# 429 Error could use a better description

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [March 15, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689 "2019-03-15T11:43:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![bartv](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/bartv/32/130052_2.png) [@bartv](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bartv)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2019, 11:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/1 "2019-03-15T11:43:48Z")

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The 429 error could use a better description; most users will have probably have no idea what this means and might think there’s a bug on the site. Something along the lines of ‘You’re going too fast - please try again in a few seconds’ would already help.

 ![a8b02fee777faaca7d3b9d0e451a3a9d43d8a33e](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/a/8/a8b02fee777faaca7d3b9d0e451a3a9d43d8a33e.png)

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### Author: ![zogstrip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/zogstrip/32/512781_2.png) [@zogstrip](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zogstrip)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2019, 11:50am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/2 "2019-03-15T11:50:49Z")

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The 429 means there’s a rate limit but it’s not always the same rate limit. I would happily merge a more vague description though.

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### Author: ![venarius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/venarius/32/133142_2.png) [@venarius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/venarius)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2019, 11:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/3 "2019-03-15T11:59:14Z")

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@bartv can you tell me where that exact message showed up?

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### Author: ![bartv](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/bartv/32/130052_2.png) [@bartv](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bartv)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2019, 12:15pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/4 "2019-03-15T12:15:09Z")

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> [@zogstrip](#):
>
> The 429 means there’s a rate limit but it’s not always the same rate limit.

Yeah true. I think my main concern is just that users think there’s something wrong with the site.

> [@venarius](#):
>
> can you tell me where that exact message showed up?

I was rapidly posting a bunch of messages. It’s not unexpected behavior of the site, I understand where it’s coming from.

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### Author: ![venarius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/venarius/32/133142_2.png) [@venarius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/venarius)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2019, 12:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/5 "2019-03-15T12:30:55Z")

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> [@bartv](#):
>
> I was rapidly posting a bunch of messages. It’s not unexpected behavior of the site, I understand where it’s coming from.

Just wanted to know it so I know where to look 🙂

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### Author: ![venarius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/venarius/32/133142_2.png) [@venarius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/venarius)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/6 "2019-03-16T20:40:51Z")

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Hmm… Cannot reproduce the error. It shows correctly on my installation.

 ![Screenshot%20from%202019-03-16%2021-38-58](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/1/f/1f46b34cded8ee1c12a8d3e00b1e1d7e2008277b.png)

 ![Screenshot%20from%202019-03-16%2021-42-22](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/0/f/0f1bdc3e1d314cb34c0a8b7b2ab9f48c1199fb6c.png)

@bartv can you provide me with some steps on how to reproduce the issue?

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### Author: ![bartv](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/bartv/32/130052_2.png) [@bartv](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bartv)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/7 "2019-03-16T21:34:24Z")

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Perhaps it’s because I’m admin - could it be that I hit an nginx rate limit instead of an app/role-based limit? I had opened 20+ messages in tabs, and quickly replied to all of them with the same message. This triggered the error.

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### Author: ![venarius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/venarius/32/133142_2.png) [@venarius](https://meta.discourse.org/u/venarius)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/8 "2019-03-17T00:14:53Z")

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Tried it on a lot of different ways to get that error, but the “worst” errors I was able to get were these:

 ![Screenshot%20from%202019-03-17%2001-12-57](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/a/6/a6f99b5cdccf38c29ba6ff3286daa6a734675ab3.png)

But even that error tells the users what’s going on.

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### Author: ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/codinghorror/32/110067_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2019, 1:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/429-error-could-use-a-better-description/111689/9 "2019-03-17T01:21:57Z")

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Unless this is easily reproducible, I consider that message “good enough” for weird edge cases.
