Posting Limits and Restrictions

Pro. This feature requires WB Member Blog Pro. The free plugin must be installed and active first. See the Pro index for every Pro module.

The Post Restrictions module controls how many posts a member can publish in a period, and how long a post must be. Use it to slow down spam, give different roles different allowances, or keep posts to a minimum length. The module is on by default.

Settings live at WB Plugins > Member Blog > Restrictions. The tab appears only while the Post Restrictions module is on (see Modules).

What the Restrictions Tab Controls

Card	What it sets	Details
Global Settings	Limit Warning, Word Count Limits, Per-User Overrides	See the table below.
Role-Based Limits	Posts per hour, day, week, month and year, per WordPress role	Setting Up Posting Limits
Member Type Limits	The same five limits per member type	Shown only when BuddyPress or BuddyBoss has member types. Setting Up Posting Limits
Exempt Users	Members who bypass every restriction	Overrides and Exemptions

A strip at the top counts Roles Configured, Member Types (when available), Exempt Users and whether Limit Warnings are ON or OFF.

Global Settings

Setting	What it does	Default
Limit Warning	Shows a “Posting Limit Warning” box above the post form once a member has used this percentage of any limit. The percentage must be between 50 and 99.	On, at 80%
Word Count Limits	Minimum and maximum words for a post that goes live. 0 turns that end off.	Min 0, Max 0 (off)
Per-User Overrides	Lets you set a personal limit on a member’s WordPress profile. Each period you fill in replaces that period’s role or member-type limit; empty periods keep it.	Off

Click Save Settings at the bottom of the tab to save every card at once.

How Limits Are Counted

Limits count published posts in calendar periods, in the site’s timezone:

Period	Counts posts published	Resets
Per Hour	This hour	At the top of the next hour
Per Day	Today	At midnight
Per Week	This week, from Monday	Next Monday
Per Month	This month, from the 1st	On the 1st of next month
Per Year	This year, from 1 January	On 1 January

Every period is checked on its own and the tightest one wins. With 2 per hour and 10 per day, a member can publish at most 2 in any hour and 10 in any day. Leave a period empty, or enter 0, for no limit in that period.

Administrators are never limited. Which limit applies to a member is decided in this order:

1. Exempt: an administrator, or a member on the Exempt Users list, has no limits.
2. Personal override: when Per-User Overrides is on, for each period the member has a personal limit in. Other periods fall through to the member type or role.
3. Member type: when the member has a member type with limits set.
4. Role: the first configured role the member holds.

What Members See

The quota line. Above their own Published list, a limited member sees one line such as “3 of 5 posts left this month. Resets on the 1st of next month (in 7 days).” With several limits it names the one with the fewest posts left. For a limit of 10 or fewer the line always shows. For a larger limit it stays hidden until a fifth or less is left, so a member allowed 100 posts a month sees nothing until 20 or fewer remain. Once a limit is reached the line says so, for example “You have reached your monthly post limit.” followed by the reset date. Only the member sees this line; exempt members see nothing.

This line replaced the Post Limits sub-tab that used to sit under the member’s Settings tab.

The warning. With Limit Warning on, once a member has used the warning percentage of a limit, a “Posting Limit Warning” box above the post form says how many posts remain and when the period resets, for example “You have 1 post remaining this month.”

At the limit. A member at a limit keeps the full post form. They can write, save drafts, and update posts that are already published. Only publishing a new post, or submitting one for review, waits for the reset. One banner above the form, headed “Posting limit reached”, names the limit and the reset date and says “You can keep writing and save this post as a draft. Publishing is turned off until then.” The Publish and Submit for Review buttons are disabled; Save Draft still works.

Updating a live post never counts against a limit and never takes the post off the site.

Limits in Other Places

The same rule applies wherever a post is published, not only on the front-end form:

• Block editor and REST API. Publishing a new post past a limit is refused with the same reason.
• Review queue. When a reviewer approves a pending post and the author’s limit has since been reached, the post goes back to the author’s drafts and the reviewer is told why.
• Scheduled posts. If the author is at a limit when a scheduled post is due, it returns to draft and the author is emailed that it could not be published, which limit stopped it and when that limit resets.

A Member Says They Cannot Post

Check these in order:

1. Is it really a limit? Ask what happens when they try to publish. A limit shows a “Posting limit reached” banner naming the period and reset date. A different message (word count, credits, or “Your account can’t publish posts”) is a different problem; see Word Count Limits and Post Credits.
2. Can they still write? They should be able to open the composer, write, and save a draft. If they cannot do that either, the limit is not the cause; check their role can create posts at all.
3. Which limit applies to them? Check, in order: are they on the Exempt Users list, do they have a personal override, do they have a member type with limits, and finally their role’s limit. The quota line above their Published list, and the banner itself, name the one that is actually enforced.
4. Has the period actually reset? Compare the reset date they were shown against the site’s current time. Per Hour resets at the top of the hour, Per Day at midnight, Per Week on Monday, Per Month on the 1st, Per Year on 1 January, all in the site’s timezone.
5. Did they update a live post, or try to publish a new one? Updating a post that is already published is never limited. Only a new publish, or a submission for review, is held.

Related

• Setting Up Posting Limits
• Word Count Limits
• Overrides and Exemptions
• Post Credits - control posting volume by charging for it instead.
• Modules