I just logged back on after a brief absence from the site (a few days) to find I seem to have been genuinely karmassassinated. As far as I can tell, every comment I ever made has been downvoted, which was apparently enough to put me from 1200+ karma to −80 (although oddly, the “last 30 days” thingy claims I only got −148 karma; maybe it’s maxed out?)
I understand it’s possible to check who downvoted comments? It was probably a generically-named sockpupuppet, I guess, but still.
EDIT: great, I apparently need to wait 8 minutes because I already commented. Did not know low karma did that.
I just logged back on after a brief absence from the site (a few days) to find I seem to have been genuinely karmassassinated. As far as I can tell, every comment I ever made has been downvoted, which was apparently enough to put me from 1200+ karma to −80
Wow! That’s the first serious karmassassination I have become aware of. People do pissweak karma assassinations every now and again but I haven’t seen a serious 1,300+ kill. I’m frankly surprised anyone bothered.
(although oddly, the “last 30 days” thingy claims I only got −148 karma; maybe it’s maxed out?)
The last 30 days measure is only for votes on comments that were written in the last 30 days, not votes received in the last 30 days. The initial implementation included all votes received but had the effect that certain users could sometimes stay on the Top Contributers, 30 days list even if we didn’t log in.
I understand it’s possible to check who downvoted comments? It was probably a generically-named sockpupuppet, I guess, but still.
Possible, sure. I’m not sure how convenient it is. It may require direct database access.
EDIT: great, I apparently need to wait 8 minutes because I already commented. Did not know low karma did that.
Now usually when I see people complain about this I think “Working as intended! Downvote!”. But this is a clear exception. Assassination is certainly not intended. I hope someone is able to sort this out for you.
The “last 30 days” score gives you a score for posts/comments that you submitted in the last 30 days, not the downvotes/upvotes you received in that duration. So if people downvoted comments of yours from further back, it wouldn’t be counted.
Um, can any administrator types chime in on this? Apparently it must have been an established user, so it would be nice to find out who it is so they can at least get mocked for taking the Karma system so seriously (very passé).
Also, y’know, all those features that prevent passing trolls from annoying people too much are also applying to me, so if it’s possible to reverse this that would be nice too.
I hadn’t gotten any replies yet, but the ones I’ve gotten back so far were people saying they’re not a “high enough” mod to access those privileges. Strictly spambot banhammers so far :(
I understand it’s possible to check who downvoted comments? It was probably a generically-named sockpupuppet, I guess, but still.
I understand that there is a limit on downvoting—it doesn’t cost karma, but it’s only possible up to the limit of one’s karma, or something like that. If so, a sockpuppet wouldn’t have enough karma. It must have been an account with a real presence here, either bingeing on OCD or using an automated script.
I understand that there is a limit on downvoting—it doesn’t cost karma, but it’s only possible up to the limit of one’s karma, or something like that.
I seem to recall that it is (or was last I heard) limited to 4 times current karma.
If so, a sockpuppet wouldn’t have enough karma. It must have been an account with a real presence here, either bingeing on OCD or using an automated script.
The ideal outcome here may be if a PTB banned the offender, pumped Muga’s karma back up then removed all traces of this conversation. This is somewhat too close to an instruction manual and primer for saboteurs.
it doesn’t cost karma, but it’s only possible up to the limit of one’s karma, or something like that.
I think it’s much higher than that, like 4 times one’s karma or even more so (which I find rather ludicrously high). Something like that would mean that a mere 300 karma (extremely easy to achieve by saying nothing actually worthwhile) would suffice to downvote another person 1200 times..
It’s amusing that someone would care enough about LessWrong karma to view it as worth this sort of effort. As character assassination and revenge goes, that’s pretty weak sauce. I suspect they got more disutility from wasting their time downvoting than you did by actually losing the karma.
A possible solution would be that one be required to solve a CAPTCHA before casting a vote if one has cast more than 100 votes or more votes than one’s last-30-days net karma (whichever is less) in the past 24 hours.
Being karmassassinated wasn’t something I was expecting, certainly; I don’t recall being unusually controversial beforehand. In fact, I hadn’t logged in for the past few days. But I was, statistically, probably arguing with around three people at the time.
