Understanding Trust Levels

edward · May 14, 2024, 6:30pm

Understanding Trust Levels

The user trust system is a fundamental cornerstone of the Community Forum.

This Community Forum offers 5 User Trust Levels . (Redirection)

Your current trust level is visible on your user page, and a summary of all trust levels within your community is presented on your dashboard.

Trust levels are a way of…

Sandboxing new users in our community ensures they cannot accidentally hurt themselves or others while they are learning what to do.
Granting experienced users additional rights over time enables them to assist in maintaining and moderating the community to which they generously contribute their time.

Trust Level 0 – New User

By default, all new users start out at trust level 0, meaning trust has yet to be earned. These are visitors who just created an account, and are still learning the community norms and the way your community works. New users’ abilities are restricted for safety – both theirs and yours.

(We also want to hide any “advanced” functionality from new users to make the UI less confusing for them as they gain more experience.)

Users at trust level 0 New User cannot …

Send personal messages to other users
“Reply as new topic” via Link button (UI removed)
Flag posts
Post more than 1 image
Post any attachments
Post more than 2 hyperlinks in a post
Have actual links in the ‘about me’ field of their profile (will be silently and temporarily converted to plain text)
Mention more than 2 users in a post
Post more than 3 topics
Post more than 10 replies
Edit their own posts after more than 24 hours

Trust Level 1 – Basic User

At Discourse, we believe reading is the most fundamental and healthy action in any community. If a new user is willing to spend a little time reading, they will quickly be promoted to the first trust level.

Get to trust level 1 by…

Entering at least 5 topics
Reading at least 30 posts
Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts

Users at trust level 1 can…

Use all core Discourse functions; all new user restrictions are removed
Send PMs
Upload images and attachments if enabled
Edit wiki posts
Flag posts
Mute other users

Trust Level 2 – Member

Members keep coming back to your community over a series of weeks; they have not only read but actively participated long and consistently enough to be trusted with full citizenship.

Get to trust level 2 by…

Visiting at least 15 days, not sequentially
Casting at least 1 like
Receiving at least 1 like
Replying to at least 3 different topics
Entering at least 20 topics
Reading at least 100 posts
Spend a total of 60 minutes reading posts

Users at trust level 2 can…

Use the “Invite others to this topic” button for one-click onboarding of new users to participate in topics
Invite outside users to PMs making a group PM
Daily like, edit and flag limits increased by 1.5×
Ignore other users
Edit their own posts for up to 30 days after posting

Trust Level 3 – Regular

Regulars are the backbone of your community, the most active readers and reliable contributors over a period of months, even years. Because they’re always around, they can be further trusted to help tidy up and organize the community.

To get to trust level 3, in the last 100 days…

Must have visited at least 50% of days
Must have replied to at least 10 different non-PM topics
Of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 25% (capped at 500)
Of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 25% (capped at 20k)
Must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.*
Must not have received more than 5 spam or offensive flags (with unique posts and unique users for each, confirmed by a moderator)
Must not have been suspended or silenced in the last 6 months
These likes must be across a minimum number of different users (1/5 the number), and across a minimum number of different days (1/4 the number). Likes cannot be from PMs.

All of the above criteria must be true to achieve trust level 3. Furthermore, unlike other trust levels, you can lose trust level 3 status. If you dip below these requirements in the last 100 days, you will be demoted back to Member. However, in order to avoid constant promotion/demotion situations, there is a 2-week grace period immediately after gaining Trust Level 3 during which you will not be demoted.

Users at trust level 3 can…

Recategorize and rename topics
Access a secure category only visible to users at trust level 3 and higher
Have all their links followed (we remove automatic nofollow)
TL3 spam flags cast on TL0 user posts immediately hide the post
TL3 flags cast on TL0 user posts in sufficient diversity will auto-silence the user and hide all their posts
Make their own posts wiki (that is, editable by any TL1+ users)
Daily like, edit and flag limits increased by 2×

Trust Level 4 – Leader

Leaders are regulars who have been around forever and have seen everything. They set a positive example for the community through their actions and their posts. If you need advice, these are the folks you turn to first, and they’ve earned the highest level of community trust, such that they are almost moderators within the community already.

Get to trust level 4 by…

Manual promotion by staff only
(Possibly via a to-be-developed election system in the future)

Users at trust level 4 can…

Edit all posts
Pin/unpin topic
Close topics
Archive topics
Make topics unlisted
Split and merge topics
Reset topic bump date
Daily like, edit, and flag limits increased by 3×
Any TL4 flag cast on any post immediately takes effect and hides the target post
Can send personal messages to an email address