Trust Level Walkthru AKA What's with the 8bit/10bit/12bit/16bit madness?

For those of you that are new to the Community and Trust Levels, here is an in-depth guide.

Trust Level 0 — 8bit

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 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

Admins can change these limitations by searching for newuser and first_day in site settings.

Trust Level 1 — 10bit

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

Admins can change these thresholds by searching for tl1 in site settings.

Trust Level 2 — 12bit

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 limit increased by 1.5×
  • Ignore other users
  • Edit their own posts for up to 30 days after posting

Admins can change these thresholds by searching for tl2 in site settings.

Trust Level 3 — 16bit Half Float

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

* These likes must be across a minimum number of different users (1/5 the number), 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 limit increased by 2×

Admins can change these thresholds by searching for TL3 in site settings.

Trust Level 4 — 32bit Float

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, 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 limit increased by 3×
  • Any TL4 flag cast on any post immediately takes effect and hides the target post

We believe this trust system has been a success so far, as it leads to stronger, more sustainable communities by carefully empowering members, regulars, and leaders to curate and lead their own communities. But like everything else in Discourse, the trust system is evolving over time as we gain more experience with more communities. We’ll continue to update this post with any changes.

3 Likes

FYI, there are loads of @trust_level_1 / 10bit members who just need to like a few posts and receive a few likes and get an instant promotion to @trust_level_2 / 12bit.

There are additional Categories available to you upon your @trust_level_2 / 12bit status.

:slight_smile:

Shout with questions.

12 Likes

How many likes till I get to quantum bits?

2 Likes

It takes precisely π likes, no more, less. Then you get the credit card bill sent to you for the hosting!

3 Likes

its a quantum like its neither a like or a dislike but both at the same time, gosh I need to get out more.

And in case anyone is wondering why, well, here are some reasons I find this system to be valuable.

  1. It’s a good thing to reward people that show up and contribute and build the community. The Trust Levels, 8bit, 10bit, 12bit, 16bit, are a kind of social currency. It’s a way to recognize those that are passionate about being here and interacting and sharing. As a thank you, I offer @trust_level_1 / 10bit and @trust_level_2 / 12bit members access to a couple additional Categories. I have big future plans to expand the Categories. For example, a Reels and Deals Category is set aside for those who want to self-promote and need help finding freelancers. I don’t want people coming in and having immediate access to those categories, I want them to be here and contribute first.

  2. It’s also, fundamentally, a security tool. As a new member, @trust_level_0, certain things are restricted. For example, @trust_level_0 users that copy and pastes large amounts of data into a text field, well, that gets flagged as an anti-spam measure. Anyone that posts hyperlinks in a text field also gets flagged. Those are just a few of the examples that are built into the site to keep things appropriate and work related. We’ve been fortunate thus far to have over 800 members join with their being a decently solid signal-to-noise ratio, if that makes any sense.

I often promote a few people each day who are on the cusp of promotion. Engineers, sponsors, One Frame of White participants, and people that I know and recognize that have publicly contributed to Flame News or The Area or Facebook Logik, all get a little bump as a way to say thank you.

Hope this helps.

19 Likes

loving this forum @randy. keep up the great work

3 Likes

Anything for you @TimC

3 Likes

I got a welcome message on a promotion up the levels and was told part of this was access to a secret room…but no clue how to find it!

2 Likes

Hi Randy,

I haven’t (yet) fully embraced the Logik Forum given time and stress constraints. But your email prompted me to give a little time to get beyond just signing up (like turning on Notifications as a more frequent reminded that it’s here). When I logged in on my iPhone I got this (alarming!) message:


Yes, I have changed my password and no, I have never used the previous password (that promoted the message above) on any other site so it seems to be exclusive the Lokic Forum. I wish the reply to the email went directly to you as I don’t want to alarm the whole community unnecessarily if this has been handled already.

Thanks,
-Alex

2 Likes

I did have some Categories reserved for 16bit float users, but, with there only being a handful, I relegated those to 12bit world, and will eventually promote those Categories into 16bit world as the population grows.

The hard part is that you have to keep 16bit status…it will go away if you don’t keep up with it.

:slight_smile:

1 Like

You can private message me through the site if you’d like…

https://forum.logik.tv/u//messages

But, for those that encounter this issue, upon creating a password, the forum cross references that password with passwords that have been included in large scale security breaches. So, that’s what that means.

1 Like

Hi Randy,

For those who suffer from social anxiety and don’t engage as much as other users, will there be a pay option to access these additional categories?

Thank you,
Ariana

8 Likes

First, and most importantly, thank you for posting. Feel free to message me offline if that’s better. Second, creating this platform to better serve all of us, well, that’s my #1 priority. Other platforms made it difficult to engage, and, I’d love to hear more about what you need so you can get what you need and be comfortable here.

Whilst I would love to take anyone’s money, the additional categories aren’t exactly exciting right now. There have been 1 or 2 job posts, but, they’ve been oddly specific and well, I haven’t really focused on that at all yet. But one day, when we have a couple thousand people and 100,000 hits a month…well, now we have options. I think eventually there could be a simple donation model that helps people get what they need. I’ve always wanted to connect people that need help with the people that can offer it. So, post your reel, find a freelancer to help you out, find a freelance engineer to help you mount that drive that won’t mount, fix your back burner, maybe one day help you with your accounting or legal advice. Maybe charge a few bucks a month or a few bucks a year, then use the proceeds to give grants to underserved members of our community.

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing. Feel free to private message me if thats better, or, to continue here with how I can help you get what you need from our little website.

2 Likes

Hey there!
I totally get the need for this kind of restrictions to keep this place spam-free and keep the quality and value of this forum the way it was meant to be. I really appreciate that and would not want it any other way! And I have a great load of respect for the work and heart it took and takes to build this place and keep it up and running.
Besides that, I feel a little need to bring to mind, that users will be coming here to seek information and knowledge in a more “consuming” way, maybe more often, than in a “contributing” way. For instance reading threads about a topics somebody else brought up, thinking “ah, yes, that is something, that was on my mind, too! Let’s see what people respond to that”. Or, maybe, just posting questions rather than offering solutions. And I have to confess that I am not a huge fan of keeping count of how many times somebody clicks a “like” button. It is something so easy to do in contrary to really showing appreciation by replying in words, why you appreciate it. In fact I have to say that I came to appreciate a kind of “that solved my problem” answer much more than a “thumbs up” thingy. It’s really simple to reply just with a simple text like “Ah, ok. Never thought about that”, or “Thanks, that helped me a lot.” rather than hitting a “like” button. Just a suggestion to keep in mind, not only for people contributing in whatever way they can to this forum. But also to not to give too much counts on like-buttons-clicking. Also to be considered if you are really to take on to that more business side of things by announcing, there could be a “Reels and Deals Category” for certain members only. Just wondering, by what criterion one would be measured to be a member.
Don’t get me wrong. Maybe I’m just he inconvenient relative here :wink:
Keep up the great work! I really, really appreciate it!

2 Likes