diff --git a/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/ChatScreens.kt b/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/ChatScreens.kt
index e9eb87f..d63178f 100644
--- a/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/ChatScreens.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/ChatScreens.kt
@@ -140,10 +140,6 @@ fun ColumnScope.BuddyList(model: MessengerViewModel, phase: MessengerViewModel.P
         ) { Text("Add contact") }
     }
 
-    phase.error?.let {
-        Text(it, color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.error, modifier = Modifier.testTag("error"))
-    }
-
     if (phase.buddies.isEmpty()) {
         // Says what to do, not merely that there is nothing. An empty state
         // that only reports emptiness leaves the person stuck.
diff --git a/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/MainActivity.kt b/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/MainActivity.kt
index ed95827..21cf7d8 100644
--- a/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/MainActivity.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/kotlin/io/flamenet/messenger/app/MainActivity.kt
@@ -318,6 +318,19 @@ private fun ColumnScope.SignedIn(
     // whatever screen somebody is on.
     CallBanner(model, phase)
 
+    // ⚠️ **Screen level, not inside Contacts.** There is ONE error slot shared
+    // by everything on this screen, and it used to be rendered inside
+    // BuddyList — so a story that failed to post, or a group that could not be
+    // created, appeared underneath the Contacts heading and read as a contacts
+    // problem. Observed with a rate-limited story post reported under Contacts.
+    phase.error?.let {
+        Text(
+            it,
+            color = MaterialTheme.colorScheme.error,
+            modifier = Modifier.testTag("error").padding(top = Space.sm),
+        )
+    }
+
     // Each section on its own card. ⚠️ The sections themselves are unchanged —
     // same composables, same testTags, same order — because this is a skin over
     // screens that work, and moving them would mean re-pointing the UI tests