My prior, given over 100 karma lost in an hour, obviously, was karmassassination. But it would be difficult for a karmassassin to give large amounts of negative karma to a relatively few number of posts, however, given the restrictions on new accounts to downvote. (I don’t think you can downvote until you have positive karma?)
Hmm… could be somebody’s been actively maintaining multiple accounts to keep this option open; or there could be an organised brigade of downvoters who have really taken umbrage. Both seem unlikely, but not as unlikely as many people individually deciding at the same time to downvote many of your posts. A puzzler.
The former is my guess at this point, given that I’ve gotten over 100 upvotes since I posted this (thanks guys). And I looked at the only one who responded to my karmassassination comment, and it looks a lot like a dummy account:
1) Make several accounts.
2) Post comments with those accounts.
3) Use those accounts to upvote your own comments.
4) Once sufficient karma is achieved, downvote others like crazy.
Its sibling also has 14 undeserved upvotes, which seems strong evidence for 14 sockpuppet accounts being either used offensively on RobertLumley for some reason, or tested before bending the conversation more subtly in other threads.
I would strongly prefer that people didn’t make sock puppets at all, ever (even to right a wrong like this).
I don’t want LW to become a battleground for bands of rogue internet users, slinging hordes downvotes onto unsuspecting contrarians.
Poetics aside, LW doesn’t appear to have a large enough community for sock puppetry to be ignored (as this incident shows). And having the threat of a large karma hit for statements that are even only mildly not the “accepted position” would accelerate evaporative cooling (and make the whole website a less nice place to be).
And shortly after you posted that comment, my karma steadily increased about at the rate it would take someone to upvote every post I’d made. And old posts of mine kept going up and up, progressively further back in my history.
Hmm… could be somebody’s been actively maintaining multiple accounts to keep this option open; or there could be an organised brigade of downvoters who have really taken umbrage. Both seem unlikely, but not as unlikely as many people individually deciding at the same time to downvote many of your posts. A puzzler.
The former is my guess at this point, given that I’ve gotten over 100 upvotes since I posted this (thanks guys). And I looked at the only one who responded to my karmassassination comment, and it looks a lot like a dummy account:
http://lesswrong.com/user/CallMeSIR/
This comment does not seem to warrant its current number of upvotes:
http://lesswrong.com/lw/8s6/video_qa_with_singularity_institute_executive/5g9o
Edit: For posterity, when I first observed the comment, it was at +14 karma.
Ah, I see how it works:
1) Make several accounts. 2) Post comments with those accounts. 3) Use those accounts to upvote your own comments. 4) Once sufficient karma is achieved, downvote others like crazy.
5) ???? 6) PROFIT!!
put a dot and two spaces instead of a ) after the numbers to make an ordered list.
shows up like:
this is first
this is second
EDIT: Doesn’t look all that impressive, but it is an html numbered list.
Its sibling also has 14 undeserved upvotes, which seems strong evidence for 14 sockpuppet accounts being either used offensively on RobertLumley for some reason, or tested before bending the conversation more subtly in other threads.
Yeah, but he also has some legitimate other posts to his name, which weakens that case.
Did you notice this comment?
Looks like even the good guys maintain sockpuppets.
Edit: Or create them when need arises.
Yes, I did. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. I’m pretty sure he alone at least gave me 75 karma back.
I would strongly prefer that people didn’t make sock puppets at all, ever (even to right a wrong like this).
I don’t want LW to become a battleground for bands of rogue internet users, slinging hordes downvotes onto unsuspecting contrarians.
Poetics aside, LW doesn’t appear to have a large enough community for sock puppetry to be ignored (as this incident shows). And having the threat of a large karma hit for statements that are even only mildly not the “accepted position” would accelerate evaporative cooling (and make the whole website a less nice place to be).
Incorrect. I up-voted no posts.
What was the point in making this account then?
And shortly after you posted that comment, my karma steadily increased about at the rate it would take someone to upvote every post I’d made. And old posts of mine kept going up and up, progressively further back in my history.