Facebook, “going too fast”: Cool stuff you should know about avoiding the Facebook error

If you are getting the “going too fast” error message, you are not alone.  People all over the internet are complaining about it.  We’ve also heard from a lot of you, and we understand.  Below are some common questions, tips, and facts to help you understand and avoid the “going too fast” error.

What is the “going too fast” error?

Because we want to help our users have the most success in their business while using our software, we do our best to keep you compliant with Facebook’s policies.  We monitor and share the errors that Facebook sends to us, to help you have all the information possible to help you run your business better.

Why does Facebook care how many items I post?

Fact 1 – Facebook sets quotas so it doesn’t overload it servers

First, Facebook sets a posting quota of 200 items per hour per user.  What does that mean to you?  Even though computers are really fast, even Facebook and its server farms have limits to what it can support, and the last thing that Facebook wants is for its servers to freeze and Facebook to go down… So we deal with quotas.

Now, because Facebook likes people to use Facebook, and naturally, not everyone spends the same amount of time on Facebook, it aggregates its quota based on the number of active users using a particular Application.  So, if there are 1,000 people using ShopTheRoe, then ShopTheRoe’s hourly quota is 1,000 users X 200 items = 200,000 items per hour.  And we post as many of your items as we can within that quota.

Finally, Facebook doesn’t care whether you are using an app or scheduler (like ShopTheRoe) or posting manually.  The “going too fast” error can occur whether you’re posting manually or posting from ShopTheRoe or another application.

Fact 2 – Facebook protects itself from malicious attacks

Obviously, Facebook likes you to use its software (it’s good for business), but there are many other businesses, governments, and organizations that  would like to stop Facebook from providing its services to you.  So Facebook has to monitor the activity on it servers in order to identify and protect itself from malicious attacks.

There are a few malicious attacks that look a lot like a direct sales consultant that posts really fast, without going into too many details here are few things that might get flagged

  • Posting or reposting the same picture over and over again
  • Many different accounts posting and reposting the same picture
  • Posting many images, videos, or messages very quickly
Fact 3 – Facebook changes how it flags people and malicious attacks

In order to keep itself ahead of malicious attacks and learn from the attacks that have been successful, Facebook changes it algorithms, often without warning.  That means that there are things that even our amazing engineers (and Facebooks engineers for that matter) just can’t predict. Furthermore, it’s why you can post the same way as you have been posting for months or years and suddenly start getting the “going too fast” error or get blocked altogether.

What can I do to avoid the “going too fast” error?

Tip 1 – Schedule your items to post before you need them to be on Facebook

Especially if you are posting a lot of items for a multi-consultant sale, online party, or a Live stream, make sure you are scheduling your items to post onto Facebook long before you need them to be available.  More to come in the future about some tips and tricks for using ghost albums to plan your posting effectively.

Tip 2 – Use your own photos

We all love to reuse other people’s photos, it saves time and headaches.  But, if you’re getting the error, it could be because Facebook is seeing that you are reusing the same photo over and over again (and flagging it as a malicious attack).  We recommend using an app like Consultant Aide to create your own pictures and upload them to STR automatically (we’re beta testing this functionality now).

Tip 3 – Use a STR Party page

One easy way to avoid the “going too fast” error is not to post at all.  With our online Party features, you can quickly and easily put your inventory into a Party page and then direct all your Facebook friends and groups to it.  It’s easy to use, and with our amazing 24/7 AWS servers, there’s a 99.9% chance that your inventory will be available for everyone to browse and purchase.

Tip 4 – Use the Facebook Cleanup Feature

Facebook counts every API request that STR makes to your account against your quota, including deleting photos.  As a result, we’ve just released a new feature called Facebook Cleanup.  Rather than using STR to delete each individual photo from Facebook (which counts each photo against your quota), we recommend that you delete the albums on Facebook  and then use Facebook Cleanup to remove the dead links that ShopTheRoe has stored from posting those photos on your behalf.  This should free up more quota and help those that are seeing the “going too fast” error from being flagged by Facebook as malicious.  We’ll be posting some more tutorials and instructions for using this feature soon!

