After a throttle violation, could the error message include the time when the block will be lifted?

Question

I got my first throttle violation error after running in jsFiddle some example code given to me by a library author in response to a question of mine about how to use their library.

This is the error I now get when calling any 2.0 API: { "error_id": 502, "error_name": "throttle_violation", "error_message": "too many requests from this IP" }

Fair enough, but I don't know when I'll be able to use the API again, when my "punishment" will be over.

Would it be too difficult to include in such error messages either a timestamp for when this will be lifted, or perhaps a duration of the time remaining until it's lifted?

Answer 1

When this class of error is encountered, the number of seconds until the quota rolls over is indicated as part of error_message now.

For example:

{ "error_message": "too many requests from this app/user pair, more requests available in 76400 seconds" }

This is meant for debugging and development purposes only, applications should take care to not actually trip any of the API's throttles. As such the exact format of this message is subject to change at any time.