On Trust Levels

Site Management
1

There seems to be some confusion about how trust levels work in Discourse, so I thought I’d run down the current config and explain it as I understand it:

##Misc Trust settings

Every new account starts at TL0. Users on the first day (or first 50, I’m not sure entirely) were immediately promoted to TL1 in order to jump start the community.

Anyone who is invited starts at TL1.

TL0 users can create topics, and edit posts.

TL1 users can edit wiki topics, and send messages.

TL3 users can convert their own post into a wiki.

##Trust Level 1
TL0 users must meet the following requirements to become TL1:

  • Viewed 5 topics
  • Read 30 posts
  • Spend 10 minutes reading.

This is to help prevent drive-by commenters, I assume.

##Trust Level 2
TL1 users must meet the following requirements to become TL2:

  • Viewed 20 topics
  • Read 100 posts
  • Spend 60 minutes reading
  • Visit for 15 days
  • Receive 1 like
  • Give 1 like.

##Trust Level 3
TL2 users must meet the following requirements to become TL3:

image.png624×1019 43.7 KB

Within 100 days:

  • Visited 50 days
  • Replied to 10 topics
  • Viewed 25% of all topics, or 500, whichever is lower?
  • Read 25% of all posts, or 20000, whichever is lower?
  • Has not been flagged more than 5 times
  • Given 30 likes
  • Received 20 likes

For all time:

  • Viewed at least 200 topics
  • Read at least 500 topics

TL3 is granted for a minimum of 14 days. After that, the user can be demoted back to TL2 until they qualify using the above criteria.

These are the defaults, and can all be adjusted.

18 Likes
2

The only concern I have is the “replied to”. Yes, it means replying to only one topic every ten days, which doesn’t seem like much. But I think that one needs to be kept on the low side, regardless of what we do with the other variables.

Otherwise, you get people commenting simply for the sake of commenting. There are some great, thoughtful contributors who read lots, but only speak when they have something meaningful to say, that hasn’t already been said. I think that is something we want to encourage, and not lock them out inadvertently for not being talkative enough.

12 Likes
3

new users (tl0) can create spam topics? this seems trusting.

4 Likes
4

This is probably an incomplete picture without also mentioning the rate limits. I’ll try to put that together later.

1 Like