Notice: I have used the search function and read ALL results, none contains a precise definition of what “too fast” is. Some suggest emailing HN, but I do not have an email address anymore (because they all want phone numbers nowadays). I’ve posted a total of merely 5 comments today, and have not posted a thread at all. The last comment was over 2 hours ago. Yet I couldn’t post another reply, HN told me “You’re posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks.”. So what is “too fast” precisely? Why is the timeout so long? And 5 comments in a single day does seem reasonable, why did I get a timeout anyway? I have personal obligations, it’s really stressful for me to keep what I wanted to say on my mind for hours and keep trying to post it again until it works 😐 So it would be very useful to know when I can post it so I can schedule this and be done with it 🙂 Side node: I know these timeouts are a policy decision to keep people from posting angry things. Have you considered the possibility that people might get even more vile if they feel like their opinion is being suppressed for arbitrary reasons? Because such a timeout script cannot take into account whether what the person is trying to say is right or wrong, it punishes everyone the same for trying to participate. And arbitrary judgements which are not by any means related to what actually happened are anger-inducing, it could push some people over the edge of not caring for good faith discussion anymore. As an example, in this case the large timeout of over an hour and the anger induced by that made me wonder whether it was even a script, or rather a manual action because the HN moderation team could have some sort of agenda against the (IMHO factual!) statements which I posted. Inducing such distrust does not seem beneficial to the community 😐 As an alternative to strict timeouts, I would suggest just showing a confirmation dialog: “You have replied just N minutes ago. Are you sure you’re not being angry here and want to post this?”
Story Published at: March 14, 2023 at 08:01PM
Story Published at: March 14, 2023 at 08:01PM