While using the (speedy) search on SU and toying around with votes:
and users:
I quickly hit the wall:
The speed of the search fell down from "pretty quick answers" to "zero", without any feedback. I understand the motivation behind that. But I do not have a stopwatch around to wait for the penalty. So, why not implement a simple timer which shows the user when search form actually works again?
It is also a bit unclear if ignoring the penalty increases the penalty, is that stated somewhere in the FAQ? Would be nice to have that directly on the pretty empty result page which shows the 'no more than 6 searches pro minute' statement.
(Sidenote: I was a bit surprised to see that someone with access to moderator tools is limited in how fast (s)he can search for a specific item...)