had this attitude" I was referring to myself and people in general and it was meant as an encouragement to @Himarm. It was not a subtle swipe at anyone on this site!
    – Reinstate Monica - Goodbye SE
    Commented Nov 7, 2015 at 6:53

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