i am loath to add my name to the long list of people who have replied, since as it has been mentioned, this topic has had more than enough posts. However, i would like to point out what i think to be a logical fallacy in merlyn's thinking. This is not meant as offense or defence of anything, it is just what i consider to be pointedly obvious and needs (if that's too strong a word, forgive me) saying.

Yes, it seems reasonable that one could find out who was downvoting for improper reasons. One could make a list of people who were around at the time. In order to do this correctly, since only active users are noted in the Other Users nodelet, one would need two snapshots. One at the time of each individual downvote, and one about 2-3 minutes later when it is certain that the (IIRC) 3 minute refresh on people who have actively done something happens so that it's certain that the name appears.

What then? One now has a snapshot? And if one did this silently one could figure out who it was, since they would not be prone to changing their names for anonymity. But now that you have announced to everyone that you will be doing this, publicly, anyone who would like to continue this tirade against you needs only create a new account and build it up until they can downvote you again. Not to mention that by taking this little vendetta public, you have now aggravated more people than was previously possible so there will be quite probably more than 3 people downvoting (when i voted on this it had a rep of -30! my vote not included).

i can understand being upset for losing rep or getting --'d in general. But this plan of attack seems feeble and unable to catch culprits with any knowledge of the monestary. It is not my place to give advice to someone with far more knowledge and experience than i have, but please, next time you get upset, please think about what you are doing a little (or a lot) more before going through with it.

Hope This Helps,
jynx

Update: Changed the "this" link to the appropriate node (seen above by merlyn.