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I recently asked the following question on God's number for higher dimensional sequential move puzzles. It was downvoted once and has a vote to close, even though it is in my eyes a perfectly good question to ask here on MO.

It sometimes happens that questions of mine get downvotes and I can't think of any good reason(s) why. Though it isn't terrible, it is somewhat demotivating.

Questions:

  • Can the reason for the vote to close be checked and told to me? Perhaps I can do something to improve the question.
  • Is it possible for the admin the check who has been downvoting a subset of my questions? I somewhat suspect it's the same person again and again, but can't prove it.
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    $\begingroup$ Quick answer from my phone, (1) don't take these things personally. As long as it's a single vote to close, don't overthink it. (2) No, we do not have voting record access. But, again, don't take it too personally, and I know it's hard to do. $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    May 10, 2022 at 14:07
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    $\begingroup$ To add some reference to the 2nd point (already mentioned by Asaf Karagila), here is a related post on Meta Stack Exchange: Is there a way to see who voted on your posts? $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 10, 2022 at 14:17
  • $\begingroup$ The same thing happened to me a couple of year ago in this Math.SE answer: that answer (the accepted one) has been downvoted two times at a distance of a year between thee two downvotes and without any explanation (however, I suspect these possibly are consequences of my post reviewing activity). There's nothing you can do for it. $\endgroup$
    – Daniele Tampieri
    May 10, 2022 at 19:47
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    $\begingroup$ For your second question, note that MO attempts automatically to detect and reverse "serial voting". If you believe that this has not happened after at least 24 hours have passed, then you can flag one of your affected posts for moderator attention, and explain what you believe has happened. $\endgroup$
    – LSpice
    May 10, 2022 at 23:24
  • $\begingroup$ BTW if suspected serial (down)voting is part of the question, the tag (serial-voting) might be suitable. I will add that some pointers about the topic can be found in the corresponding tag-info.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    May 11, 2022 at 15:49
  • $\begingroup$ This happens to me with relative frequency, moreso as of late; I think the ever present ‘culture cold-war’ of MO is picking up steam for some reason. It does make it slightly less pleasant to engage with the site, but this place is valuable enough (to me) that it’s ultimately irrelevant — the math is what matters, and the people who know the relevant math are (often) here. Best of luck, I upvoted your question (and voted to leave it open). $\endgroup$
    – Alec Rhea
    May 12, 2022 at 1:31

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I looked into that case, and even though your assumption may be right, I didn't find any indication of inappropriate (= not according to post quality) voting. If you are asking questions related to recreational mathematics (like the question you enquired about), it may always happen that someone puts a downvote, or votes to close -- and it is not their duty to explain. And if you ask multiple questions people may dislike or find inappropriate for the site for this or that reason, it may also happen that by the time, you receive multiple downvotes or close votes from the same person. That is just how the site works. That said, serial voting, i.e. votes in either direction one person casts on your posts in quick succession, is automatically invalidated by the system.

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