23 Comments

  1. Darlene statton

    I used Facebook clean up yesterday and removed all dead links. Got the moving too fast error today. Is there a way to do a mass download of all inventory pictures in my account so when this happens I can have a back up vs losing out on a multi sale?

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Hey Corinne, great question. We have been tracking this, and there doesn’t seem to be any standard cooling off or waiting period that we’re aware of right now. For some people, you will not be able to post for just a few days and others it has lasted up to a couple of weeks. We have built in several safeguards into our posting algorithms that will prevent ShopTheRoe from attempting to post while you are being blocked by Facebook, but we would recommend that while you are being blocked you cancel any queued posts until the block is lifted, and then you ramp up posting activity gradually once the block is lifted (we don’t recommend trying to post your entire inventory the first day that your block is lifted so that you don’t immediately get flagged again).

      • Linda S Wilson

        Thank you for this information. I too got blocked for posting too fast and they didn’t give me a time frame for the block. So If I wait 2 weeks and try again it should be lifted? Or should I wait a month?

        • Wyatt Grantham

          Hey Linda, we’ve seen the time frame vary quite a bit between users. I think after two weeks, you can try posting just one or two photos and see if the block has been banned. IF it has, wait another two weeks. If not, then ramp up your activity slowly (don’t post all your photos at once). I have two theories for why Facebook varies the timeout period. First, they give people that repeatedly pass the thresholds for posting and commenting (spammers) longer and longer time out periods. We don’t always see all the times that our users get blocked, so it might just appear random to us. Increasing the penalty or timeout period is really common behavior, especially when sites are trying to block bots from faking real user interaction. Second, they make the time out periods random as a deterrent for going too fast. In other words, make the consequence for abusing their platform so big that you won’t do it again later.

  2. I paid to boost my post advertising and have received over 900 likes to which Facebook says I should invite each to like my page, By Joel Art Photography, and I now receive, “You’re Temporarily Blocked
    It looks like you were misusing this feature by going too fast. You’ve been blocked from using it.”
    Learn more about blocks in the Help Center.
    If you think you’re seeing this by mistake, please let us know.”??? WTF?

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Hey Joel. That’s frustrating that you’ve paid to advertise to those folks and then Facebook has started blocking your for inviting them to like your page. I’d try to respond to the likes as you see them… like set aside some time each day to respond to people that like your ads, rather than trying to do them all at once or once a week. Facebook mostly uses algorithms to track user activity, and they likely are seeing that you’re activity has spiked and that’s what’s causing them to block you.

  3. Melissa

    Great article, but it doesn’t mention the too fast error for accepting friend requests (accepting, not sending). I go to each page and make sure they’re a real person/not a spammer, and then accept the request. I keep getting the going too fast message. Any idea how can I be going to fast when I’m not the one making the requests? Thanks!

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Hi Melissa. Your scenario does seem different than what we usually hear from users on our site. I’ve never heard of someone being blocked for accepting too many friends. Are you getting lots of friend requests?

  4. Mick Goddard

    I have been subjected to various blocks over the years of being a FB user. What many do not understand is that FB is mostly automated and policed by software. If there is a glitch in the software, a user can end up being punished for nothing. To make matters worse, very rarely will FB reply to inquiries, I had instances where a complaint or inquiry went unanswered for a year or 2. How is one punished unjustly? E.G.: One time I was blocked for 30 days for posting a love song by Van Halen. The excuse/reason given was that I violated their policies of violence and sexual content. The song in question had no sexual or violent content. They would not reply to my inquiries either on FB support or via the 3 certified mails I sent to their corporate offices. In the end, a civil action was filed in the US District Court. The Us Magistrate appointed a “Special Master” to be the eyes and ears for the Court and to investigate my claims. Along with the lawsuit, a petition asking for a preliminary injunction preventing FB from operating pending resolution/disposition was filed and that very petition got the attention of Zuckerberg and his cronies from his legal department. Within 30 days a hearing in the Court was provided and the Magistrate found/ruled that the song I had posted in no way violated FB policies. It was also ruled that FB was wrong to ignore/not respond in a timely manner to complaints/inquiries. Additionally, it was ruled that FB cannot tell users to verify their accounts via asking for a copy of users’ ID or license and made ref to a lawsuit previously filed by Stewarts Law Firm…whom proved beyond a doubt that invasion of privacy was being done for sole purpose of FB selling it’s users info. The Court ORDERED that my FB account be restored up to par, a monetary sanction was placed upon Zuckerberg and I also was paid a monetary sum. FB is free to users and one would think that by that fact alone FB therefore is in every legal right to do as it pleases with it’s accounts and users. But the fact is that it’s free to use FB but FB is making big money off each of it’s users via selling your info as well as targeting the users with multi-marketing strategies.

