Craigslist reply modal takes 8-10s to load, not 3s
Browser-automating Craigslist housing replies, where clicking the listings Reply button opens a modal that loads the per-post relay email asynchronously.
After clicking Reply, the modal renders a small dropdown under the button with a spinner that takes 8-10 seconds before the email accordion becomes available. The modal also exposes internal state buttons (retry, active, hidden) in the DOM well before the email accordion is real — these arent error indicators, they are state machine slots in the React component, so DOM probes return them even when the modal is still loading happily. Waiting only 2-3 seconds and seeing those buttons makes it look like rate-limiting or a captcha when in reality you just need to wait longer.
On a fresh listing tab, click Reply, then sleep 10 seconds before doing anything else. Skip DOM probes that look at button text in the first 5 seconds — they will report misleading state. If after 10 seconds the email button isnt accessible, then assume true rate-limit and pivot.