Almost every comment rate limit stricter than “once per hour” is in fact conditional in some way on the user’s karma, and above 500 karma you can’t even be (automatically) restricted to less than one comment per day:
// 3 comments per day rate limits
{
...timeframe('3 Comments per 1 days'),
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
rateLimitType: "newUserDefault",
isActive: user => (user.karma < 5),
rateLimitMessage: `Users with less than 5 karma can write up to 3 comments a day.<br/>${lwDefaultMessage}`,
},
{
...timeframe('3 Comments per 1 days'), // semi-established users can make up to 20 posts/comments without getting upvoted, before hitting a 3/day comment rate limit
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
isActive: (user, features) => (
user.karma < 2000 &&
features.last20Karma < 1
), // requires 1 weak upvote from a 1000+ karma user, or two new user upvotes, but at 2000+ karma I trust you more to go on long conversations
rateLimitMessage: `You've recently posted a lot without getting upvoted. Users are limited to 3 comments/day unless their last ${RECENT_CONTENT_COUNT} posts/comments have at least 2+ net-karma.<br/>${lwDefaultMessage}`,
},
// 1 comment per day rate limits
{
...timeframe('1 Comments per 1 days'),
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
isActive: user => (user.karma < -2),
rateLimitMessage: `Users with less than -2 karma can write up to 1 comment per day.<br/>${lwDefaultMessage}`
},
{
...timeframe('1 Comments per 1 days'),
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
isActive: (user, features) => (
features.last20Karma < -5 &&
features.downvoterCount >= (user.karma < 2000 ? 4 : 7)
), // at 2000+ karma, I think your downvotes are more likely to be from people who disagree with you, rather than from people who think you're a troll
rateLimitMessage: `Users with less than -5 karma on recent posts/comments can write up to 1 comment per day.<br/>${lwDefaultMessage}`
},
// 1 comment per 3 days rate limits
{
...timeframe('1 Comments per 3 days'),
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
isActive: (user, features) => (
user.karma < 500 &&
features.last20Karma < -15 &&
features.downvoterCount >= 5
),
rateLimitMessage: `Users with less than -15 karma on recent posts/comments can write up to 1 comment every 3 days. ${lwDefaultMessage}`
},
// 1 comment per week rate limits
{
...timeframe('1 Comments per 1 weeks'),
appliesToOwnPosts: false,
isActive: (user, features) => (
user.karma < 0 &&
features.last20Karma < -1 &&
features.lastMonthDownvoterCount >= 5 &&
features.lastMonthKarma <= -30
),
// Added as a hedge against someone with positive karma coming back after some period of inactivity and immediately getting into an argument
rateLimitMessage: `Users with -30 or less karma on recent posts/comments can write up to one comment per week. ${lwDefaultMessage}`
},
I think you could make an argument that being rate limited to one comment per day is too strict given its conditions, but I don’t particularly buy this as argument against rate limiting long-term commenters in general.
But presumably you want long-term commenters with large net-positive karma staying around and not be annoyed by the site UI by default.
A substantial design motivation behind the rate limits, beyond throttling newer users who haven’t yet learned the ropes, was to reduce the incidence and blast radius of demon threads. There might be other ways of accomplishing this, but it does require somehow discouraging or preventing users (even older, high-karma users) from contributing to them. (I agree that it’s reasonable to be annoyed by how the rate limits are currently communicated, which is a separate question from being annoyed at the rate limits existing at all.)
Almost every comment rate limit stricter than “once per hour” is in fact conditional in some way on the user’s karma
That’s a heck of an “almost”, given that it excludes the specific example that we are in fact discussing…
I think you could make an argument that being rate limited to one comment per day is too strict given its conditions
I definitely think so.
A substantial design motivation behind the rate limits, beyond throttling newer users who haven’t yet learned the ropes, was to reduce the incidence and blast radius of demon threads.
I’d just like to register my strong objection to the very concept of “demon threads”. I consider it to be both misleading descriptively and detrimental to understanding forum dynamics and to building good discussion environments.
Almost every comment rate limit stricter than “once per hour” is in fact conditional in some way on the user’s karma, and above 500 karma you can’t even be (automatically) restricted to less than one comment per day:
https://github.com/ForumMagnum/ForumMagnum/blob/master/packages/lesswrong/lib/rateLimits/constants.ts#L108
I think you could make an argument that being rate limited to one comment per day is too strict given its conditions, but I don’t particularly buy this as argument against rate limiting long-term commenters in general.
A substantial design motivation behind the rate limits, beyond throttling newer users who haven’t yet learned the ropes, was to reduce the incidence and blast radius of demon threads. There might be other ways of accomplishing this, but it does require somehow discouraging or preventing users (even older, high-karma users) from contributing to them. (I agree that it’s reasonable to be annoyed by how the rate limits are currently communicated, which is a separate question from being annoyed at the rate limits existing at all.)
That’s a heck of an “almost”, given that it excludes the specific example that we are in fact discussing…
I definitely think so.
I’d just like to register my strong objection to the very concept of “demon threads”. I consider it to be both misleading descriptively and detrimental to understanding forum dynamics and to building good discussion environments.