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Thanks for the comment Mick. I know Facebook has been dealing with the privacy issues in the media for quite some time now, and it’s interesting to hear your story and how that was resolved.

  5. Tina Messina

    THIS IS BULL!!! Every single time im unblocked, i end up getting blocked AGAIN THE SAME FREAKN DAY. The error just says that i have been temporarily blocked from this action. Since it happens all the time i read about scrolling too fast so i have made a concious effort not to do that or post too fast. No way i ever post even 200 a day much less in a hour. Ive only been on fb since Nov. But this just started happening last month.

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Thanks for the comment Tina. If you’ve only been on Facebook for a limited amount of time, it’s very possible that your thresholds for “going too fast” are lower than other users. A common way that software will set thresholds is to measure a user’s average usage and interaction on the platform, and then flag your account when things look way abnormal. So if you’re new on Facebook, your average would be lower than someone who’s been using Facebook for years and is very active. It’s also possible that since I wrote this article Facebook has adjusted the thresholds down… Facebook has faced a storm of bad PR for people abusing their platform, so they’ve made a real effort to crack down on people that they perceive are making Facebook less fun for other people.

  6. Amber

    In an effort to update my home feed algorithm and weed some friends that were causing me some mental heaviness, I opened up my friend list and started going through them to follow or unfollow them. Part of the way through my list I got this error, telling me I am blocked from using this function….meaning the function of opening up individual pages. I didn’t even know that was considered an individual “function.” Until today, I didn’t even know you could get blocked for it, much less for GOING TOO FAST??? Now I can post and do just about anything on Facebook except look at an individual friend’s page. This is extremely annoying, since I generally use this “function” for my job to look up people in our community. I see by your thread that there’s no way to determine how long this block will hold. I don’t really know if you have any updates or words of comfort, but I thought I’d add my example to the pile of how terrible and unnecessary this new chicanery is. Too fast my a$$.

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Thanks for the update Amber. Yes, in Facebooks efforts to limit just the activities that they think are going to fast, they break down your activity into different functions. Most of the folks that we work with day to day get blocked for posting too many photos to their Facebook groups or posting too many links to their news feeds. In this case, they noticed that you don’t usually cull all your friends from your account and they blocked your from viewing peoples profiles.

  7. Sara

    This is seriously awful. I’m a single mother of 3 girls who has 2 weeks to be out of my house and needs to sell a lot of stuff to make the move possible. The marketplace has been a godsend this week in making that happen. Today I started to post the large items, such as furniture, and got the “too fast” message. This cannot happen right now. It’s a game changer for us. Is there anything I can do? 🤷🏼‍♀️

    • Wyatt Grantham

      Oh no Sara. I’m so sorry to hear you got this error during the most inconvenient time. If I were to guess, you’ve probably been using Facebook a lot more than usual as your selling off your things on marketplace before your big move, and Facebook flagged that as unusual activity for your account 🙁 There really isn’t much that you can do. Check back once per day to see if the block has been lifted, and if it’s not been lifted, don’t keep trying to post multiple times per day, just be patient until the block is lifted.

      Where it seems that you’re in a hurry, you might consider chatting with a friend or family member to respond to comments on your existing posts until the block is lifted.

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