You may have noticed this forum uses something called “Trust Levels”. It’s in the first badge you probably earned.
What is the purpose of these trust levels, and why do they exist?
Trust levels are a way of…
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Sandboxing new users so that they cannot accidentally (or intentionally!) hurt themselves, the forum, or other users while they are learning what to do.
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Granting experienced users more rights so that they can help maintain and moderate the community they generously contribute so much of their time to.
You can think of them as being similar to other forums where users have ranks and titles as their post count increases. However, there is much more to trust levels than just your title.
We have five trust levels. Your current level is visible on your user page:
How do you get to higher trust levels, and what do they do?
You automatically level up as you contribute to the forum community, but you will need more than high post counts to earn trust levels. While post count does matter, so does how frequently you visit (regardless of whether or not you post), how often others Like your posts, how often you Like posts made by other people, and how often your posts are Flagged.
New
We do not quite trust new users yet, as they are visitors who just created an account, still learning the community norms and the way your forum works. Whether accidentally or intentionally, new users can cause problems in your community.
We also want to hide any so-called “advanced” functionality from new users to make the UI less confusing for them and gently land them on the deeper UI as they get more experienced.
Thus, new users’ abilities are restricted for safety – both theirs and yours.
Users at trust level 0 cannot…
- 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
- Mention more than 2 users in a post
- and more
Basic
If a user sticks around long enough to read a bit, we now trust them as a Basic user.
They can get to trust level 1 by…
- Entering at least 5 topics
- Reading at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
Basic users can…
- Use all core forum functions
- Upload images and attachments
- Edit wiki posts
- Flag posts
- all new user restrictions are removed
- and more
Member
Members keep coming back to the forum and have participated long enough to earn complete citizenship.
Requirements start getting higher at this trust level. Users can get to Member by…
- Visiting at least 15 days, not sequentially
- Casting likes for others
- Receiving likes
- Replying to a number of topics
- Reading dozens of topics and posts
- Spend hours browsing the forum
Members can now…
- Use the “Invite others to this topic” button for one-click notifications to other users to participate in topics
- Like more topics per day
Regular
Regulars are the most active readers and reliable contributors over long periods of time. It’s MUCH harder to reach this trust level. Also, unlike other trust levels, you can lose Regular status. If you dip below these requirements, whether from flagging or the passage of time, you will be demoted to Member. However, in order to avoid constant promotion/demotion situations, there is a 2-week grace period immediately after gaining Regular status during which you will not be demoted.
Regular status is time and activity based. Users can become Regulars by, within the last 100 days…
- Must have visited at least 50% of days
- Must have replied to many different topics
- Must have viewed 25% of new topics across the entire forum
- Must have viewed 25% of new posts across the entire forum
- Must have received and given dozens of likes from and to many different users
- Must not have received too many flags
- Must not have been banned
Regulars can…
- Recategorize and rename topics
- Access more areas of the forum
- Spam flags cast on New user posts immediately hide the post
- Flags cast on New user posts in sufficient diversity will auto-block the user and hide all their posts
- Make their own posts wiki (that is, editable by any Basic or higher users)
- Like more topics per day
Leader
Leaders are regulars who have been around forever and 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.
Users can only be promoted to Leader by RealmEye staff.
Leaders can…
- Edit all posts
- Pin/unpin topics
- Close topics
- Archive topics
- Make topics unlisted
- Split and merge topics
- Like lots more topics per day