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Can you have two accounts for two separate people, on the same computer?

My sister and I thought so, but she just tried to create a new account on this site. However, I personally can't ask questions on the main site any more this month, because I have reached the limit of 50 questions per month, despite the fact that my questions are well received. She tried to create an account but when she tried to upload a question it said to her: "You can only ask 50 questions in a 30-day period". I don't know how I can help my sister.

Could you please explain why this is happening?

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    $\begingroup$ Sites tend to make "usermaps" for people, which essentially is a way of connecting all accounts on a given device or IP address to a single user. It helps to prevent abuse by using multiple accounts and whatnot, and the circumvention of punishments or usage limits. Not saying this is necessarily the case here, but I imagine it probably is. Hence, your account and your sister's are "connected" in this way, and may share the limitations and whatnot. $\endgroup$
    – PrincessEev
    Mar 28, 2021 at 0:42
  • $\begingroup$ Indeed, Eevee, you know more than I about such "usermaps". I do know the only exceptions are IP addresses for institutions, like colleges, universities, and big libraries, but even in those cases, the number of devices used is large. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Mar 28, 2021 at 1:32
  • $\begingroup$ A related posts on Meta Stack Exchange: Multiple accounts in the same household. $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Mar 28, 2021 at 7:45
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    $\begingroup$ In the meantime, even after your sister's rep exceeds 125, be careful and do not upvote each other's posts. And your sister should enter her own questions, because it's crucial in the long run to learn how to ask a good question. $\endgroup$
    – amWhy
    Mar 29, 2021 at 23:25

1 Answer 1

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The Complete Rate-Limiting Guide on Meta Stack Exchange lists the 50 questions per 30 days limit, and while it's not explicitly mentioned for this particular rule, a similar rule for 1 question per 40 minutes has the following remark:

This applies to the user's IP address, not their account. If the user shares that IP with other users, they can be limited by the other user asking a question anywhere on the network; similarly, if the same user posts a question from a different IP address, they may not be limited.)

Given your experience, it's safe to say it applies to your particular rate limit as well.

The reason for this behaviour is that we have had many people in the past who where only pretending to have a family member or roommate when they were banned from asking questions.

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  • $\begingroup$ As far as I understand this answer and question is not actually specific to M.SE. It deals with general SE.. $\endgroup$
    – lone student
    Mar 28, 2021 at 6:58
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    $\begingroup$ @lonestudent that is (partially) correct; all sites in the network share some basic rules. This particular rate limit is only active on Stack Overflow, Super User, Server Fault and Mathematics, and not on the 169 others. $\endgroup$
    – Glorfindel
    Mar 28, 2021 at 7:00
  • $\begingroup$ I have found a related post on Meta Stack Exchange: 50 questions / 30 days limit with only 2 questions posted. The answer is from 2011, so maybe it is not up to date. But it says that the IP check applies to accounts with low reputation. (The comments below the answer say that is it $\le125$.) $\endgroup$
    – Martin Sleziak
    Mar 28, 2021 at 10:17
  • $\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak Michael's sister presumably has less than 125 reputation. $\endgroup$
    – Glorfindel
    Mar 28, 2021 at 10:23

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