# Why is it sometimes I wait 120 seconds... **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878 "2013-03-25T01:42:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/1 "2013-03-25T01:42:01Z")
That I attempt to see my previous activity but then the website makes me wait another 120 seconds? This has happened more than once. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/2 "2013-03-25T23:15:58Z")
Could you be a little more specific about what you’re talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/3 "2013-03-26T00:24:11Z")
Lots of things are implemented via a search (New Posts, Find all posts by a user) and you have to wait 120 seconds between searches. If you are hitting the back button and going to a page that is a search, you’ll hit the time limit. ---
**Author:** ![Hottius\_Maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ab097/32.png) [@Hottius\_Maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hottius_Maximus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/4 "2013-03-26T00:30:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Could you be a little more specific about what you’re talking about? On some occasions when I sign in, I can click on my name and then statistics. Then I click on all posts by Hottius Maximus or all threads by Hottius Maximus. Sometimes it takes me straight to the posts and other times it says to wait 120 seconds. The frustrating part is that on rare but more than two occasions I would wait for the 120 seconds to pass (usually by clicking back and forth on ONE of them) and notice the seconds countdown, but when I got close to the time to go to the site then it would tell me that I have to wait 120 seconds between searches even though I had just done that and I was only clicking on ONE of those two not back and forth between the twol. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/5 "2013-03-26T01:05:25Z")
They are considered to be searches. And here on the Straight Dope there is a 120 second wait time between searches… probably to reduce load on the servers. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/6 "2013-03-26T01:57:17Z")
Those are each searches (and covered by the 120 second limit) and each time you re-execute one it is treated as a new search. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-it-sometimes-i-wait-120-seconds/653878/7 "2013-03-26T03:07:29Z")
Moved to ATMB. Colibri General Questions Moderator