No it doesn’t. There’s no attempt to limit the number of OSM accounts per single email account. As an example, I’ve just signed up again here with exactly the same gmail address that I use for normal OSM access but with a “+” modifier on it. I can do that again, and again, and again, and the process would be pretty simple to automate (in fact I’d be surprised if the very large numbers of accounts created by this nefarious user weren’t created automatically).
The idea that any one person could sit on 10s, 100s or even 1000s of dormant, valid, OSM accounts is frankly ridiculous. This shouldn’t be a discussion about “how many edits can new accounts make” before they have to stop, it should be “how do we stop one person accumulating 100s or 1000s of valid accounts” that they can then perform vandalism with.
There’s a board meeting tomorrow. I would very much expect this issue to pop up in “Any other business” or “Guest comments or questions”. You’re on the board - make something happen to prevent this sort of thing occurring again.
– Andy (writing in a personal capacity and without consulting any DWG colleagues).