There’s a PR ready for this feature, which I aim to merge this week! I’ll post an update here when it’s available.
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How to disable slow mode again, once it has been enabled for a topic?
Two ways:
- Using the button inside the
Set slow modemodal. - Clicking the
at the bottom of the topic.
I still need to fix a couple of issues. I have a PR open and will probably merge it tomorrow:
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I merged some fixes this week. The feature should be stable now and you can enable it from the topic menu:
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We are looking for active feedback on this feature, so please feel free to deploy latest Discourse and exercise it!
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I anticipate this being very useful in about 12 days…
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Thank you so much! We’ve already started using this and it seems exactly what we needed.
I contributed some translations for this feature.
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Today’s the day (week? month?)… let the testing begin! We are heavily prioritizing improvements to this feature so keep the feedback coming!
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We’ve had users complain that they can’t edit their posts to correct grammatical mistakes, since edits count towards the rate limit. While I think allowing free editing would defeat the purpose of this function, I think editing counting towards the rate limit is definitely counterintuitive.
What about allowing a admin-defined grace period where users are still allowed to edit, and then disallow editing of posts? I think any case where a user editing their own post resets the timer is just likely to cause frustration.
Users can edit their posts during the grace period determined by the editing_grace_period site setting. Keep in mind that the edit could still fail if the diff is too big. Admins can tweak this via the editing_grace_period_max_diff and editing_grace_period_max_diff_high_trust settings.
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My feedback so far…
When it is enabled on a topic and a user replies the user will have to wait to post again. However, this may be confusing because the reply button is still there even after a pop-up said they have to wait. My idea is that the reply button disappears until they can post or is greyed out.
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There are two competing schools of thought in usability for scenarios like this:
-
if you can’t do it, remove it.
-
if you can’t do it, explain why when the user clicks/taps on the button.
I tend to favor the latter. The “just in time” education opportunities are excellent, plus the UI stays consistent – you are likely to get support emails asking why the reply button disappeared, especially since slow mode is kinda rare…
I would also avoid putting an “entertaining” countdown timer on the button, since that might result in pavlovian “let me hang around and post the exact moment I am allowed to” behavior, which I view as negative incentives.
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It’s me again. 
Can something like the Auto-close for a category in site settings be implemented for slow mode where you could add a value in hours, minutes & seconds?
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OH, that would be great. I used it on election night to set slow mode while I was sleeping. WOuld’ve been nice to have it auto-end.
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Shouldn’t this only apply to the last post in the topic?
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No, because users will decide that if they cannot post, but only edit, they should therefore always edit… they will proceed to go back and edit in a bunch of back of forth into their existing posts. I am absolutely 110% sure they would do this.
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Hello, I just want to thank everyone for working on this feature. It has completely solved our problem, and the fact that it’s enforced by software and not by moderators really makes it appear less frustrating to users and encourages participation. We experienced as such, when switching from moderator-enforced slow mode topics to the slow mode feature that was released.
My stress and anxiety level from managing my community has really gone down since you released this, and I can’t thank you enough. Sometimes I just enable it arbitrarily on topics I know I don’t have time to moderate at the moment.
I usually use it preventively on topics that I already know are going to flare up, or that are maybe very complicated and I would like people to think before they post. I usually use it like this:
- 15 mins/1h: Usually used as pre-emptive slow mode due to the particular thread topic.
- 4h: the normal slow mode I use when a topic is becoming difficult.
- 1d: I use this slow mode setting when users are being particularly overzealous or non-collaborative.
- 1w: I’ve never used this.
We use our forum as a slow discussions forum, as I’m quite clear it’s not meant for chatting or to use as a social network, and we have a Discord for text and voice chatting anyways. YMMV if your community is more fast-paced.
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Slow mode is a great feature, and we love it!
But on our site the moderators also frequently post on topics, and can sometimes forget that slow mode is enabled…
Would it be possible to have a prompt if using mod powers to post faster than slow mode would normally allow, a bit like using mod powers to post on a closed topic? I think that would treat everyone a bit more equally, but still allow mods to get on with things if really needed.
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Sure @eviltrout @riking this is related to the “warn staff / TL4 when they’re about to post to a closed topic” feature so it can be bundled in as well.
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