Saturday, April 19, 2014

More evidence that someone's deliberately targeting me

Got 2 more down-votes today. Both same exact time, both old questions with no obvious reasons to DV.

But the exact nature of these 2 questions leaves very little doubt that someone's targeting my questions for DV (see below red text and details).


-2 4 hours ago (Q) What is the synopsis of Homer Eon Flint's “The Emancipatrix”?
-2 4 hours ago (Q) How does Minotaur fit into the world of “Battle Circle” by Piers Anthony?


Were the posts recent?

No. Neither the posts nor any answered were touched in over a year.

Were any other answers on those questions downvoted?

No.

Caveats: (legit reasons someone may have downvoted)


None. 

Why is the pattern suspicious?

First thing I noticed was that both questions were from March 2013; and unrelated to each other. Now, ordinarily, I would have merely noted that they were on the same page if you order my questions by date

But in this case the evidence is much more compelling. 

One thing that seemed "less suspicious" was that the 2 questions downvoted were merely on the same page,  not next to each other on that page as some of my previous bulk-downvotes. 

**DRUMROLL**

Upon checking further, I discovered that every single question asked between these 2 questions was already previously downvoted!


  • How does Minotaur fit into the world of “Battle Circle” by Piers Anthony? 
    • Downvoted today
  • Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters? 
    • Downvoted previously
  •    Was Rakata's “Force-enhanced” hyperdrive technology ever replicated (or something similar used)? 
    • Downvoted previously
  • Short story or small novel about space pirates on a planet luring and robbing ships 
    • Downvoted previously

  • A book where 2-dimensional species evolved on rapidly changing environment 
    • Downvoted previously
  • What is the synopsis of Homer Eon Flint's “The Emancipatrix" 
    • Downvoted today

Sunday, April 6, 2014

And... serial downvoters are back (and not only for me)

04/06/2014 - SciFi

-2     4 hours ago   How are the events in “Wolverine and the X-Men” 
                     integrated into to AvX storyline? (Q)
-2     4 hours ago   Who was Rowena Ravenclaw's Heir?  (Q)
-2     4 hours ago   Did Tolkien consider Sam the true hero of LOTR?
  (Q)


 Were the posts recent?

One was 1 week old. One was 2 months old. One was years old. No new activity on either of latter ones.


Why is the pattern suspicious?


  • None of the questions were in any way shape or form related or linked to each other
  • One of them was my highest voted question (e.g. the first question you see if you go to my profile in default "by votes" view mode). Notably, in 2.5 years of existence, it gathered no other downvotes (vs 100+ upvotes).
  • 3 of my questions downvoted in a row, at exactly the same time

Were any other answers on those questions downvoted?



Not today.


=============================================================

04/07/2014 - SciFi

-2  (Q) 8 hours ago  What is the origin of the legend of King Solomon's Mines...?
-2  (Q) 8 hours ago  Is there an official word from Card about reading order ...?
-2  (A) 11 hours ago Why was it necessary to open Slytherin's locket to destroy it?
-2  (A) 11 hours ago Did Harry actually observe Prof. Quirrel's death... ?

All 4 are questions

Were the posts recent?

First one was 2 months old, with no new activity on it. Second one was bumped by "Community" user today. 2 last ones were from week.


Why is the pattern suspicious?

  • None of the questions/answers were in any way shape or form related or linked to each other
  • 1 of them was 2 months old and unlikely to be "suddenly discovered" by accident.
  • 2 sets of simultaneous downvotes

Were any other answers on those questions downvoted?


No same day.

Caveats (why would someone downvote some of them):  


  • #1 was already downvoted, since I had trouble communicating how exactly what I'm asking isn't what Wikipedia states.
  • #2 Orson Scott Card tag. Some people find it a goal to DV any question on it (including my previous serial Q downvotes). Also, I am in dispute with the only answer's author since I feel his answer doesn't address what I'm asking at all.
  • #3 was not backed by canon but by common sense. While same can be said of Slytherincess' later answer, hers was clearly far superior to mine (but less upvoted). 
  • #4 was a dupe. Of course, normal people don't downvote duplicates unless they evidence 100% disregard for even most basic effort at search (which was clearly not the case here as I read and actually linked to  the question that mine was a dupe of; but the answer to mine was in obscure small non-upvoted
  • #1 and #4 already had 1 previous DV on my posts from other users.
  • As usual, I could chalk it up to "well some of my posts aren't that great"... except for one of the 4 downvoted was clearly NOT a post a random user would accidentally discover, due to its age. 
  
=============================================================

04/08/2014 - SciFi

-2 (Q) 12 hours ago Did any of the EU material come from George Lucas?
-2 (Q) 12 hours ago Do “Conan” movies pass Bechdel test?
-2 (A) 14 hours ago What would happen if you tied a rope ... through the veil?

Were the posts recent?

Both DVed questions were at least 2-3 months old. The downvoted answer was edited today.


Why is the pattern suspicious?

2 old questions. Both were at +1 votes before the DVs. They aren't related in any way shape or form BUT would be right next to each other (divided by one Q) if you sort my questions by votes and go to page 15 pre-downvotes.

Were any other answers on those questions downvoted?


No.

Caveats (why would someone downvote some of them):  


  • The second question downvoted was quite controversial (+13/-13). As noted above, it's over a month. However, this doesn't apply to another question that was NOT in any way controversial nor previously downvoted.
  • The answer seems like a "legit" downvote - it was recently edited and thus bumped; and it's a guess not backed by canon. 
   ======================================================

Here's another user who suffered the same treatment - AND complained about it on chat - AND as usual the mods ignored it:
04/02/2014 - SciFi - user link

-2 20:15 (A) Clarification about the conclusion of Dark Knight Rises
-2 20:14 (A) Were there branches of service in Federation aside from StarFleet?
-2 20:14 (A) What is the basis for Zapp Brannigan's uniform?                         


Were the posts recent?

None of them
Why is the pattern suspicious? 

They were this user's lowest voted answers (3 of the only 4 of his with negative score).

Cleverly done - the downvoter can always claim the downvotes were justified because the answers are clearly low quality (previos scores -2 or -3).

However, given that the ONLY way to access these answers as a set was to look at that user's profile and sort their answers by votes and find the lowest scoring ones, AND it happened at the same time; this is clearly voting to punish a specific user and NOT just any random low quality answers.

Were any other answers on those questions downvoted?


Not that day