# How do Discourse's Trust Levels work on the Straight Dope? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [July 20, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914 "2021-07-20T21:19:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914/1 "2021-07-20T21:19:49Z")
What TL do new members start at, and what are the advancement requirements from there? I know what is typical for Discourse boards, but the Dope isn’t typical. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_S](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@Max\_S](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_S)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914/2 "2021-07-22T23:24:38Z")
I think I read somewhere you start at TL1, quickly go to TL2 and then are capped. If you can catch a new poster in the first few minutes of their SDMB experience, the name will be a little greyed out. I think that indicates TL1. We don’t have likes enabled which are apparently required for TL3. ETA: > [@What are the tags on certain people's profiles (Member, Charter Member, etc.), and what is the criteria for getting these (if there is any)?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-tags-on-certain-peoples-profiles-member-charter-member-etc-and-what-is-the-criteria-for-getting-these-if-there-is-any/932927/17): > > Discourse has what it calls “trust levels” where basically members who have been around longer and have done things that make them more “trusted” have permissions to do things that regular members can’t do. We don’t use trust levels and had attempted to pretty much disable them, but our initial settings for that were not correct and some people ended up being promoted to higher trust levels where they could edit titles and could do a few other things that we intended to be done only by moderato… > [@How to ignore someone long-term](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-ignore-someone-long-term/940352/43): > > Also note that we do not use trust levels here. ~Max ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914/3 "2021-07-22T23:51:53Z")
> [@Max\_S](#): > > I think I read somewhere you start at TL1, quickly go to TL2 and then are capped. > > If you can catch a new poster in the first few minutes of their SDMB experience, the name will be a little greyed out. I think that indicates TL1. From what I’ve seen and read in the links you helpfully provided, it seems that new users start out at TL0 until they meet the TL1 requirements, at which point they jump straight to TL2. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914/4 "2021-07-23T01:37:05Z")
I don’t have the details (those are admin settings), but new users do start out at TL0 then progress very quickly to TL2. Our intent was not to use trust levels at all, but I believe the limitations of TL0 and TL1 users do give us some protection against spammers and troublemakers who try to flood the board. > [@Max\_S](#): > > If you can catch a new poster in the first few minutes of their SDMB experience, the name will be a little greyed out. I think that indicates TL1. TL0 is greyed out. TL1 is not. > [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > at which point they jump straight to TL2 No. They don’t seem to spend too much time at TL1 but they don’t skip straight to TL2. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-discourses-trust-levels-work-on-the-straight-dope/946914/5 "2021-07-23T01:43:29Z")
Thanks! ETA: On most D-boards, there are various levels of greying that are done on the names. I made a sock (on another board) and took screenshots of my darkening name as I progressed to TL3.