Note that debouncing requires rates

docs/api-guide/throttling.md

@@ -222,6 +222,8 @@ Using `get_debounce_interval()`, one can e.g. ensure superusers can always invok
                 return 0
             return 5
 
+Note that due to the current implementation, debouncing _requires_ a throttling rate to be set as well.
+
 [cite]: https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/basics/rate-limiting
 [permissions]: permissions.md
 [identifying-clients]: http://oxpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=AppSuite:Grizzly#Multiple_Proxies_in_front_of_the_cluster

rest_framework/throttling.py

@@ -67,6 +67,9 @@ class SimpleRateThrottle(BaseThrottle):
     debounce_interval = None
 
     def __init__(self):
+        # TODO: this should probably be deferred to `allow_request`,
+        #       to simplify `ScopedRateThrottle` as well as to allow debouncing
+        #       without rate limiting.
         if not getattr(self, 'rate', None):
             self.rate = self.get_rate()
         self.num_requests, self.duration = self.parse_rate(self.rate)