How long does automatic “New user typed too fast” silence last?

Where can I find how long this automatic silence lasts or where that duration is configured?

I’ve checked:

  • Admin → Settings → Trust Levels
  • Admin → Settings → Posting
  • Rate limit and new user settings

I don’t see an explicit silence duration setting tied to this behavior, and the UI doesn’t show an expiry time for the silence.

Is it permanent? For new users, I would like to be able to set this for 24 hours. So far, most spam accounts that are silenced don’t return to try again. But real users will return. Sometimes they are silenced for pasting their first message.

I also read: New user auto-silenced with no option to approve?


Lastly,

image

As admin, I don’t get these messages. So I need to add myself as a moderator also?

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They are silenced until they are unsilenced by the manual actions of a moderator.

These moderators will be warned by a flag, which will be in the review queue (available at /review). Here’s a redacted screenshot of one from Meta earlier today:

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It is a bit odd that we have this code, which defaults to a 1000 years (lol), but also seemed to have had the ability to set a custom configuration though

@user.silenced_till = @opts[:silenced_till] || 1000.years.from_now

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lol thanks. Where would I change this to 24 hours, but for only first-time posters who type too fast?

@Bas I don’t get those warnings in notifications. So it would seem as admin I also need to add myself to the mods group.

I don’t think you can atm. At least definitely not via UI. It could be an oversight or just something we have never implemented.

We do have the duration-setting for silencing in chat, which was added more recently, so I think this is a good candidate to make a feature request for :slight_smile:

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Ok thanks. In the meantime, I will add myself to the mods group to receive the notifications.

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If you haven’t already you may also want to check the site settings related to automatic silencing, especially Notify mods when user silenced

I assumed that the code would be used for the custom time period when you manually silence a user for a certain amount of time.

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Yes, that’s already checked, but I don’t get the alerts.

That’s interesting. We also have that setting checked on our site but it seems that moderators do not always get the alert in the Review Queue.

I thought it was perhaps a quirk related to our particular Discourse instance but perhaps not.

The problem is that it is completely random; sometimes we get alerts, other times not.

Any ideas how to troubleshoot this?

I think the setting is kind of the backup so moderators know even when the user isn’t added to the review queue (for whatever reason :woman_shrugging: ).

Is there a PM in the inbox of the moderator group about the user being silenced?

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No, there is not.

The most basic flow is like this:

  • system silences a user (for whatever reason)
  • it appears in the Review Queue
  • moderators deal with it

There is no PM, no other notification indicating a user was silenced for typing too fast etc.

The only reason I know there are these random times without notifications is because I regularly check the Admin >> Users >> Silenced tab.

I just wanted to make sure that no message is actually sent. It could also be that no one notices because the notification level of the moderator inbox is set so that it causes little (in this case, perhaps too little) noise.

I think it could work to use data-explorer and automation to send a message or post in a topic in the staff category when @system silences a user.

Something like:

SELECT target_user_id, details, updated_at
FROM user_histories
WHERE action = 30
AND acting_user_id = -1
AND updated_at  >= NOW() - INTERVAL '1 hour'

And a “Schedule a PM with Data Explorer results” or a “Schedule a post in a topic with Data Explorer results” automation that runs every hour

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