Rails - returning false from before_create prevents changes to other models

Question

I have a before_create filter that checks if people are posting too many comments.

If they are I want to flag their account.

class Comment < ActiveRecord::Base
  before_create :check_rate_limit

  def check_rate_limit
    comments_in_last_minute = self.user.comments.count(:conditions => ["comments.created_at > ?", 1.minute.ago])
    if comments_in_last_minute > 2
      user.update_attribute :status, "suspended"
      return false
    end
    true
  end
end

The before filter returns false to stop the comment from being created. The problem is that this triggers a ROLLBACK which also undoes the changes I made to the user model.

What's the correct pattern to accomplish this? Specifically: running a check each time an object is created and being able to edit another model if the check fails.

Answer 1

This isn't an ideal answer but for now I ended up just returning true even when the account was suspended. This way one more went through, but future ones did not.