Timed out with "Too many posts of this type in a short amount of time."

I'm sorry - I did not see your response until just now.  (I have not figured out a good way to see the notifications I want without being overwhelmed by other notifications.  I will keep working on it.)
I am open to reporting inappropriate content to you if you want.  You can send me a private message with either a form or your email.

I appreciate that you value my contributions.  I finally took the plunge yesterday and applied to be a Guardian.  I figure that way I can help with some of the flagged posts, and maybe also understand better how things work.  It sounded like I would never be told if I was not accepted, so it would be useful to know how long it typically takes for a Guardian application to be decided on (if you know and are able to tell me).
-----------------------------
I came to report that I just got hit with the Too many posts message again, for the first time in almost a month.  I have not made any help requests since March 27.  I was at first tracking every time I deleted a post: Only 5 deleted posts between 4/4 and 4/9, then 9 more deleted between 4/10 and 4/18.  At that point, I figured it did not seem to be a problem, so I stopped tracking when I deleted a post.

My last successful post https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-seventh-grade-math/cc-7th-negative-numbers-add-and-subtract/cc-7th-sub-neg-intro/v/subtracting-with-integer-chips?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNzYyODQ5MjUwMTI3OTQ1NjUwNzk3MTA2DAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICAh4XAuqUJDA&qa_expand_type=answer was at 15:36 Pacific Time, about 3 or 4 minutes before the post I was unable to make.

I am now able to post again.  The posting restriction lasted 12-15 hours.

Thanks again for the information! I'm guessing the post you tried to make (but were unable to make) was a Question type post---can you confirm?

I've confirmed there's some issues with how the limits are being calculated. You're not truly reaching any of the limits, but you're being restricted because the system is incorrectly calculating your post count. Once this is fixed you shouldn't be hitting the limits anymore. Some of the key people that were out for a while are back now so I'm hopeful that this will receive higher priority now.

Also, I sent a private message to your profile with some information on how to report posts.

It was a response to a Question.  I think I was posting as a Comment, but maybe as an Answer.  I plan to let you know that detail next time.

Do you think I should go back to trying not to delete, and tracking the few times I do?  Or does that seem less likely to be the problem, since I deleted over a dozen posts (4 in one day on 4/14) without having a problem until yesterday?

Thank you for the form to report posts I would otherwise flag.  I hope the ones about people spamming Questions about saying Happy Birthday to Sal can be handled quickly - those seem to spread like a virus.

No, I don't think deleting has any impact on this, so no need to track that.

Thanks for the reports! I've reviewed those and have updated our filters to help catch some of those types of posts.

I just got the posting restriction again, at 13:38 Pacific Time.  I was trying to post a Comment to a Tips & Thanks on one of my own JavaScript programs.

Prior to that I had made 18 posts in the last hour or two.  My last post was an Answer. I don't think I deleted any posts since the last restriction.

It is frustrating to not know when the restriction will happen, nor to be able to avoid it by not deleting and not posting help requests.  I look forward to when the issue is figured out and solved.

--------------------------------- 

By the way, I have noticed over the last day or 3 that the count on a user's discussion summary is often higher than the posts listed (such as "Questions (3 total)" but only 2 Questions are listed).  I don't remember seeing that before.  Is that a glitch I should document and report somewhere?

Thanks that is very helpful! I may have identified another issue with the limits, but will need to do a bit more investigating to confirm.

I'm not sure about the discussion summaries... do you have any specific examples? It may be due to hidden posts that you aren't able to see

I just got the Too many posts message again 4/27 13:38 Pacific Time, for the third time this week.  I still have not made any help requests since March 27. 

I was trying to post a Comment on a Question:

My last successful post was also a Comment on a Question, just a minute or so before

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Update, 16:14 Pacific Time

I can post again.

JaniceHolz That's a weird one... I don't think any of the issues I've previously identified would have blocked you from posting in this case. Did you happen to try refreshing the page and re-attempting to post? If not, could you give that a try next time? I'm wondering if the error message falsely displays sometimes without actually restricting you from posting

I tried posting to several other pages over a couple hours before being successful, so I don't think it was a false display of the error message.  I will try refreshing the page next time, and report whether that made a difference.

I heard from another user that they have had similar problems.  I am trying to get them to post on my Support community post about the issue - I figure getting information from multiple users might be helpful.

