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I just lost a load of rep today because a user was deleted and/or a post was removed:

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If I understand the second line correctly, the question mentioned was deleted, fair enough. I am wondering whether I can find out who the removed user was and why he/she cost me 140 rep points. Had I answered so many of their questions?

I am aware of the general rules governing reputation loss from deleted posts, I am just wondering whether (as a <10k user who can't see deleted content) I can find out whodunit.

The relevant meta.so thread is here, apparently I am not alone.

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    If it's any comfort I've lost 250 rep points. Who was this wonderful person?! :/ Ooh, it must have been that user who upvoted 4 or 5 questions of mine for two days running, before I posted this event on meta. Aha..! I think I know who it was, suspended very recently.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:53
  • I'm just tracking old posts, and this seems to be the only meta post that seems to discuss the unexpected loss of rep. The procedure has been modified since 2015. The answer here does not help.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Oct 29, 2017 at 12:07
  • related: erm… I lost 2,134 in reputation
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Oct 29, 2017 at 12:08

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I am sorry, we can't share information regarding account deletions. If it's any consolation, you wouldn't be able to tell even if you had privileges to view deleted content, because the user has been removed and the name associated with the account is expunged. The additional loss of rep is probably because that user had upvoted some of your other posts.

The account is completely removed, so there is no way to associate a username, even if we wanted to. We don't, though, because account deletions usually occur because either a user has requested deletion (and therefore doesn't want their username attached to their content anymore) or because the user has violated the site's terms of service or other policies (in which case, disciplinary action is kept private).

This is not an exhaustive list of deletion reasons, nor are these reasons mutually exclusive, and does not imply that neither, one, or both of these reasons applies in any particular case of user deletion.

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    Oh, in that case I was not aware of all the details, upvotes of deleted users are reversed then? But why would this user be deleted? They obviously had impeccable judgement ;).
    – terdon
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:26
  • @terdon I'm sorry. I can't comment on that either.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:30
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    I would not expect you to, I know these things are (and should be) confidential. That was just a feeble joke.
    – terdon
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:33
  • I came here meaning to ask the same thing—or rather, I wanted to ask why, when a user is deleted, the questions and their answers are deleted as well. In my case, the lost reputation was from a decently upvoted answer to a question that was certainly unobjectable, and which I don’t think it makes sense to delete. Would it not be better if deleting a user simply left the user’s questions, answers, and comments intact, but with no active user behind them? Is that even an SE option?
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:35
  • @JanusBahsJacquet this is a site-wide stack exchange policy and not controlled by the mods. See here.
    – terdon
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:40
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    @JanusBahsJacquet Only posts with a negative score are deleted, all other posts remain when a user is deleted.
    – user23030
    Commented Sep 30, 2013 at 17:41
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    I see no reason not to know the username of the deleted user; and the reason for deletion might encourager les autres. I realise my opinion won't change policy, but I'll say it anyway. (I only lost 60. I suppose I got off lightly.)
    – Andrew Leach Mod
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 12:08
  • @Andrew I edited to provide some kind of explanation.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 12:17
  • It's pretty easy to figure out if you're really interested, @Andrew - but out of respect for the wishes of the innocent (and to avoid heaping further shame upon the guilty), moderators generally avoid providing this information directly. If someone wants folks to know that they're leaving, they're usually pretty good about doing so.
    – Shog9
    Commented Oct 1, 2013 at 20:39

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