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I'll explain myself fuller and the following questions are all related to the title (I think!).

On my personal page I can see +8 for an answer I gave, but if I go to the OP's question page I see a zero. Now, I understand that people can change their minds, prefer a different answer and all that, but why the +8 points? I went to the help page and read this:

You gain reputation when: question is voted up: +5 answer is voted up: +10 answer is marked “accepted”: +15 (+2 to acceptor)

I can't do the sum. One up-vote = 5 what about the remaining 3 points? So I thought perhaps for a down-vote you lose fewer points but this is not so.

All users start with one reputation point, and reputation can never drop below 1. Accepting your own answer does not gain you any reputation. If a user reverses a vote, the corresponding reputation loss or gain will be reversed as well. Vote reversal as a result of voting fraud will also return lost or gained reputation.

So, how many people believed that my answer was acceptable and then changed their minds or did (number) other users disagree and effectively wiped out the "upvotes"? Or is it a combination of the two? I'm tempted to think it is the latter.

And what if, for hypothesis sake, 5 people expressed their opinion that an answer met the criteria (I'm not saying that mine met the criteria or standard requested) of being a "good" answer but then other users expressed their disagreement and outnumbered them. Who is to say the "down-votes" were right compared to the "up-votes"? And would it not be fairer to show at least the number of up-votes and down-votes on the question page? Many a time I have seen answers which I thought were better than reasonable and yet see only one up-vote, could that have been or is the reason?

I realize my writing is not the greatest, and perhaps it is not clear what it is I want explained. So to summarise:

  • Why does it say on my personal page there are 8 up-votes ( EDIT: 8 points not up-votes) when there are none on the actual answer?

  • Have I understood what the 8+ sign means?

  • How did I get the 8+?

  • Have I lost "reputation points"? But it doesn't look like it, (I don't keep tabs on my "score").

  • (Related to my question but not directly concerning me) If an answer receives many up-votes (for example more than 5) but is then outnumbered, shouldn't that be also displayed on the answer page?

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The 8 you see is derived as follows:

1 upvote on an answer: +10 reputation
1 downvote on an answer: -2 reputation
Total: net vote total of 0, net gain of 8 reputation

 

Why does it say on my personal page there are 8 up-votes when there are none on the actual answer?

This refers to the 8 reputation points, not 8 upvotes.

It is also worth noting that the ability to see the number of up and downvotes on a question is a Privilige earned at 750 reputation while we're in Beta. Once you have 750 rep you can click on the score of any question or answer and see the number of + and - votes.

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  • That makes it clearer now, but why on the help page does it say: "If a user reverses a vote, the corresponding reputation loss or gain will be reversed as well." That's where my confusion stemmed from.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 14, 2013 at 7:34
  • A vote reversal is when a user uncasts his vote. For example, if you upvoted my answer here, and then clicked the upvote button again, you'd reverse your vote (and any reputation gain would be reversed, except that we're on meta, which doesn't award reputation). However, in your case, two different users cast votes: one of them voted your answer up and another user voted your answer down, so no user reversed his/her vote.
    – waiwai933
    Jun 14, 2013 at 7:35
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    I feel stupid, maybe I am, is this what happens? 1) One person casts their up-vote = 10 points. Different user casts down-vote = -2 points. Hence total is 8 2) one person casts up-vote = 10 points. The same person changes their mind and reverses their vote = -10 points. Hence total = 0. Now I've got it. Thank you so much I was really muddled.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 14, 2013 at 7:48
  • Should I post my last question separately?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 14, 2013 at 7:50
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    @Mari-LouA You've got it right. Also note case 3) One person casts an upvote: +10. They made a mistake so they cancel the vote: -10. They really meant to click the downvote button, so they downvote. -2. Net votes: -2.
    – WendiKidd
    Jun 14, 2013 at 13:49
  • I wanted to reverse a down-vote I gave yesterday. It was about 13 minutes later after casting. I thought about my vote and whether the answer was in effect poor, incomplete or just plain wrong. In the end I reasoned that I simply disagreed with his definition. His answer was not "bad" in the strictest sense, I was merely expressing a subjective point of view. Anyway, I was led to believe I could reverse a down vote, but I can't. Why? Why do I have to wait until the owner edits his answer? I've only changed my mind. Is there something wrong with that?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 15, 2013 at 18:05
  • @Mari-LouA I think the reason for that feature is to prevent people from harassing other users by repeatedly upvoting/unopvoting/downvoting/undownvoting answers to generate lots of notifications.
    – Daniel
    Jun 19, 2013 at 16:28
  • But WendiKidd talked about a vote reversal, no mention of a time limit. After 13 minutes,(my rough estimate) I should be allowed to change my mind, at least once. This makes little sense, either there is such a thing as a vote reversal or there isn't. In any case it would be nice to be reminded how long this time limit is when clicking on one of the arrows. I found this on EL&U meta : I incorrectly upvoted a post but now cannot reverse it. How can I? (cont..)
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 19, 2013 at 17:29
  • (cont..) @Daniel Apparently there used to be a pop up menu which indicated the amount of time available before your vote was fixed. I have experimented with one user's answers (no longer active) and each time no such menu appeared. Both times I was able to reverse my vote after 10 minutes, I dared not wait any longer!
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jun 19, 2013 at 17:34

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