Why there are limits at all
Every answer VERA or an Oracle gives is generated on request, and each one costs real money to produce. Credits are how that cost is shared fairly rather than rationed by who asks fastest.
Everything else here exists to stop one account degrading the platform for everyone else, whether deliberately or through a loop in a script. The ceilings sit far above normal use. If you are meeting them in ordinary work, something is wrong and we would like to hear about it.
Credits
You receive credits each day you sign in, and spend them on answers and downloads. Reading anything on the platform is free, and always will be: the charge is for work done on your behalf.
At zero credits, paid actions stop until your next daily grant. Nothing you have already earned or saved is taken away.
If an answer fails to generate, the credit is refunded automatically. You are never charged for something you did not receive.
| Daily grant on sign-in | +10 credits |
| Ask VERA | 1 credit |
| Ask an Oracle | 2 credits |
| Download a checklist | 1 credit |
| Open or read a checklist | Free |
| Questions about the platform itself | Free |
Asking without an account
You can ask VERA a question from the public page without signing up. That allowance is counted per internet connection rather than per person, so an office sharing a connection shares the allowance.
Creating a free account removes this limit and replaces it with credits.
| Anonymous questions | 2 per hour, 5 per day |
Posting in the Orders
There are ceilings on how fast anyone can post and how long a post can be. They exist to stop a flood, not to pace a contributor: a busy day of genuine contribution comes nowhere near them.
Voting requires an account that is a few days old and has earned some standing. This stops accounts created purely to vote, and applies to everyone equally.
| Posts | 10 per hour, 40 per day |
| Topics (moderators) | 5 per hour, 20 per day |
| Post length | 10,000 characters |
| Before you can vote | 3 days old, 10 renown |
What is not acceptable use
Automating access, whether by script, scraper or any other means. The platform is for people.
Reselling, redistributing or systematically extracting the content: the standards guidance, the checklists, the course catalogue or anything VERA and the Oracles produce for you.
Sharing an account. Credits and renown belong to a person, and a shared account cannot be moderated or held responsible.
Attempting to work around a limit, including by creating additional accounts.
If a limit is reached
You will be told which limit, and when it resets. Nothing is deleted, and no account is suspended for hitting a rate limit: it is a pause, not a penalty.
Deliberate or repeated attempts to work around these limits are treated differently, and can cost the account.
If your work genuinely needs more than these allowances, get in touch. We would rather raise a limit for a real use than have you working around it.