New users are temporarily limited to 3 replies in the same topic

Meta Discourse
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Sometimes, I try to reply to a post and it fails with a message like the one below. Why? Why am I considered a new user, and why the restriction to three replies?

The message I received:

We’re sorry, but your email message to [“[email protected]”] (titled Re: [Scala Contributors] [Language Design/SIP Proposal] Pre-SIP: Proposal of introducing a Rust-like type “Result”) didn’t work.

Reason:

We’re sorry, but new users are temporarily limited to 3 replies in the same topic.

If you can correct the problem, please try again.

2 Likes
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Interesting question, why?

What would be a reasonable amount of limitation for new users to interact with a thread of the same topic of their interest, you think, @curoli? Independent of when that limitation will be lifted. Limitation does have the advantage that a forum cannot be overrun, I’m not stating that this is the best way to achieve that, but it acts as a starting point to DOS attacks where people that could actually solve the issue at hand, are unable to interact because of the noice created by new users.

(Personally, I think three is a reasonable amount, though I would argue for leniency towards full rights to compensate for the negative feeling that may befall new users when they realise they don’t have as much floor space as regulars upon entry, i.e. quickly let new users gain rights upon entry to move into the circle of regular Scala contributors).

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It seems to be a default configuration of Discourse. Note that it’s 3 replies in a row, IIUC. As soon as someone else replies after you, you get to post more.

We could change the default config, of course, if there’s demand.

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You think I posted three times in a row and tried to post a fourth time?

No, that’s not how it works. Check that thread and you will see I did not even post twice in a row without some one else’s post in between.

I have no idea how that limitation is supposed to work, but I’ve run into it at least a dozen times.

And how am I a “new user”?

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OK so clearly I misunderstood the configuration options I found. Indeed I now found two different settings. The one I had found before:

  • max consecutive replies: 3
    Number of posts a user has to make in a row in a topic before being prevented from adding another reply.

and now I found that one:

  • newuser max replies per topic: 3
    Maximum number of replies a new user can make in a single topic until someone replies to them.

I guess you hit the second one. I have now bumped that one to 30.

Honestly, it’s quite possible to do that very legitimately, if you reply to several different posts using their post-specific reply button. That’s desirable because the replies link to the posts they were replying to. So yes, given my (now obviously wrong) understanding of the configuration I had done before, this is what I thought you might have done. I do it myself every now and then.

Again, that’s a consequence of Discourse’s default config. It’s amazing how many config options there are. In this case:

  • tl1 requires topics entered: 5
    How many topics a new user must enter before promotion to trust level 1.
  • tl1 requires read posts: 30
    How many posts a new user must read before promotion to trust level 1.
  • tl1 requires time spent mins: 10
    How many minutes a new user must read posts before promotion to trust level 1.

I have manually bumped you the next level.

1 Like
6

Awesome, thanks!

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Then I guess at least one of those things doesn’t interact well with users who exclusively use the mailinglist mode?

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