I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to the precise individual, though; it’s quite possible someone’s just been increasingly annoyed at me without saying anything and finally decided I had to be taught a lesson. (Good luck with that, culprit, if you’re reading this; anonymous downvotes are not the most efficient means of communication.)
Hey, not sure where else to put this:
I just logged back on after a brief absence from the site (a few days) to find I seem to have been genuinely karmassassinated. As far as I can tell, every comment I ever made has been downvoted, which was apparently enough to put me from 1200+ karma to −80 (although oddly, the “last 30 days” thingy claims I only got −148 karma; maybe it’s maxed out?)
I understand it’s possible to check who downvoted comments? It was probably a generically-named sockpupuppet, I guess, but still.
EDIT: great, I apparently need to wait 8 minutes because I already commented. Did not know low karma did that.
Wow! That’s the first serious karmassassination I have become aware of. People do pissweak karma assassinations every now and again but I haven’t seen a serious 1,300+ kill. I’m frankly surprised anyone bothered.
The last 30 days measure is only for votes on comments that were written in the last 30 days, not votes received in the last 30 days. The initial implementation included all votes received but had the effect that certain users could sometimes stay on the Top Contributers, 30 days list even if we didn’t log in.
Possible, sure. I’m not sure how convenient it is. It may require direct database access.
Now usually when I see people complain about this I think “Working as intended! Downvote!”. But this is a clear exception. Assassination is certainly not intended. I hope someone is able to sort this out for you.
The “last 30 days” score gives you a score for posts/comments that you submitted in the last 30 days, not the downvotes/upvotes you received in that duration. So if people downvoted comments of yours from further back, it wouldn’t be counted.
Um, can any administrator types chime in on this? Apparently it must have been an established user, so it would be nice to find out who it is so they can at least get mocked for taking the Karma system so seriously (very passé).
Also, y’know, all those features that prevent passing trolls from annoying people too much are also applying to me, so if it’s possible to reverse this that would be nice too.
EDIT: bump bump.
The moderators might not read the open thread, but I’m sure any of them would be happy for you to PM them about this.
Funnily enough, I just did. Thanks for the list, though!
What did they say?
I hadn’t gotten any replies yet, but the ones I’ve gotten back so far were people saying they’re not a “high enough” mod to access those privileges. Strictly spambot banhammers so far :(
I understand that there is a limit on downvoting—it doesn’t cost karma, but it’s only possible up to the limit of one’s karma, or something like that. If so, a sockpuppet wouldn’t have enough karma. It must have been an account with a real presence here, either bingeing on OCD or using an automated script.
Ah, excellent point. Now I’m even more curious about who the culprit might be.
… in other news, I apparently need “1164 more points” to downvote a comment.
Oooh, now you can calculate exactly how many downvotes you have given out.
I seem to recall that it is (or was last I heard) limited to 4 times current karma.
The ideal outcome here may be if a PTB banned the offender, pumped Muga’s karma back up then removed all traces of this conversation. This is somewhat too close to an instruction manual and primer for saboteurs.
I think it’s much higher than that, like 4 times one’s karma or even more so (which I find rather ludicrously high). Something like that would mean that a mere 300 karma (extremely easy to achieve by saying nothing actually worthwhile) would suffice to downvote another person 1200 times..
It’s amusing that someone would care enough about LessWrong karma to view it as worth this sort of effort. As character assassination and revenge goes, that’s pretty weak sauce. I suspect they got more disutility from wasting their time downvoting than you did by actually losing the karma.
A possible solution would be that one be required to solve a CAPTCHA before casting a vote if one has cast more than 100 votes or more votes than one’s last-30-days net karma (whichever is less) in the past 24 hours.
Wow. Do you have any idea what might have inspired this? Like were there any controversial posts you made before this happened?
Being karmassassinated wasn’t something I was expecting, certainly; I don’t recall being unusually controversial beforehand. In fact, I hadn’t logged in for the past few days. But I was, statistically, probably arguing with around three people at the time.
I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to the precise individual, though; it’s quite possible someone’s just been increasingly annoyed at me without saying anything and finally decided I had to be taught a lesson. (Good luck with that, culprit, if you’re reading this; anonymous downvotes are not the most efficient means of communication.)