Trust Levels section:
Detailed information on the various trust levels Discourse uses can be found here.
To find out what Trust Level someone’s at, click on their username to bring up their profile card. On a typical Discourse install, a box will say New (TL0), Basic (TL1), Member (TL2), Regular (TL3), or Leader (TL4).
Hover over the box and you’ll get a message telling you more.
Getting to Trust Level 1
Unless you’ve been poking around and doing stuff–and it’s great if you have–you’re probably at Trust Level Zero (TL0). Doesn’t mean we don’t trust you, just that you haven’t been around long. TL0 is really just an anti-spam feature, but some boards also use it as corrective action.
But there are a lot of things you can’t do, such as sending PMs, flagging posts (like reporting), including more than 2 hyperlinks or mentions (@username) in a post, posting more than 3 new topics, or making more than 10 replies.
Let’s fix that.
To get to Trust Level One (TL1), here’s what you do:
- Enter at least 5 topics
- Read at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
So spend 10 minutes reading 5 different topics (4 not counting this one, and I think the tutorial PM also counts, so maybe just 3) and reading 30 posts. Seriously–go do that now.
Presto! You’re now a TL1. You can now access all core functions of the board, including muting, flagging, PMs, and unlimited posting. Becoming TL1 can also unlock some forums that are closed to TL0s.
Congratulations!
Note: you may still be under New User Restrictions which limit how much you can post and PM for the first 24 hours after your first post. This is unrelated to Trust Level.
You should have gotten a notification (blue bubble on your avatar) when your trust level increased. To view it, click on your avatar in the upper right corner, and you’ll see a dropdown that lists your recent notifications. One of them should be Earned Basic. You might also have a new PM from system that says Thanks for spending time with us. They both go on to explain that you’re now a TL1.
All of those notifications are clickable if you want to find out more.
Getting to Trust Level 2
It might be a little while before you can become Trust Level Two (TL2) because one of the requirements is that you’ve read the board 15 different days (they don’t have to be in a row).
For TL2, you must:
- Visit at least 15 days
- Give at least 1 like
- Receive at least 1 like
- Reply to at least 3 different topics
- Enter at least 20 topics
- Read at least 100 posts
- Spend a total of 60 minutes reading posts
Getting to Trust Level 3
It takes a lot longer to get to TL3. For that, you must have, in the past 100 days:
- Visited at least 50% of days
- Replied to at least 10 different non-PM topics
- Received 20 likes, and given 30 likes.
- Not have received more than 5 spam or offensive flags
And you can
- Not have been silenced or suspended, ever.
There are also some ratios that hopefully will be removed or reduced by our admin. Standard Discourse requires TL3s to have viewed 25% of all topics (capped at 500) and to have read 25% of all posts (capped at 20,000) created within the past 100 days.
Fall below any of the TL3 requirements, and you’ll have 10 days grace (but no notification) to get yourself back up to speed. Otherwise you go back to TL2 until you meet the requirements again.
If you are silenced or suspended, you will forever be stuck at TL2.
Currently, I don’t know what the benefits of TL2 and TL3 are on the SDMB. By default, there is a special forum just for TL3 and higher.
Getting to Trust Level 4
Trust Level 4 is granted by admin fiat only. They’re moderators in all but name.