July 2021 Ratelimit issues
Update July 10: While ratelimiting remains heavier than usual, the issue appears to be resolved. Most users should now be able to use Later with minimal impact. When in doubt, schedule 15 minutes apart!
As you may have noticed, Later for Reddit has been having some trouble getting posts to Reddit lately. Since about a week ago, many post attempts are receiving RATELIMIT errors (what's a ratelimit?), even for users that have not posted recently. The overall impact of this is that most posts for the past week have failed. Sorry about that!
What's happened so far?
- This issue began July 1, and is still impacting service. Approximately 70% of posts made by Later during this period have failed, and most of the remaining posts were substantially delayed.
- The issue is widespread. I have confirmed that other Reddit apps, including scheduling services, are similarly impacted.
- The issue arose on the first day of my vacation :(. So, sorry about the delay posting this.
- Reddit has not published any information on this issue. However, a recent post on /r/redditsecurity/ reveals that spam posts have increased sharply as of May of this year, with a notable spammer making upwards of 400,000 posts per week! (If you were wondering, Later makes about 5k posts per week across its entire userbase). It may be that affected apps have been caught up in a broader anti-spam effort.
What is being done about it?
- Technically, not much. The other reason this post is late is because I've been trying to figure out if there's anything that can be done. After some late nights searching for details and testing changes to the post scheduler, it seems like the answer is nope.
- Paid subscribers will be compensated. Current customers will be automatically granted a one-month credit on their subscriptions. If the outage continues longer than that – well, honestly, I'm not sure what I'll do with a post scheduler that can't post, but I'll definitely find a way to refund all subscribers for the unusable time.
- Posting limits may become tighter. If it turns out that the ratelimits are sticking around, posting limits will have to be adjusted accordingly to ensure that L4R, you know, works. We'll just have to wait and see.
In summary, I have no idea what's going on and the future remains stubbornly unknowable. If you know someone at Reddit who can tell me wtf is happening, or if you have any other questions, please contact support or check out the subreddit!