I just got the posting restriction again.  I cannot post a Comment or an Answer even on a newly opened page. 
However, I _can_ post Questions, even on the same page where I cannot post a Comment. (I don't think I have tried that before, since I rarely want to post a Question).

2 other users responded that they also get the problem of not being able to post:

https://support.khanacademy.org/hc/en-us/community/posts/35231517036813-Is-anyone-else-bumping-into-the-rate-limit-for-posting-even-though-posting-fewer-than-100-times-day

Should I ask them to use Report a Problem about it?

Thanks JaniceHolz, I asked them to provide more info if they encounter the issue again.

I applied to be a Guardian over a month ago. I cannot find a response in either of my emails.
Do you have any idea how long I should wait before concluding I will not hear back and will not be selected?

Unfortunately we're not actively recruiting or reviewing any applications for that program. That typically happens only once every couple years.

That being said, we do always look back at old applications and reach out to applicants if they're still active on the site, so there's a chance you may still be contacted in the future.

It would be incredibly useful if that information were on the page about applying, or on the application itself, or both.
I've been waiting and wondering for weeks.  If I did not have an in with someone like you, I probably would have just concluded my application was rejected.

I wish Khan Academy treated potential volunteers better.

Thanks JaniceHolz! We updated the application info article and form to include more information about when we do recruiting.

Thank you.  It's a little better.  It would be handy if there were some hint as to the anticipated next recruiting month; it would be nice to know if it's likely to be a month from now or 11 months from now.

I don't expect us to do any recruiting until closer to the end of this year, so it will likely be a while before you might hear anything.

We don't have a set recruiting schedule, it just depends on when we have the staffing and resources to handle the lengthy onboarding and training processes. So because of that we can't guarantee that applications will be reviewed around the same time every year.

When we start actively reviewing applications, we'll usually post something in the News & Updates thread so people know to apply.

Evan,
I just got the posting restriction again at ~9:03 Pacific Daylight Time (~11:03 Central Daylight Time, I think). 
I tried refreshing the page, but I cannot post an Answer nor Comment (I can post a Question).

The last post I was able to make was an Comment at about 9:01 a.m. (~2 minutes before the restriction): https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/x0267d782:cc-6th-rates-and-percentages/cc-6th-rates/v/rate-problems?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNzYyODQ5MjUwMTI3OTQ1NjUwNzk3MTA2DAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICAx_Kh4IwLDA&qa_expand_type=answer

I was trying to post a Comment on this Tip: https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/x0267d782:cc-6th-rates-and-percentages/cc-6th-rates/v/finding-unit-prices?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNTczMDQ4MjU0NDQwMDkyODUzNDYzOTU1DAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICA2_vfxukKDA&qa_expand_type=reply 

(At least I got 8 weeks without a posting restriction.)

~10 a.m. Pacific, June 26
In reference to today's posting restriction (see previous comment with links, currently pending approval), it looks like I made about 110 posts in the past 24 hours, not counting the maybe 2-10 that I deleted.  Was that too many?

I have posted dozens or maybe hundreds of flags in the past 24 hours.

I have not made any new Help Requests in months.

6 p.m. Pacific, June 26
I have a screenshot showing that I made several posts yesterday between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.  If the posting restriction is caused as soon as I make more than <max> posts in 24 hours, shouldn't my rolling total be below that now?  And yet I still cannot post Comments. :-(
(I will share the screenshots, if you would like.)

June 27
I can post everything again.  I am still confused and frustrated that rolling past the time I had posted at least 4 Answers or Comments the day before did not lift the posting restriction.

July 3
The previous comment was held pending approval from Friday morning until at least the following Thursday.

Evan Lewis,
I just got the posting restriction again July 3, 2025, at 8:03 Pacific Daylight Time (~10:03 Central Daylight Time, I think).
I tried refreshing the page, but I cannot post an Answer nor Comment.

I made 73 posts in the past 24 hours, not counting the maybe 2-20 that I deleted.

I have posted dozens or maybe hundreds of flags in the past 24 hours.

I have not made any new Help Requests in months.

I will put the links in the next comment, since putting links to KA content pages seems to get the comment held pending approval (I posted in this thread 6 days ago about getting a posting restriction, and that comment is still Pending Approval after 3-4 business days.)

Is there any progress on finding out what I can avoid so I don't get the posting restriction? It is incredibly frustrating, and also sometimes prevents me from continuing a conversation helping another KA user with math or programming - they wonder why I asked a question and then don't respond for a day.

