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Today a user asked a question on Money.SE. It is a fine question, but it is off-topic for Money.SE and really belongs on Economics.SE. I suggested that the OP delete and repost on Economics.SE, which he tried to do, but was blocked from asking there due to the network-wide 40-minute asking limit.

I think we can all agree that it is much better when a user takes the initiative to move their own post, rather than going through the migration process.

Can we encourage this by resetting the 40-minute question asking limit for users that delete their own off-topic question on one site in order to post a new question on a different site?

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    Quick question: why do you think it is better for the OP to do that? In my opinion migration is far preferable.
    – Rory Alsop
    Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 21:51
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    @RoryAlsop migration might not be in OP's best interest. Maybe I want to re-word my question so there is less ambiguity about on which site it belongs. But once it is migrated, it must stay there or go to limbo. I've had a couple questions of mine migrated that I did not want to migrate. In the end I just deleted them and walked away.
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 11:24

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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If allowed, this could potentially be a method to get around the time limit.

  1. User writes post - timer starts
  2. User deletes post - timer reset
  3. User makes new post - timer starts
  4. User undeletes old post within time limit

Therefore they get more that one question on the site within 40 minutes.

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    Just adjust the limit to disallow undelete if under timer. So the timer now resets when user deletes post, and while it is on also forbids undeletes.
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 13:48
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Your proposed fix might have unintended side effects. It might allow people to post and re-post their question, by deleting and undeleting, or might allow spammers to post questions on multiple sites, by posting their question and then deleting it once it has fallen off the front page (which can happen in a lot less than 40 minutes on some sites).

I'm not convinced this is a problem that needs to be fixed -- at least, not if it may have undesirable side effects. We want people to study the site topics carefully before posting their question. If they ask an off-topic question, we'll still try to help them out, but I don't see a need to go out of our way to accommodate that by changing the rate limiting.

In the example you mention, the question was off-topic "because it is about public policy, not personal finance". The help center on Money.SE states that the site is for questions about personal finance, and that questions about economics and government policy are off-topic. So, if the poster had read the help center carefully, hopefully it should have been apparent that Money.SE wasn't the right place for the question. In that situation, having to wait 40 minutes seems OK. (If they want to do something constructive during that time, they could take advantage of that time window to study the help center on Economics.SE carefully and look for opportunities to further improve their question or make it more suitable there.)

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Change the timer settings like this:

  1. When user creates question, timer is started. 40 minutes until he can post a new question.
  2. If user deletes question, timer is removed.
  3. While timer is on, on top of not being able to post a question elsewhere, user cannot also undelete questions.
  4. If someone attempts to undelete a question from a user during the 40 minutes, a warning is issued.

This should address the possible exploit as pointed by @Nots90 in another answer.

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  • I don't see how this stops the exploit at all. Especially since it adds restrictions of preventing undeleting of questions. A 40 minute wait for a genuine user isn't a big issue.
    – Notts90
    Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 18:31
  • I like this. The timer stops when the question is deleted, and starts up again when the new question is posted on the new site. And an undelete would be treated just like a new post: blocked while the timer is timing.
    – Ben Miller
    Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 19:36
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    So a user can post a question on site X, then delete it 10 minutes later, then post the question on site Y, then delete it 10 minutes later, and so on? This might make it easier to spammers to make multiple posts network-wide. Or, same for users who just really want their question seen by as many people as possible. (Why would posters want to do this? On some sites, questions will fall off the front page after less than 10 minutes, so once it's off the front page they might delete it as it is of less use to them anyway.)
    – D.W.
    Commented Oct 20, 2016 at 20:19

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