# Why the two minute wait on reporting spam?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683>\
**Category:** About This Message Board\
**Created:** [October 18, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683 "2014-10-18T07:06:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683/1 "2014-10-18T07:06:13Z")

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Is it just automatic as part of the two minute package or did somebody set a time limit on the spam reporting? Assuming you want to discourage spam, it seems counterproductive.

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**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683/2 "2014-10-18T07:57:34Z")

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Given the sheer number of spam posts, I figured reporting just one of them (which is what I did) would get the job done.

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**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683/3 "2014-10-18T08:39:29Z")

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This subject came up before and I vaguely recall that it’s a relic of some old defense against a type of spammer/bot attack.

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**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:** [October 18, 2014, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683/4 "2014-10-18T08:39:59Z")

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It’s a flood control feature. It stops someone from maliciously reporting thousands of posts (and generating the thousands of moderation e-mails that would go with them).

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**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-two-minute-wait-on-reporting-spam/701683/5 "2014-10-18T09:37:08Z")

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> [@Der\_Trihs](#):
>
> This subject came up before and I vaguely recall that it’s a relic of some old defense against a type of spammer/bot attack.

Yup. [In this thread.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=732741)