Why are un-upvotes/un-acceptance not reflected in Reputation cap?

Question

I got an answer unaccepted today and a downvote. At 184, I got an upvote for another answer, but it counted for only two points, making my rep 186.

So it appears that I have hit the rep cap even though I am not at 200 yet.

I saw an almost similar case here. From the answer there:

The deleted upvotes still count against the cap, because the deletion is not reflected in the counter that's used for the cap. The deletion of the downvotes, on the other hand, seems to have been reflected in the cap, so that you could get 6 points back, for a total of 186

So I am assuming it is the -15 from the unaccepted answer which is not reflected in the rep counter, making it stop at 186.

Why isn't the unaccept event accounted for? Why are un-upvotes not reflected? Theoretically, shouldn't the person receive rep in that case from new upvotes like we do in the case of downvotes?

Most importantly and primarily the reason why I am here, does it affect my progress towards the Epic badge? If it is too broad, please edit out the first question and focus on the second one. Does it still count for the Epic badge or not?

Answer 1

Like acceptances, unacceptances are above and beyond the repcap.

The repcap limits you to 200 points a day from votes. If you get n answers accepted and m unaccepted, your cap for the day is 200+15n-15m (assuming no bounties and no acceptances/unacceptances of answers on your questions).

Unupvotes and undownvotes work weirdly with the repcap.

I don't even remember exactly how this works, but it's strange and buggy, and may cause unexpected shifts in your rep at some later stage when the system does its automatic recalc. See my bug report on another site and the linked main meta post.

The Epic and related badges count 200-rep days, not repcap days.

If you earn 190 rep from votes and get an answer accepted, that day counts towards your Epic badge even though you didn't repcap. If you earn 200 rep from votes and get an answer unaccepted, that day doesn't count towards your Epic badge even though any further upvotes will go into the ether. (This is a bug, IMO, but that's the way it is.) You can verify this by checking your progress towards Epic using the badge tracker tool on your profile.

Answer 2

In short this is a feature of the rep system. Normally rep is capped at 200 points per day. When you get an acceptance or a bounty it temporarily increases your repcap by the appropriate amount.

The converse is also true. When you spend a bounty or receive an unacceptance, it temporarily reduces your repcap by the same amount.

Note that after the system has had time to work its magic, your rep has now settled at 185, not 186. 200 - 15 for the unacceptance.

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In answer to your other question; yes, it does affect your progress on the way to Epic. The badge only counts days where you receive 200 (or more) rep in a single day.

Answer 3

The rep cap is effectively 200 rep worth of votes.

Reputation is capped at 200 per day, but remember that bounty awards and accepted answers are immune to this daily reputation cap.
_{Sidebar of User Reputation League}

You have 202-2=200 vote rep (thus hitting your daily max), and -15 unaccept rep, which does not affect your daily max at all.

Just as bounties and accepting can take you over 200, the inverse can cause you to max out at less than 200.

Here is an example of Valorum offering a bounty, hitting the rep cap, and still ending the day at -53.

So in short, the discription is misleading, and only vote-rep (and maybe accepted edits) effects the cap.

Unfortunately, the badge say, "Earn 200 daily reputation 150 times" and not, "hit the rep-cap". So you'll need to get 15 non-capped rep to get credit for today.