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Let's assume at the beginning I have 1 reputation. Another user serially votes my posts up until I get, for example, serial-upvote reputation of 150. Thus my rep becomes 151 in total now.

If I spend this reputation for a bounty of 150 before the system reverses the serial-upvote reputation of 150, what will happen later?

  1. The system reverses the serial-upvote reputation of 150 and I get -149 reputation,
  2. The system reverses the serial-upvote reputation of 150 and cancel the bounty of 150 so I get 1 reputation,
  3. The system does not reverse the serial-upvote reputation of 150 (I am lucky).
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  • 2
    Let's make a try. Who will serially vote my posts up? Jan 26, 2014 at 3:20
  • 5
    So slick… :-) I think this is rather a question for Meta.SO to be honest. Jan 26, 2014 at 3:27
  • @SeanAllred: I need a volunteer to do the serial-upvote. Jan 26, 2014 at 3:36
  • 1
    Guess: may be option 1 would be possible,but I would suggest option 4: The system gives up :) Jan 26, 2014 at 3:55
  • 1
    This is very unlikely, unless you want to cheat the system in any way, which is not a good idea, since serial voting reversals get logged and if they're repeated, I think that someone gets notified actively. My guess: option 4: you get to 1 rep for the reverse and that's it, therefore you can spend a reputation that you basically don't have on a bounty. But it's only a guess. NB: I'm not going to serial-upvote anyone, sorry.
    – yo'
    Jan 26, 2014 at 14:25
  • @tohecz: I also don't need serial-upvote reputation. This question or scenario or experiment should be considered as a fun way to probe the behavior of the system, whether or not it becomes a bug. I and Harish Kumar will do the second experiments next week after all of my offered bounties expired by itself because there is no target right now for the running bounties. Jan 26, 2014 at 14:50
  • What would happen if I delete my account? :) Jan 26, 2014 at 16:22
  • 19
    No experiments please: deliberate serial voting is not allowed, whatever the reasons for it. Remember reputation is supposed to be earned for quality of content on the site, not who you are. It's also there as a guide to others and to help make things 'work'.
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Jan 26, 2014 at 16:27
  • 2
    The time-space continuum will rip all of us a new one.
    – percusse
    Jan 26, 2014 at 23:20
  • @PauloCereda: Nobody can play with PSmith anymore. Jan 27, 2014 at 0:50
  • @CodeMocker: oh no! :) Jan 27, 2014 at 0:51

1 Answer 1

8

This is purely speculation, but is the most probable based on other events:

  1. You get serially upvoted for +150.
  2. You spend it all on a bounty.
  3. It is reversed. You get -150 rep, but you have 1, and since rep can't go below 1, you still have 1 rep.
  4. A mod refunds the bounty. You now temporarily have 151 rep.
  5. Your rep is recalculated, and now you have 1 again. [I'm guessing this will happen pretty quickly.]

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