How do I stop someone from spamming "Trending Search Terms"?

Richie · February 26, 2026, 8:34am

Revisiting this in 2026

The rate_limit_search_anon_global site setting doesn’t appear to exist in 2026.

Before I go changing things that I don’t fully understand, could someone please confirm that that these are the settings I should now be editing to adjust the search rate limiting for users that are not logged in?

github.com/discourse/discourse

config/site_settings.yml

main


      
          send_old_credential_reminder_days:
            default: 0
            hidden: true
          disable_onebox_media_download_controls:
            default: false
            hidden: true
          can_permanently_delete:
            default: false
            client: true
            requires_confirmation: "simple_on_enable"
          suppress_secured_categories_from_admin:
            default: false

And do I need to rebuild the app after making these changes?

Topic		Replies	Views
Why I'm getting lots of searches from Chinese websites? Support	13	1978	July 3, 2020
Search for non-logged in / crawlers Support	0	277	March 27, 2023
Pageviews from Anonymous Users have exploded but Google Analytics showed no traffic growth. How to find about where the increase come from? Data & reporting	23	2459	January 5, 2021
Keyword based auto spam ban? Feature	25	4283	March 4, 2020
How to protect myself from bots crawling my Discourse instance? Support	6	1638	January 17, 2022

How do I stop someone from spamming "Trending Search Terms"?

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