OERu orientation/Forums/Trust levels

Trust is a catalyst for open collaboration

The OERu is a collaborative learning community. As a charitable initiative we rely on the help of volunteers and peers to support our learners.

The forums.oeru.org website is the place to go to find help from your peers. This site is used for general help, course specific help and forum discussions. The forums.oeru.org is a self-monitoring site based on trust levels. As your trust-levels increase, more features of the software are made available to help support and manage our learning community.

Five trust levels

• New user - Trust level 0
• Basic user - Trust level 1
• Member - Trust level 2
• Regular users - Trust level 3
• Leader - Trust level 4

What do the user trust levels do?

All users join the community as a "New user" at trust level 0. Managing spam on an open site can be a challenge, so we need to establish that visitors are a real people joining OERu to support learning. Consequently, features which could be abused for spam activities are restricted. As your trust levels increase, more software features that will help you support fellow learners are enabled.

A summary of the levels is provided in the table below.

Level	Details
New user	The Discourse software does not trust new users who have just created and account and still learning community norms. Whether accidentally, or intentionally, new users can cause problems in the community. Restrictions For example, new users cannot: Send private messages to each other Post any attachments Flag posts Include multiple hyperlinks in a post (spam measure) Mention multiple users in a post.
Basic user	If a user sticks around long enough to read a bit, the Discourse software now trusts them as a basic user. You get to trust level 1 by: entering at least 5 topics reading at least 30 posts spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts Restrictions and abilities New user restrictions are removed Daily like limit All basic functionality including upload of images and attachments, ability to flag posts and ability to edit wiki posts.
Members	Members keep coming back to the site, and have participated long enough to earn citizenship of forums.oeru.org. You 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 Abilities Use the "Invite others to this topic" button for one-click onboarding of new users to participate in topics Invite outside users to private messages (PMs) making a group PM Daily like limit increased by 1.5 ×
Regular users	Regulars are the most active readers and reliable contributors over long periods of time. You can get to trust level 3 by: must have visited at least 50% of days must have replied to at least 10 different topics of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 25% of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 25% must have received 20 likes, and given 30 likes (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.) 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. Abilities recategorize and rename topics access a private "frequent flier's lounge" category only visible to users at trust level 3 and higher spam flags cast on New User level posts immediately reach the action threshold daily like limit increased by 2 × Note: Unlike other trust levels, you can lose trust level 3 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 Trust Level 3 during which you will not be demoted.
Leaders	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. You get to trust level 4 by: Manual promotion by site administrator Abilities edit all posts pin/unpin topic close topic archive topic make topic unlisted Split and merge topics Daily like limit increased by 3 ×