Hello, Guest the thread was viewed1.9k times and contains 5 replies

last post from niallquinn1971 at the

Wiki rate limit

    Isn't it a FAQ that what can a new registered account do when the rate limit is 0.87 edits per minute? :-)

    I mean I wasn't even able to edit my userpage and I cannot sit around for hours to edit some pages. I get bored fast, move on and forget about it.

    I was hoped to read in the faq that:

    • what is the new user rate limit (numbers)?
    • does it automagically go away or does it need some actions?
    • can it be lifted manually by making sacrifice to a random god or it's carved into granite?


    As an anti-abuse measure, you are limited from performing this action too many times in a short space of time, and you have exceeded this limit. Please try again in a few minutes.


    (ps: the forum post preview window, white letters on light gray background is very unique in a horribly disturbing way.)

    You can just use the Preview button instead of saving every little edit individually. This is good practice anyways as it keeps the article history from getting clogged with tiny edits.

    The rate limit is there to prevent spammers who just created a new account from spamming hundreds of pages in a short time. And yes, this has happened before.

    The limit gets changed after some edits (and/or when the accounts gets confirmed via mail I believe).

    Quote from 1570

    You can just use the Preview button instead of saving every little edit individually. This is good practice anyways as it keeps the article history from getting clogged with tiny edits.

    The rate limit is there to prevent spammers who just created a new account from spamming hundreds of pages in a short time. And yes, this has happened before.

    The limit gets changed after some edits (and/or when the accounts gets confirmed via mail I believe).


    Well I am not sure how do you imagine that. How do you think the preview to be used for one send, and how would it help sending the second post? I am also not sure two posts/responses could be considered "every little edits". If you imagined it as I have been spamming the forum I have to disappoint you: I just did what I wrote: tried to send two articles within 5-10 minutes, and do one edit on my userpage.


    Since I have been operating servers for the last, oh well, 25 years, I have some vague ideas about what rate limits can do, and also I have some practical experience in how not to implement it. I actually mentioned it since old users exempt from the limits may not be aware how aggressively it prevents new users with good intentions from actually interacting and without providing much info about the expected course of normalisation. :-)


    Limits are not related to email verification (at least I kept the order in 1. verify 2. post), and I wouldn't really expect people to hang around to be able to post enough to make it raise the limits, and people in the age range for C64 aren't always hanging around waiting for nothing. :-)

    But I just wanted to tell you, since you may not have been aware. I'm absolutely fine without posting again, which is probably prevented by the system anyway.

    If we up the limits for new users to say two edits per minute, some spammer will come along and spam hundreds of pages until somebody notices. As said, this has happened.


    Revised settings for the current installation are

    Code
    1. $wgAutoConfirmCount = 5; // 5 edits and...
    2. $wgAutoConfirmAge = 86400; // ...one day until not considered "newbie" anymore
    3. $wgRateLimits['edit']['newbie'] = array(3, 600); // 3 edits every 10 minutes

    If you think that upping these settings even more is the solution and are willing to do the cleanup after the next spammer hit, please do step forward. :)