The last post I was able to make was an Answer at about  8:01a.m. (~2 minutes before the restriction): https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-ratios-prop-topic/visualize-ratios/v/ratios-with-tape-diagrams?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNzYyODQ5MjUwMTI3OTQ1NjUwNzk3MTA2DAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICAx8bL-5wJDA&qa_expand_type=answer 

I was trying to post a Comment on that very Answer.

[Why was the previous comment with 2 links to KA content pages held pending approval, but this comment with 1 link to a KA content page is not?  The algorithm for holding pages for approval seems inconsistent.]

Evan Lewis

I got the posting restriction again today (July 19, 2025) at 7:49pm PDT.

Since you did not respond to my last few posts, including questions as far back as June 26, I am not confident there's any point in me gathering data about what happened, so I'm not feeling motivated to do it.

Maybe I was supposed to tag you every time I had questions for you?  I dunno.  I've been trying not to bother you, because I know you're busy and I'm only one user, but I'm getting rather discouraged.

Evan Lewis

I got the posting restriction again today (July 21, 2025) at 1:29pm PDT.  Refreshing did not help, nor could I post an Answer on another page.

What information would you still find useful if I collected it?
I was trying to post an Answer to a Question.  My profile only shows 60 posts I made in the last 24 hours, and I'm as confident as I can be that I did not delete even 30 posts in the last day.  I also have not posted a Help Request in the last 4 months.

Is this issue any closer to being identified or solved?

Evan Lewis

I got the posting restriction again today (July 23, 2025) at 10:50am PDT.  Refreshing did not help, nor could I post an Answer on another page.

I've seen posts from your account in the content area this week, but you have not responded to my posts here for a couple weeks. Are you too busy to be able to answer? (I'm thinking you were either sick or on vacation for a couple weeks, so may have a backlog if no-one was covering for all of your duties.)  Should I use Report a Problem to get someone else involved again?  I am literally helping dozens of 6th graders every day, and being timed out for hours (with no way of knowing when the restriction will end) is extremely frustrating.

The restriction finally lifted.  It lasted for 7-14 hours.

I just started working with Python a lot again, and I've had 3 posting restrictions in 5 days.  Is it possible that using the Python IDE or the Python Challenges could be affecting the post count somehow?

Hi JaniceHolz,

I'm very sorry for the delay, I was OOO for a few weeks and had a ton of things to review after that. Some other high-priority issues also came up, so other than a few responses here and there I haven't been able to monitor activity in the support center.

I did bump the team on this again before I left. They're fully focused on some other big projects currently and the changes required for this are non-trivial, so that's why it's been hard to get this prioritized. I'm sure there are other users encountering this issue too, but so far you're the only one we've heard from consistently on this so that's made it difficult for me to get more focus on this issue.

I've been able to trigger the posting restrictions myself several times and I'm aware of the causes for those, but these all require automated posting or other actions that users would not ever be performing under normal circumstances. I'm still not sure what's causing the restrictions for your account. It's going to require the engineering team to do a deep dive on this to fully identify all of the issues.

It's still helpful if you're able to post when you encounter these posting restrictions. That's been helping me track how often this is occurring and gives me more examples to look at! Your latest example gave me a new idea that I'm now investigating, so hopefully that will turn up something!

Evan Lewis

I just got the posting restriction again ~10:15pm Pacific Time. 
I was trying to post an Answer to https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/cc-6th-negative-number-topic/negative-symbol-as-opposite/a/number-opposites-review?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNDU4MDA1ODMzNTE3NzQ2MjQzMzU3NDUzDAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICAp4G2l8kJDA&qa_expand_type=question

My last post was an Answer made just a few minutes before:
https://www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-sixth-grade-math/x0267d782:cc-6th-rates-and-percentages/cc-6th-rates/v/introduction-to-rates?qa_expand_key=ag5zfmtoYW4tYWNhZGVteXJACxIIVXNlckRhdGEiHWthaWRfNzYyODQ5MjUwMTI3OTQ1NjUwNzk3MTA2DAsSCEZlZWRiYWNrGICAp_7Y-8AJDA&qa_expand_type=answer

I have not posted any Help Requests in months.  I doubt very much that I made 100 posts in the last 24 hours.

Is there any more progress on figuring out why this happens?

I, sadly, too have had this problem