Throttle Recommendation Requests

[cjlange]

To discourage repeated requests for recommendations and indecisiveness, disable the ability to request a recommendation within a certain amount of time after receiving the recommendation(s) from a previous request.

[aperullo]

How long do we want this restriction to be? It seems to me the spirit of this issue is preventing repeated spamming until you get the option you want. So limiting to one call every 10 minutes seems excessive, but what about 1 minute?

Also should it factor in number of requested options? If I request one recommendation and get h-mart, then I can't get a recommendation for another x minutes, and I can't go to h-mart because of a shellfish allergy.

On the flip side if I request 10 options, now I've effectively bypassed this restriction; because hopefully something looks good within 10 choices.

Thoughts?

[mdang8]

This is a tough issue. In a perfect world, we would not need this throttling because you would expect that people would respect the implied rules of the food recommendations and follow through with the selected choice. But in reality, we live in an extremely flawed society where it is seemingly acceptable for rules to be thrown out the window.

I see both sides of the argument and I believe we can come to an agreement. Personally, I am in favor of some kind of limitation to combat the widespread abuse of spamming new recommendations. As for the length in time of the restriction, I think it should take into factor the channel where the recommendation is being called from and the user that is making the call.

My proposal is that for channels there should be at least a 2 minute limitation on calls made by each individual user. This means once a particular user has made a call for food recommendations, they must wait 2 minutes to make another call. However, this does not prevent another different user from making a call within that time frame. As for direct messages, I think there should be no restrictions. This allows users to freely use the bot however they may please, whether that be testing its capabilities or simply using it for their own personal reasons.

These new restrictions should help reduce the number of spam calls, as well as still accommodate for any food allergies or extreme dislike of a specific food source. In regards to the point about bypassing the restriction by making a call for an unusually high number of recommendations, I have been considering placing a limitation on the amount that can be returned. Because realistically, who would ever need 30 different options to decide on a place to eat? If you do, then you should just bring a lunch from home.