Hey everyone,
I’ve been thinking about ways to make the forum an even more welcoming and positive space for everyone. To build a more welcoming and positive community, I have an idea about adding some optional fields to the registration process. These would help us get to know new members better and create a stronger sense of belonging. Upon signing up, they would be presented with additional questions listed below.
Extra Questions
- What would you like to use this forum for? How can you contribute?
Which topics are a good starting point for new users to read? (tip: read the FAQ topic!)Please tell us more about yourself (occupation, hobby, etc.)- How would you handle someone arguing that your idea wouldn’t fit into the game?
- What would you do if you saw a respectful discussion between a user and an author about an idea turn into a situation where the author insults the user?
These questions are recommended to fill out, but not required.
Discobot’s tutorials should also be modified to include a reminder at the end to read the FAQ topic and the multiplayer guide (if they’re going to use it in the game).
New Trust Level
To complement this addition, I also thought out a new trust level I call “Helper”, which would have Trust Level 4. The existing Leader role will be at TL5 once the new Trust Level is added. Helpers would have some special abilities to improve the user experience.
Abilities
- They can review registration answers of new users to the optional questions and approve or reject them accordingly. At least 2 Helpers need to approve an account for a new user to be able to post (their account must also be at least 4 hours old). Leaders can overrule these conditions and allow a user to post immediately.
- They can recategorize and rename topics to keep things organized.
- They will have their daily limits for likes, edits, and flags increased to 2.5x compared to Basic (TL1) users.
- Their spam/inappropriate flags cast on TL0/TL1 users will immediately hide the flagged post.
- If enough Helpers flag a TL0/TL1 user’s post, the user will automatically get silenced and hide all their posts.
Requirements
To get to the new trust level, for 120 days, one must:
- Visit the forum for at least 40% of the days.
- Reply to at least 12 different non-PM topics.
- View at least 30% of created topics (capped at 500).
- Read at least 30% of created posts (capped at 20,000).
- Receive at least 30 likes and give at least 35 likes.*
- Maintain a clean record with no more than 3 confirmed spam or inappropriate flags.
- Have no suspensions or silencings in the past year.
- Be a TL3 member or higher for at least 4 weeks.
* These likes must be across a minimum number of unique users (1/9 the number) across a minimum number of different days (1/6 the number). For example, the new trust level would require at least:
- 30 received likes from 3 users each (1/9th of likes) over 5 days (1/6th of likes), and
- 35 given likes to 4 users each (1/9th of likes) over 6 days (1/6th of likes).
Like with the Regular role, you can also lose the Helper role as soon as you drop below even one of these requirements. After gaining the new trust level, you will not get automatically demoted for 1 week for the reason that’s already been mentioned in a relevant Discourse blog post.
Alternate Proposal to the Helper Role: Buff Existing Trust Levels
If a new trust level won’t get added for whatever reason, the existing trust levels could have their requirements increased, in exchange for their abilities improved, and getting some new ones as well.
Proposed modifications for Basics (TL1)
Abilities
Keep them as they are.
Requirements
| Proposed change | Current value, according to the blog post |
|---|---|
| Enter at least 7 topics. | 5 |
| Read at least 50 posts. | 30 |
| Spend a total of 15 minutes of reading posts. | 10 |
Proposed modifications for Members (TL2)
Abilities
- Daily like and edit limits increased by 2× (currently 1.5×) compared to Basic users.
- Make the user’s posts into wikis.
Requirements
| Proposed change | Current value, according to the blog post |
|---|---|
| Visit at least 22 days, not sequentially. | 15 |
| Cast at least 5 likes. | 1 |
| Receive at least 3 likes. | 1 |
| Enter at least 25 topics. | 20 |
| Read at least 200 posts. | 100 |
| Spend a total of 90 minutes reading posts. | 60 |
Proposed modifications for Regulars (TL3)
Abilities
- Review new users’ registration answers (see details above)
- Daily like, edit and flag limits increased by 2.5× (currently 2×).
- Only 2 TL3 inappropriate flags are needed to be cast on TL0/TL1 user posts hide them.
- If enough TL3 users flag TL0/TL1 user posts, the user will automatically get silenced and hide all their posts.
Requirements
Keep these also as they are for now.
While I considered increasing the requirements for Regulars, I’ve decided to leave them unchanged for now. Given the current number of Regulars, raising the bar for that trust level could disproportionately limit participation at said level, which already has limitations due to the size of our community.
It’s hard to say whether lowering the TL3 requirements would be beneficial either. While it would increase participation, some of us have seen instances where those with TL3 haven’t always used their power responsibly. Maybe we can revisit these later when/if we have a larger user base.
Special Thanks and Polls
@VerMishelb
For prompting me to suggest changing the existing trust levels as an alternative for the new trust level.
@kokokokos
For his valuable criticism, and suggesting the modification to Discobot.
@PlasmaX
For indirectly prompting me to round the quotients used in the example requirements after he got confused by my math for some reason during the proofreading process.
What do you all think of these proposals? Would these changes help create a more positive and welcoming forum environment?
5
4
3
2
1
- Helper trust level
- Modifications to existing trust levels
- None of them
