4

Apparently some rather new user was removed since yesterday (not much effect on the votes). I'm curious for what reason, mainly to understand how this platform operates and which behavior of users actually occurs that leads to exclusion.

Edit: Maybe I just found the answer myself. Apparently user3749929 was merged with Solomon. Votes probably are transferred, but in case both have voted on the same post, one vote gets lost. Is this what has happened?

  • 2
    The thing with user removal is that it's quite deliberate that there are few public details. I'm not sure what can be added: users are removed from time to time for a variety of reasons. – Joseph Wright♦ Mar 28 '17 at 9:22
  • I completely understand that the ids of affected users should be kept secret (though this may be hard to achieve), but the reasons for deleting users should be transparent. I also see no problem in confirming that what stackexchange labels "user deleted" has been actually a merge this time (if this is what has happened). – gernot Mar 28 '17 at 10:03
  • A merge wouldn't go down as 'deleted', whilst if there was voting from multiple accounts I guess we'd be looking at a sock puppet: those don't get merged but rather all but one get deleted. – Joseph Wright♦ Mar 28 '17 at 10:29
  • Well, then two things happened. On the one hand the comments and postings by user3749929 yesterday are by Solomon today, which looks like a merge. On the other there is the line -10 22:29 removed User was removed (learn more) in the list of rep changes. "learn more" explains: This message means that a user who voted for one of your posts had their account deleted (either by request or due to violating the network's terms of service). Is it necessary to make the reason a secret? Are there any statistics, say once per year, that give the numbers of deleted users per reason? – gernot Mar 28 '17 at 10:40
  • The user 'Solomon' has not been merged with anyone: there is a name change but nothing else in the back-end data. I cannot be sure but I suspect that the deleted user is someone else entirely. – Joseph Wright♦ Mar 28 '17 at 10:45
  • Remember that most user deletions (network-wide) are going to be for 'bad' behaviour such as sock-puppets, spam, abuse, etc., so it's not necessarily appropriate to give details. – Joseph Wright♦ Mar 28 '17 at 10:46
  • @gernot: The user named by you has not cast any vote yet as of writing this comment(she/he has not enough reputation yet to cast upvotes on answers so far) , so you (?) can't have lost any reputation by a merging/deletion by that user – user31729 Mar 28 '17 at 20:38
  • @ChristianHupfer Thanks for your research. Apparently coincidence is not the same as consequence. – gernot Mar 28 '17 at 21:31
  • @gernot: Yes, I think it is mere coincidence. 'user was removed' messages are shown about two or three times a year (at least that's what I see on my rep list) – user31729 Mar 28 '17 at 21:52

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .