I've seen a few users on Meta recently who appear to be getting lynch-mobbed on the site after either posting an unpopular opinion here, or being the subject of a post because of their actions.
Example user 1 (let's call him Jim)
Jim answered a Meta question like this:
Stack Overflow is full of rude jerks and Egomaniacs who just want to make themselves feel all big and powerful by pushing around other users.
and proceeded to receive a bunch of downvotes on some of his unrelated questions on the main site:
Example user 2 (let's call him Bob)
Bob was the subject of a Meta post recently for sending the following offensive email to another user:
Y U edit my posts?! Don't you have anything better to do? Your website sucks and looks stupid! Why don't you learn to be a better programmer instead of trying to be a rep whore on Stack Overflow?
When this came to light, Bob started receiving a bunch of downvotes on his old, unrelated questions on the main site:
At first I dismissed these votes as being unrelated to Meta and just as normal main site activity, but after seeing these users' reputation history several hours later, it's clear that there is abuse going on here on the part of (some) Stack Overflow community members who should know better, and it's quite disappointing.
What are we doing?
One of the central tenets of this site is that we vote based on content, not on the owners of that content (including even any disagreeable behavior on the part of those owners). Yet here we are, apparently getting our "revenge" downvotes.
Why are (some) of us doing this? This is beneath us. The members of Meta are supposed to be the highest exemplars and greatest of role models for the rest of the Stack Overflow community, and yet we seem to be acting childish and petty. I was thinking about this in the comments earlier today: is it really active Meta members who engage in mob-downvoting behavior? Or is this behavior exhibited mostly by random, drive-by users who stumble upon Meta for the first time (through the Community Bulletin, for example), or who are infrequent visitors here? Or maybe it's an even mix of the two?
Regardless of who does it, the mob-downvoting on the main site, given when you merely express an unpopular opinion here on Meta (or take some kind of inappropriate action) is not ok.
Am I missing something here? Is what I'm saying unreasonable, uninformed, or misguided?
