1

I remember yesterday my reputation on the main English.SE site was around 10,540, I'm definitely sure about it.

Today my reputation is only 10,292. How could that have happened? It's not logged in the reputation history. It must have been a nasty site bug. Can anyone look into that?

EDIT: Now I see the info about some reputation changes being worked on, but according to the official info it's in progress only on meta. Or did I get something wrong?

EDIT 2: I think the current answer doesn't say what I was asking. So I'll repeat:

Yesterday, on the MAIN SITE, my reputation was 10,540.
Today, on the MAIN SITE, my reputation is 10,292.
I was NOT down-voted into oblivion in the meantime.
I lost 248 reputation into thin air.

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
7

To clarify @Rebecca's post:

  • Reputation on the main site has been recalculated for all users.
  • Most users will not be affected by this.
  • The users who are affected by this are those who have had posts deleted (sometimes because they answered questions which were subsequently deleted)—this includes you.
    • Deletion normally did not remove reputation since it was computationally expensive, so a recalculation had to take place.
  • However, recent changes to the SE platform now allow reputation to be much more accurate than before (deletions are now taken into account immediately).
  • The banner is not displayed on the main site because only a very small proportion of users will have their reputation affected dramatically, so only those who do notice will come to Meta and see the banner, thus not annoying everyone else with the banner.
5
  • I understand the response, but I think there were two key points that may have been overlooked: 1) It wasn't logged anywhere. My understanding from the linked thing in the system message is that it should be shown? Shouldn't it? 2) 200 seems like a big jump. Were there really THAT many posts deleted that hadn't been accounted for by previous recalcs?
    – Lynn
    Mar 2, 2012 at 4:27
  • 1
    @Lynn It is logged in your list of user actions, which mods can view. As far as the link in the system message goes, if you mean the sentence that goes "(your actual reputation doesn't match what's shown)", then all that means is that the old number you saw was outdated. If that's not what you're referring to, can you clarify? 2) 200 rep isn't necessarily that much—it's only 20 upvotes or so, and not everyone has had a previous recalc. For example, I've glanced at your profile, and the amount you lost mostly comes from one answer that was migrated, and you gained that rep back on Parenting.
    – waiwai933
    Mar 2, 2012 at 4:34
  • In the rep article the first answer suggests that the rep changes should be visible, and the first comment from Nick Craver suggests that it was part of the change. I didn't realize that was just for mods -- thought everyone could see it. Also didn't realize that the existing recalcs were so infrequent. That Parenting post felt like ages ago, so I would have presumed rep would have been recalced at some point since then. Likely just my misunderstanding.
    – Lynn
    Mar 2, 2012 at 4:48
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    @Lynn Oh, that's about deleted content. You should be able to see some form of this in the reputation tab of your profile, but note that it will reflect the date the content was actually deleted, not today, so you may have to go a bit back.
    – waiwai933
    Mar 2, 2012 at 5:16
  • I see. With the new changes that'll be more immediate, right? So if my rep drops today I'll see the entry today, not two months back. If so that's good. It's not really a huge deal but it is kinda jarring to see points change and not know why.
    – Lynn
    Mar 2, 2012 at 22:05
3

The reputation you have is not always your actual reputation. This is currently being changed actually and that post above is about that, but until "now", reputation was not always the one that was shown.

I think the case is that you probably lost that reputation because answers/questions you posted got deleted. If a recalc is performed after something gets deleted (something that received upvotes or downvotes), your reputation is recalculated to reflect the current status. For example:

  1. You're at 10,000 reputation
  2. You gain 150 reputation
  3. That answer gets deleted (e.g. because the question got deleted altogether)
  4. Your reputation is recalculated
  5. You go back to 10,000

The recalc is done automatically at a regular pace, I'm not sure I remember when, but you can perform this recalc by yourself. Just add /reputation to the main site address on any SE you are signed up to. This soon won't be necessary due to those changes in that warning, though.

2

The system message is up on the meta site because we figure that is where people will turn to look for information. However, reputation is only an actual thing on the main site. The reputation number shown on the meta site is simply a copy of your main site reputation. There is no separate reputation on meta.english.

0

The reputation you have is not always your actual reputation. For example:

  • You are at 10,000 reputation
  • You gain 200 reputation
  • The answer gets deleted (e.g. because the question gets deleted altogether)
  • Your reputation is recaculated
  • You go back to 10,000 reputation

This is because the answer/question is deleted. There are 3 reasons that your answer gets deleted:

  • You deleted your own answer
  • A moderator deleted your answer
  • The question gets deleted altogether
4
  • It's the same answer as Alenanno's with the only difference that you mention 200 rep while the older answer talks about 150 rep. I seriously doubt that someone who deletes an answer of theirs with 20 upvotes will be asking where their rep went missing.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 17, 2018 at 2:05
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    There's another way that a user can lose rep... Whenever a user deletes their account, all their votes are reversed, for more details read the link
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 17, 2018 at 2:17
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    Why are we answering questions from 6 years ago? With upvoted and accepted answers?
    – Dan Bron
    Jun 17, 2018 at 11:03
  • This doesn't matter. You are right.
    – user298438
    Jun 17, 2018 at 14:23

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