Sign up 2nd username attempt leads to rate limit exceeded msg

[Ningyoplug]

Describe the bug When trying to register a new account, everything goes smoothly until you're asked to choose a username and you happen to pick one that already exists. So obviously you try with a different one that doesn't yet exist... and you get the "rate limit exceeded" message, preventing you from signing up. I've tried waiting 5+ minutes, I still got the same message. I searched on twitter and found a tweet posted 4 hours ago by a man who says the exact same thing is happening to him: he was on the second attempt at choosing a username and he got the "rate limit exceeded" message, preventing him from signing up. So I realized I'm not the only one who encountered this problem. Afterwards I decided to use a VPN just to check with a different IP and restart the sign up process, this time i got the free username right the first time and was able to sign up, so this seems to happen specifically when someone picks an existent username at first.

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Attempt to create a new account
2. Pick a username that already exists on the platform
3. When told that it already exists, pick a different unused username

Expected behavior

You will get a "Rate Limit Exceeded" message and will be prevented from continuing the sign up process.

Screenshots

I forgot to take one myself, but this is from the tweet of that guy who had the same problem and who posted a screenshot: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GGNGl0YWkAAWXuq?format=png

Details

Desktop, google chrome, windows 10

[haileyok]

@Ningyoplug Can you see if this is still an issue?

[mozzius]

If I were to guess, I think it's because handle availability isn't checked independantly of account registration, and there are harsh rate limits on that endpoint. Might be worth checking the handle separately by trying to resolve it first and seeing if it errors with not found? (Graysky does this)

[jaoler]

I have same issue, when changed email adress. With one adress it works, with another it gives that error and i cant confirm that adress.