Can really old votes get swept?

[MK_Whimsy]

A story I posted back in June(!) appears to have just had a vote removed from it, possibly in a sweep. Only two people voted on it when it was published, and the lousy score it netted from those two votes probably dissuaded other readers, rendering it somewhat of a laggard from that point on. Now I see that one of the votes was removed recently and the score jumped quite a bit.

Curious as to whether anybody else has watched a really old vote disappear in a sweep? Can a sweep really go back that far? I was surprised by this and am curious.

 

[YmaOHyd]

Yes. Votes on one of my stories over the week or so have gone 162 -> 163 -> 167 -> 169 -> 172 -> 170 -> 168 -> 167, and all of my non-750 word stories lost a vote today.

 

[RejectReality]

If someone who has been super careful for years suddenly slips up, that's one way votes that need carbon dating can vanish. If there's a sweep specifically requested for (Some Grouping) stories, it scrutinizes the votes on those stories at a pretty high level. Near contest level sweeps. You could have been in such a group without knowing it. It could be anything. Stories with this tag are being bombed, can you sweep them? You would have no idea, and the person requesting it might not even know about your story.

Maybe you just got lucky, and that was a Joe Schmoe who simply didn't like your story, but some tool came alone years later and happened to end up with the same IP address. Sweeps run, troll boy's votes get swept, and Joe's go with it.

 

[Trionyx]

Yes and when there is a contest sweep, I find several of my older stories will have a drop in total number of votes, though usually just one, rarely two.

 

[Bamagan]

Aside from whatever happens with the sweeps, any time a person deletes their account, I believe all of their voting history gets erased (even if it stretches back years or decades), to prevent at least one method of ballot stuffing. If the account was largely trolling, no one will be sad to see the unobombs go, but if they had been handing out fives to stories they liked, those stories' scores might take a dip after they're gone, especially if the vote totals were low.

 

[ElectricBlue]

A story I posted back in June(!) appears to have just had a vote removed from it, possibly in a sweep. Only two people voted on it when it was published, and the lousy score it netted from those two votes probably dissuaded other readers, rendering it somewhat of a laggard from that point on. Now I see that one of the votes was removed recently and the score jumped quite a bit.

Curious as to whether anybody else has watched a really old vote disappear in a sweep? Can a sweep really go back that far? I was surprised by this and am curious.

Yes. I've got stories that are ten year's old, and every now and then I see the Vote count drop by one or two, invariably coupled with a jump in the score. I surmise that the sweep algorithm runs through the entire story database.

 

[RejectReality]

Just because it's an old story doesn't mean it's an old vote.

 

[Omenainen]

I think that if an account is removed, also the votes casted under it are removed, and sometimes people have some kind of “if I die I want my porn accounts deleted” arrangements. It’s not only trolls that get banned that have their accounts removed. And I beg to differ that a story posted in June is “really old”.

 

[SimonDoom]

For about a month, during the summer a few years ago, a series of sweeps happened that noticeably lowered vote counts for stories across the board, including older stories. So, yes, it can happen. That sweep was so significant, however, that it was my impression that there wouldn't be further sweeps of stories farther back than that. But I don't know. I've never seen a sweep as significant since.

 

[ElectricBlue]

For about a month, during the summer a few years ago, a series of sweeps happened that noticeably lowered vote counts for stories across the board, including older stories. So, yes, it can happen. That sweep was so significant, however, that it was my impression that there wouldn't be further sweeps of stories farther back than that. But I don't know. I've never seen a sweep as significant since.

Yep, The Great Purge of whatever year that was. That was a great clear out of something, that's for sure.

 

[Cagivagurl]

It surprises me...
That some of you know exactly how many votes you have on stories written months / years ago...
I admit to watching for a couple of days after posting a story, but. That's it...
Does it matter????
Is it important to you????
OMG...
Move on people...
It's done, the little ones are free... They have to live their lives...

Cagivagurl

 

[ElectricBlue]

It surprises me...
That some of you know exactly how many votes you have on stories written months / years ago...
I admit to watching for a couple of days after posting a story, but. That's it...
Does it matter????
Is it important to you????
OMG...
Move on people...
It's done, the little ones are free... They have to live their lives...

Cagivagurl

It's not hard to have a general idea of what's going on in your story file, if your memory is reasonable. Some people do the whole spreadsheet stats thing, others (like me) can see the broad patterns over time. For example, several years ago my lowest ranked story ever was 3.86. Now my lowest is 4.01 - a different story. There's no great skill needed to remember stuff like that.

 

[alohadave]

It surprises me...
That some of you know exactly how many votes you have on stories written months / years ago...
I admit to watching for a couple of days after posting a story, but. That's it...
Does it matter????
Is it important to you????
OMG...
Move on people...
It's done, the little ones are free... They have to live their lives...

Cagivagurl

Some of us track our stats. I download weekly and compare. I can see when votes are added and removed and how the score changes (or doesn't. Vote changes don't always register a score change. They get sticky with some stories).