# 60 seconds between posting **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 10, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005 "2015-12-10T00:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/1 "2015-12-10T00:07:32Z")
So I just reported a new thread in the Elections forum. It was clear spam, so no biggie. Then, I go to post the word “reported” in the thread so no one else has to bother, as I understand is standard protocol, and I get the error message about needing to wait 60 seconds between posts. My previous post was over an hour ago. Is my reporting of a post counted as a post itself? Is this new? Or just some odd hiccup? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/2 "2015-12-10T00:12:42Z")
This is normal board behavior. Which has been explained many times in this forum. The “trick” is to post “Reported” in the offending thread _first_. \*Then \*click the report link on the offending post. You’ll be able to make the report even if it’s still within 60 seconds of your “Reported” post. It just doesn’t work if you do it in the other order. As you discovered. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/3 "2015-12-10T00:14:17Z")
You can avoid that problem by first making the Reported post and then actually reporting it, I believe. As to why that’s the case, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2015, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/4 "2015-12-10T20:33:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > This is normal board behavior. Which has been explained many times in this forum. > > The “trick” is to post “Reported” in the offending thread _first_. \*Then \*click the report link on the offending post. You’ll be able to make the report even if it’s still within 60 seconds of your “Reported” post. > > It just doesn’t work if you do it in the other order. As you discovered. Guess I missed the previous discussions. Can’t believe I hadn’t noticed this before, though. I don’t report a lot of spam, but it’s not like I was a virgin either. ETA: thanks to both of you for the post first, then report, suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/5 "2015-12-11T14:16:12Z")
The reason is because reporting a post actually automatically generates a post in the mod forum and the system counts you as making that post even though you don’t even have access to that forum. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2015, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/6 "2015-12-12T23:48:59Z")
Funny, it never occurred to me to do it the other way around. It just jars badly, as a programmer, especially one who deals with concurrent systems, you would just never ever do this in. There is always that chance that you would not manage to do the reporting of the post after you posted that you had. Nit-picking in the extreme I know. Perhaps I will resort to posting “Reporting” and then hit the report button - just to keep my inner geek happy. Lordy I am a sad case sometimes. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/7 "2015-12-13T00:29:17Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Funny, it never occurred to me to do it the other way around. It just jars badly, as a programmer, especially one who deals with concurrent systems, you would just never ever do this in. There is always that chance that you would not manage to do the reporting of the post after you posted that you had. Nit-picking in the extreme I know. > > Perhaps I will resort to posting “Reporting” and then hit the report button - just to keep my inner geek happy. Lordy I am a sad case sometimes. 😃 As a fellow programmer, I have the same '“problem.” I propose you post “Reporting” as a way to lock the post slot, then do the report. Then edit the original post to release it. 🙂 I know we’ve been told to post first then report before. Out of curiosity, do we know that the automatic post to the hidden forum works in this case? Does it bypass the 60 second check? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/8 "2015-12-13T00:54:26Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Out of curiosity, do we know that the automatic post to the hidden forum works in this case? Does it bypass the 60 second check? When I was a mod, reported posts came through as an email, as a forward from the SDMB. It’s just a programming quirk that you have to post first, then report. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/9 "2015-12-13T01:52:52Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > As a fellow programmer, I have the same '“problem.” I propose you post “Reporting” as a way to lock the post slot, then do the report. Then edit the original post to release it. 🙂 > I know we’ve been told to post first then report before. Out of curiosity, do we know that the automatic post to the hidden forum works in this case? Does it bypass the 60 second check? I too had the same problem. Felt awkward even yesterday when I did it again for the umpteenth time. I haven’t been quite so anal-retentive as to post “reporting” then subsequently edit it to “reported.” But I thought about it. 🙂 And yes, we know the other thread posting works; the mods have confirmed it in previous threads on topic. For whatever reason the 60-second check is bypassed. Perhaps it’s on a different thread or something similar. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/10 "2015-12-13T02:30:35Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > Out of curiosity, do we know that the automatic post to the hidden forum works in this case? Does it bypass the 60 second check? Yes, it works. It does bypass the 60 second check in this case and we do receive the post in the mod forum. > [@Frank](#): > > When I was a mod, reported posts came through as an email, as a forward from the SDMB. It’s just a programming quirk that you have to post first, then report. A while back, someone asked who receives PM reports, which was something that didn’t exist in earlier versions of the software, and as it turned out, they weren’t going anywhere useful. So basically nobody was receiving the PM reports. At that time, the software was modified to send the PM reports to a new mod-only forum, which is now checked regularly. PM reports don’t get lost now. At the same time, it was also modified to copy the post reports there as well. We still get the old fashioned e-mails, too. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2015, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/11 "2015-12-13T06:31:06Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > As a fellow programmer, I have the same '“problem.” I propose you post “Reporting” as a way to lock the post slot, then do the report. Then edit the original post to release it. 🙂 But do you then have to wait 60 seconds to edit the existing post? ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/60-seconds-between-posting/740005/12 "2015-12-14T14:15:03Z")
I don’t believe the 60 second rule applies to edits. The 60 second rule is for flood control and edit one post all you want, you can’t flood a board with it. edit: see?