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I got a notice that a user was removed and any of their votes were removed.

I received a -2 rep reprimand.

Why do I have a reputation change on my reputation page that says 'User was removed'?

This message means that a user who voted for one of your posts had their account deleted (either by request or due to violating the network's terms of service). As a result, all of their votes were removed, and the reputation you gained or lost from them was undone. The resultant reputation change could be any amount; it could even be a reputation gain if enough of the removed votes were downvotes. All the reputation changes from a single user's deletion are rolled into a single event in the reputation page labelled "User was removed".

This removal occurs whenever a user is deleted, unless that user had a very high reputation score. Because high-reputation users have usually cast a great many votes, removing all of them could be that much more disruptive to other users. In such cases, the staff use a special deletion that preserves the votes, resulting in no reputation change for those who had been voted on by that user.

I can't see how a -2 would happen? Maybe a -5 or a -10, but not a -2????

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  • 7
    Loss of rep due to a deleted account is not a "reprimand".
    – Null Mod
    Jun 24, 2016 at 13:49
  • That's pretty interesting. I got a +2 from a user (presumably the same one) being deleted; i.stack.imgur.com/5AJ98.png
    – Valorum
    Jun 24, 2016 at 15:11
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    Just be glad it didn't result in you losing 22,000 rep and most of your privileges; askubuntu.com/users/260935/cl-netbox?tab=reputation
    – Valorum
    Jun 24, 2016 at 18:42
  • @Valorum That was a serial vote reversal, not a user removal.
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Jun 25, 2016 at 14:44
  • @Randal'Thor - It surprises me that certain users were able to systematically game the system, including organising 'downvote rings' and suffer no punishment other than the loss of some rep
    – Valorum
    Jun 25, 2016 at 14:47
  • @Randal'Thor, why was some one with 22,00 removed?
    – KyloRen
    Jun 25, 2016 at 17:30
  • @KyloRen Not a user removal. Basically, it means that someone (or someones) had cast 2,200 upvotes on that user which were considered invalid, i.e. serial voting. See also this help centre page. (If a user with a large amount of rep/votes is removed, account deletion is done in a different way so as to ensure their votes don't disappear.)
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Jun 25, 2016 at 17:33

1 Answer 1

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Getting -2 from a 'User was removed' means that you got +2 from that user before the deletion of their account. The easiest way I can think of for this to happen would be:

  • you accepted one of their answers

However, other sequences of events that might cause a net +2 rep gain include:

  • they upvoted one of your questions and you downvoted three of their answers
  • they upvoted one of your answers and downvoted four of your posts
  • they upvoted one of your questions and downvoted one of your posts and you downvoted one of their answers
  • ...

The possibilities are infinite really.

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  • Is accepting an answer the only way to get plus two?
    – KyloRen
    Jun 24, 2016 at 13:38
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    @KyloRen No, there are other ways: for example, all the ones I listed in my answer right here :-)
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Jun 24, 2016 at 13:44
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    Hey, I just noticed (while pondering over what could have happened to my very few questions/answers when I got some -2s, too), that this also happens for suggested edits (which give a +2, too). So I guess when those posts get removed (or maybe even the user who approved the edits), you lose the rep gained from them, too. Just worth to notice, as that might not be as obvious as mere votes.
    – TARS
    Jun 24, 2016 at 15:17
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    Flagged this answer for migration to Math Overflow.
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Jun 24, 2016 at 19:02
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    @Cahir But it takes two users to approve an edit, unless it's a mod or the OP. Does rep gained from edit approvals ever vanish, unless the post is deleted?
    – Rand al'Thor Mod
    Jun 25, 2016 at 14:43

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