Who enabled slow mode, and does it apply to TL4 users?

Hi everyone,

Regarding this feature. Are TL4’s excluded from slowmode or not? If they are not excluded, is there a way to do it?

Finally, is it possible to log who has used the command?

Thanks in advance :slight_smile:

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Hello there @Mattia!

Yes. This is not possible at the moment

No, not yet as far as I am aware of.

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I think it’s a good idea to have this

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Ehhh I dunno about that… it seems a bit like trivia at the moment?

Slow mode may eventually be triggered automatically by hitting certain thresholds (post velocity, number of new users posting, etc… not sure).

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It seems that Slow Mode might break the opportunity to edit a flagged message? I haven’t had a chance to repro this myself, but a couple of user reports suggest it.

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Yes, it currently blocks edits. I’m not sure how committed we are to that?

That’s an edge case I don’t think we need to worry about at the moment… if it comes up repeatedly, perhaps, but the feature is still evolving.

Is there any documentation written for slow mode? I could only find the announcement in the version update.

What are you seeking clarification about? Can you provide more information?

I’m interested in:

Does slow mode wait between posts, or between posts for the same person?

i.e. can person B post immediately after person A? or do they (person B) have to wait for the timer to expire before posting?

Who is excluded from the restriction? Admin? Moderators? Category Moderators? L4?

Slow mode is an enforced delay between posts by the same person, to a particular topic. Staff are not subject to this limit.

A lottery where only one random person can reply to the topic every (x) minutes would be a … very, very strange feature :confounded:

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When you put it like that… Maybe what I’m asking is can someone not rid me of these turbulent users?

:wink:

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+1 for giving the person who enabled the slow mode the opportunity to explain why.

Right now we do not have a record on who enabled slow mode and why. Some users in our community find it frustrating because they don’t even know whom to reach out to regarding the slow mode. In our experience, merely having the opportunity to explain diffuses hard feeling and conflicts.

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Is there any reason your staff can’t post a reply in the topic explaining why they enabled Slow Mode? Is there something preventing them from doing so?

We’ve more or less committed to allowing one edit in this mode, in the next release. I was convinced by the “someone yelled fire in a crowded theater” argument, e.g. they need to edit out that fire reference because it will trigger a lot of people.

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That’s what we have asked our moderators to do as a workaround. We think it would be more straightforward if we can post the explanation directly under the slow-mode action like we can when closing a topic:

The slow-mode feature also currently shows the following text, which most of us would interpret as nobody can comment for two hours:

Please wait 2 hours between posts in this topic

This has caused a lot of confusion within our community and frustration when they see another person is commenting before they get a chance to, thinking that they can’t once a comment has been made. Is this by design to discourage everyone from participating once the slow-mode is triggered?

From a community management and UX perspective, we think it would be nice if we know who, when, and for how long the slow-mode is triggered, so we can reach out to the moderator if needed. We would also appreciate it if a window could pop up to invite for an explanation every time a moderator closes or slow-modes a topic. As majority of our moderators are volunteers who process a large amount of posts on a daily basis; having such a pop-up window serves as a friendly reminder to leave an explanation in case they forget, which sometimes can cause friction within the community. It also would helps us moderators to keep each other accountable and reach out to each other privately when we disagree on a decision.

The slow-mode feature has helped our community tremendously in diffusing conflicts. We think these additional tweaks can make it even more productive. :pray:

I think this is something that should be discussed in the Staff category on your instance. If moderators aren’t communicating with each other, that’s not really something that the software can solve?

You might also have a topic for your community to discuss slow mode, what it is for, how it works, etcetera.

As far as

Please wait 2 hours between posts in this topic

I don’t feel

Please wait 2 hours between your posts in this topic

is really necessary? No other community that I’m aware of has interpreted it this way? It’s kind of … nonsensical… to have a topic where one random person gets to post, then everyone else has to wait two hours? That just doesn’t make sense?

I feel that’s fairly self explanatory copy. You must wait 2 hours between posts in that topic. If you feel the copy should be different for your community, you can edit that copy – or any copy in Discourse – via Admin, Customize.