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A few minutes ago, while trying to post a question on User Experience, I was shown the dreaded error "You can only post once every 40 minutes"

You may only post once every 40 minutes

According to my network profile, my last post for any Stack Exchange site was made 15 hours ago on Ask Different, while my last post on UX was from 7 months ago.

Most recent posts

My only activity within the last four hours has been submitting two edits to existing posts, and accepting an answer on Anime & Manga.

Why am I being rate-limited when my last post was 15 hours ago?

Edit: I tried re-submitting my post on UX just after submitting this post on Meta SE. Strangely enough, Despite posting on Meta SE a few minutes prior, my post went through this time.

This leads me to believe there is some related issue here where posts on my high-rep account don't count towards the limit, but posts by different users on the same IP address do count.

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  • Would it be possible to display the last-asked question alongside a rate-limit error? That could be at least a partial solution. – Stevoisiak Mar 13 '18 at 15:14
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    @StevenVascellaro that would be a privacy breach, since it will expose the IP address of the author of that question. Only moderators can get that info and know what users share the same IP. – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 13 '18 at 15:21
  • @ShadowWizard What if accounts older than 1 month were excluded from IP-based rate limits? They would still be rate limited, but only based on their individual account. – Stevoisiak Mar 13 '18 at 15:22
  • Sounds valid request, maybe bit hard to implement though, we can't know what's going on behind the scenes. Feel free to start such feature request! :) – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 13 '18 at 15:23
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    Someone having an account for a month doesn't mean that they know how to ask questions... many people create accounts and never use them for years, they just vote, if that... having an account really doesn't mean anything. – Catija♦ Mar 13 '18 at 15:30
  • @Catija I agree. Rate limiting should still apply to month-old accounts. However, a question asked by a different unregistered user on the same IP address should not count towards that rate limit. – Stevoisiak Mar 13 '18 at 15:32
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    The reason that block exists for the entire IP is because people will just create additional accounts to get around it if the block is account-based, not IP based. – Catija♦ Mar 13 '18 at 15:33
  • @Catija That's why I suggested this for accounts that have existed for at least 1 month. If someone is willing to wait 1 month to ask on a new account, then the rate-limit has already done it's job. – Stevoisiak Mar 13 '18 at 15:34
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    Huh? That doesn't make sense... You don't need to wait a month to ask a question... and forcing users to ask questions unregistered is... really, really bad. Someone could still create four accounts one day, never use them, and then decide they want to flood a site with crap and post four questions, one on each account. – Catija♦ Mar 13 '18 at 15:36
  • @Catija another check can be added, e.g. user asked a good question before. – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Mar 13 '18 at 15:43
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    @ShadowWizard That effectively does happen. These limits go away when the account has a bit of rep. The current system simply requires the user to have demonstrated that they're a productive user, rather than simply trusting that an old account (but without enough activity to determine that it's a productive use). – Servy Mar 13 '18 at 17:57

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