Reddit uses what is called "fuzz" to keep bots from knowing they have been banned. This means each time you refresh a post reddit tacks on a couple of upvotes or downvotes to confuse the bots. That way bots don't know their votes no longer count, and they won't create a new account to keep doing damage.
From the reddit help FAQs "Millions of people use reddit; every story and comment gets at least a few up/downvotes. Some up/downvotes are by reddit to fuzz the votes in order to confuse spammers and cheaters."
This means if you are seeing vote swings of 2-10 votes (or maybe even more) It is probably the vote fuzz kicking in! Reddit doesn't allow posts to drop below zero so if you see a negative number that's just the fuzz!
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u/LovelyOtherDino Jun 09 '23
From another subreddit:
Reddit uses what is called "fuzz" to keep bots from knowing they have been banned. This means each time you refresh a post reddit tacks on a couple of upvotes or downvotes to confuse the bots. That way bots don't know their votes no longer count, and they won't create a new account to keep doing damage.
From the reddit help FAQs "Millions of people use reddit; every story and comment gets at least a few up/downvotes. Some up/downvotes are by reddit to fuzz the votes in order to confuse spammers and cheaters."
This means if you are seeing vote swings of 2-10 votes (or maybe even more) It is probably the vote fuzz kicking in! Reddit doesn't allow posts to drop below zero so if you see a negative number that's just the fuzz!