# What is the point of limiting new users to three replies per topic?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [1 januari 2014 om 18:54 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696 "2014-01-01T18:54:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zeynel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/zeynel)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 18:54 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/1 "2014-01-01T18:54:12Z")
I am trying to install Discourse and I ran into a problem and [I asked a question in the forum](http://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-installation-install-necessary-gems-gives-an-error/11694/6) and [trident] is trying to help but I cannot reply to his questions!! What is the point of this? How am I supposed to reply to his questions?
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### Author:  [@trident](https://meta.discourse.org/u/trident)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 19:06 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/2 "2014-01-01T19:06:38Z")
You should edit your post in that thread; as it will show as updated in the latest list. This is a similar discussion to (although this is about the 3 posts per thread):
[http://meta.discourse.org/t/limiting-number-of-posts-on-a-new-users-first-day/11667](http://meta.discourse.org/t/limiting-number-of-posts-on-a-new-users-first-day/11667)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 19:14 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/3 "2014-01-01T19:14:37Z")
You bring up a good point – for topics _you yourself have created_, we should probably relax this requirement a bit or even remove it.
What do you think @eviltrout?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 21:49 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/4 "2014-01-01T21:49:18Z")
On this topic I find it mega confusing that we have 2 types of restrictions.
1. Restrictions for users who’s accounts are 24 hours old or shorter
2. Restrictions for “new users” as defined by trust levels.
I would strongly urge to fold in 1) into 2) … explaining this is hell.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 22:04 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/5 "2014-01-01T22:04:20Z")
It is a problem if you put your evil hat on, and know how we calculate new users. Safety issue, becomes trivial to fill the forum with spam with one account, in about 16 minutes. 😄
Have you met our friend tupac? [New Question / Answer Rate Limits - Stack Overflow](http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/02/new-question-answer-rate-limits/)
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [1 januari 2014 om 22:38 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/6 "2014-01-01T22:38:29Z")
Our friend tupac is already covered by our standard rate limits.
This protection was introduced to stop brand new users from “dominating” topics due to patterns you observed at boing boing.
Anyway we can add “account must be 24 hours or older” to the new user priv, and communicate it to users somehow. I want users to learn what they need to do to become “regular” users.
At the absolute bare minimum 2 things should happen:
1. Don’t let people type in 1000 words just to discover we are going to tell them they can not post, that is very poor form.
2. Fix the error message: “You can no longer post in this topic cause your account is less than 24 hours old”
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 05:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/7 "2014-01-02T05:51:11Z")
I don’t feel any of this conversation is on topic here – the issue was on _a topic the user created_ he wanted to reply more than 3 times. That is easily addressable without a bunch of scope creep. If it is your topic, I think you have a reasonable Manifest Destiny claim that you should be able to dominate _your own topic_ with a zillion replies.
We also absolutely do not want to make people wait a whole day to get out of the new user sandbox.
Also have you even tried it? You get a small post it note notification above the typing area when you start typing that we won’t be accepting the post after you type a few characters. I suggest trying it yourself on [try.discourse.org](http://try.discourse.org) to see how it works, #1 is not even true.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 06:02 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/8 "2014-01-02T06:02:59Z")
Point #1 still stands ALSO, it is a **lie** this is not a “new user” restriction, its a restriction on accounts that are less than 24 hours old:
Point #2 still stands:
Both of these are bugs in my mind if we are keeping this “secret santa” behavior for accounts that are less than 24 hours
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 06:24 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/9 "2014-01-02T06:24:12Z")
If you don’t read the yellow box – which shows up **even before you begin typing** in the screenshot shown above – then _we don’t want you as a user_. What do you want the software to do, drive to the person’s house and have a face to face intervention with them?
The “sorry you can’t reply any more times” I _think_ is a shared post rejection message – it applies to a number of rate limits on posting in the topic. @eviltrout would have to clarify.
And all this discussion is still totally off-topic. If you own (created) the topic, I don’t think there’s any reason to limit your replies, even as a new user.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 06:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/10 "2014-01-02T06:26:08Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> What do you want the software to do, drive to the person’s house and have a face to face intervention with them?
Simple, disable the textarea, problem solved.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 06:30 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/11 "2014-01-02T06:30:25Z")
That is fine, but won’t they then just create this new topic to junk up the forum?
> WHY CANT I TYPE A REPLY IN MY TOPIC
(naturally in the wrong category)
It is really hard to cure the “user who cannot read” disease.
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### Author:  [@eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eviltrout)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 17:19 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/12 "2014-01-02T17:19:07Z")
I encountered this on my blog when I created my discourse install, because even as an admin I couldn’t post more than 3 times in 24 hours! I am going to fix both right now.
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### Author:  [@eviltrout](https://meta.discourse.org/u/eviltrout)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 19:47 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/13 "2014-01-02T19:47:35Z")
Okay I’ve pushed a fix for admins / topic creators:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/1478f08e4fe102b79978fa51b7846c85ff3f7c74](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/1478f08e4fe102b79978fa51b7846c85ff3f7c74)
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [2 januari 2014 om 21:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/14 "2014-01-02T21:46:14Z")
Wrong link, this is the correct commit:
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/f14506031520a3b8ab83aa25ee576d0c1b515ff9](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/f14506031520a3b8ab83aa25ee576d0c1b515ff9)
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### Author:  [@apere006](https://meta.discourse.org/u/apere006)
#### Post date: [3 januari 2014 om 00:33 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/15 "2014-01-03T00:33:44Z")
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> If you don’t read the yellow box – which shows up even before you begin typing in the screenshot shown above – then we don’t want you as a user.
Users don’t read any more than they need too. After posting a few times, you assume post it text = instructions you already know. I am blind to those instructions the same as with ADs.
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [3 januari 2014 om 01:20 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/16 "2014-01-03T01:20:16Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> Anyway we can add “account must be 24 hours or older” to the new user priv, and communicate it to users somehow. I want users to learn what they need to do to become “regular” users.
This still seems a sensible thing to do as well… no?
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [3 januari 2014 om 05:58 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/17 "2014-01-03T05:58:26Z")
As already replied earlier, no.
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### Author:  [@larry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/larry)
#### Post date: [26 maart 2014 om 20:16 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/18 "2014-03-26T20:16:15Z")
This limit is really confusing. There’s an interesting discussion going on in [Using OneName/Namecoin blockchain as global nickname registry](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-onename-namecoin-blockchain-as-global-nickname-registry/14057)
@Jeremy and I asked @ryanshea some additional questions but he ran into this 3 post per thread limit after he had written up a long reply. He emailed reply to me, so now i have the answers, but no one else does.
I guess this is ultimately my fault because I forgot (until I started this post) that Discourse has an invite system that avoids this and instead just sent him a link to the topic. But it’s still annoying.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [26 maart 2014 om 21:01 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/19 "2014-03-26T21:01:07Z")
He could also read topics here to earn trust level 1 on his own. But if you see him as a one shot who will only ever post in that one topic, yeah, that is what the invite button is for.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [3 mei 2014 om 22:36 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696/20 "2014-05-03T22:36:10Z")
I came to agree with you on this @larry. See our change here:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-there-a-topic-reply-limit-for-new-users/11513/9?u=codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-there-a-topic-reply-limit-for-new-users/11513/9)
[Volgende pagina](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-point-of-limiting-new-users-to-three-replies-per-topic/11696.md?page=2)