I’ve created this handy overview of user permissions. Basically all users after registration start on trust level 0 (New User) and their trust level is increased with their participation (by visiting, reading and posting). One exemption is Leader (tl4) which is promoted by admin manually.
Want an illustration?
Visitor → Novice → Regular → Leader → Elder
Seems like great starting point for our user trust system, though we changed a few names. So in our case it is as follows:
0 (New) → 1 (Basic) → 2 (Member) → 3 (Regular) → 4 (Leader)
Your current level is visible on your user page. When reaching new level, you will be notified about new user badge.
| Trust Level | Usergroup |
|---|---|
| 0 | New User |
| 1 | Basic Member |
| 2 | Member |
| 3 | Regular |
| 4 | Leader |
So let’s look at each user level in detail…
New users
(trust level 0)
New users/Users at trust level 0 cannot…
- Send private messages to other users
- Flag posts
- Post more than 1 image
- Post any attachments
- Post more than 2 hyperlinks in a post
If a user sticks around long enough to read a bit, system now trusts 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
(trust level 1)
Basic users can:
- Use all core Overgrow forum functions
- Upload images and attachments
- Edit wiki posts
- Flag posts (for moderator supervision or approval)
Members
(trust level 2)
Members keep coming back to the site, and have participated long enough to earn complete citizenship.
Members 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×
You can 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
Regular
(trust level 3)
Regulars are the most active readers and reliable contributors over long periods of time.
Regulars can:
- Recategorize and rename topics
- Spam flags cast on TL0 user posts immediately hide the post
- Flags cast on TL0 user posts in sufficient diversity will auto-block the user and hide all their posts
- Make their own posts wiki (that means editable by any TL1+ users)
- Daily like limit increased by 2×
- Access special forum category - Private Lounge
You can get to trust level 3 by…
This is time and activity based, unlike the previous levels. In the last 100 days…
- must have visited at least 50% of days
- must have replied to at least 30 different topics
- of topics created in the last 100 days, must have viewed 25% (currently ~250)
- of posts created in the last 100 days, must have read 25% (currently ~ 10000)
- must have received 300 likes*, and given 300 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 in the last 6 months
* These likes must be across a minimum number of different users (currently 75 users), across a minimum number of different days (currently 75 days). Likes cannot be from PMs.
Leader
(trust level 4)
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.
Leaders have the ability to
- Edit all posts
- Pin/unpin topic
- Close topic
- Archive topic
- Make topic unlisted
- Split and merge topics
- Daily like limit increased by 3×
Manual promotion only at the moment!
, try to log out and then log in again to see if it keeps happening… 
) has any doubt about what’s going on … 