Are Trust Level 3 Requirements Too High?

Are the criteria for trust level 3 too high? It seems like the fact that it is a rolling average for many things over 100 days including reading 20,000 posts is rather high.

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They want to make it very difficult to prevent trolls and other knuckleheads from getting that high a trust level. Bad things will happen if they make it too easy. I am sure if no one ever gets there, they will adjust, but by seeing how often several people are on here, I am sure several people will get trust level 3.

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I know that they want it to be difficult. One needs to average reading 5 new topics per day (not too bad) over 100 day period; however, reading on average 200 posts per day over 100 days seems excessive.

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Trust level 3 gives powers that we never had on the old forums. The ability to make clickable links (other than the internal Blizz links), Wikis, and embed images. Those things are rife for abuse if made easy. If people want powers above and beyond normal, they need to be posters who are above and beyond normalā€¦and have proven to be able to follow the rules. That is why TL 3 also comes with restrictions on being moderated as in you canā€™t have been suspended/bannedā€¦

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I agree that they should not make it easy. I am thinking about a more reasonable levels. For example, reading 10,000 posts over 100 days is still a considerable amount of effort. As of now, we have less than 1,500 posts total on the forum.

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It is only 200 posts a day. I seriously doubt there will be a test on any material someone has read. If you skim over the posts, it is easy to cover a couple hundred in an hour. Pretty sure most the regulars on the forum will hit the requirements in 6 months to a year.

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Note that TL 3 requires to you keep up the volume of reading and responses per x time period. It degrades back to TL 2 if you take too long a break. Again, not a big deal in that we never had those powers on the old forums.

Edit - the concern about post volume is valid. If we donā€™t have enough posts to make it possible by a reasonable margin, Blizz can adjust that. I worry most about the EU! Their forums are so very very quiet.

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They are called Trust Levels.

I look at it like this:

Trust Level 0
=
Stranger
Trust Level 1
=
Acquaintance
Trust Level 2
=
Friend
Trust Level 3
=
Best Friend

Iā€™ll always, obviously, ā€œtrustā€ a best friend more than a stranger. Although a stranger can become an acquaintance. An acquaintance may become a friend. And, in time, a friend may prove to be a best friend. :wink:

Iā€™ve wondered about this too. On the right side of the thread is a post counter. As you scroll through the thread it shows which post number youā€™re currently viewing out of how many total posts in the thread, including the OP. Iā€™m guessing this is counting how many posts weā€™ve viewed.

Edit: Iā€™ve just noticed that once youā€™ve scrolled through an entire thread the counter on the right side changes to a white text on cyan box in the lower right corner. It will still show the post number youā€™re currently viewing as you scroll back through the thread. (Iā€™m sure it counts one time only and then continues as new comments are posted).

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I think for now the requirements are justified, and easily obtainable in the long-run.

However, my only gripe is that Diablo IIIā€™s community has been long established and that veterans should already be given a certain leeway based on their past contributions.

With the way things are, everyone starts on a fresh slate - which is both good and bad at the same time.

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TW is the worst. Only 1 topic so far.

Just to let you know, TW has only three forums retained:

  • General Discussion
  • Console Discussion
  • Technical Support

Then you know how quiet there.

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You can trust me. Ummā€¦is this your wallet?:smirk:

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Guys, if you think this requirement is big, over at the HearthPwn forums there is an achievement for visiting the site every day for 365 days and we are currently 223 people that have earned it (easiest achievement for example has been earned by more than 1mil people - yes, their user base is huge).

So, I have to say going through 200 posts per day is pretty EZ, especially when you can sort new posts by number of replies - have fun!

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The Europe French language ā€œGeneral Discussionā€ has 8 topicsā€¦ including the one by Blizzard welcoming us to the new forums.

One thing I noticedā€¦ the TL level is language specific. So, not only is my ā€œparticipationā€ (for lack of a better word) in the US forums separate from that in the Europe forums (as it was before), my participation in the French language forums is separate from the English language forums. I have 3 separate trust levels :slight_smile:

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I think, would not the people with green text or blue text maybe be able to manually allow the posters who help others a lot get level 3?

For example, I am trying to suggest, that if someone is nice and helpful and help players in the threads, they can be boosted to level 3 to then be able to make images and links?

I am a new player, and I have seen on the EU, there is pplayers that are very helpful to others, so maybe they can have more levels even if the EU forums are quieter?

Thanks for reading my suggestion, have a nice day.

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Itā€™s been noted several times now, but the idea is not a basic leveling system; merely a persistent reward for activity.

That said, I do think more actively contributing users should be able to keep TL3 long term if theyā€™ve provably been decent long term and just had to live their life for a little while. Some people lurk specific threads or sections, and those people may hurt despite deserving wiki-level access given their usefulness on a topic. I imagine the system will be tweaked over time and this may well happen in cases worthy of Blizzardā€™s attention, but itā€™s worth noting since the current system is very much designed towards the generalist.

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Well, 50 days off from 100 is more than enough.

Permanent TL3 would be bad however since people who does not follow regularly the forum may mislead (even not intentionally) others.

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I didnā€™t properly say it, but by long term I do not mean ā€˜until the end of timeā€™. For as long as they exist and peek at the board, and continue at the things that make them valuable in their field, I advocate they keep it even if they donā€™t quite match the requirements at a given time.

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I levelled up to TL1 in EU forum, but TL0 in Asia forum. Not enough posts to level up to TL1. :sweat_smile:

I should insert a ruby in my helm.

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Yes, that can be done. The tech support/customer support MVPs were put in a group that has TL3 for that reason. Some of the guide writers and a few others who need to post images, links, and maybe make Wikis, were as well.

Greens (MVPs) are actually regular players who have green text. We donā€™t work for Blizzard and have zero powers. We canā€™t moderate the forums and certainly donā€™t have admin rights! We only have trust level 3.

When it comes to the EU or Asia, those forums are handled by different Community teams. Those are the folks who have to make the decision about who should get TL3 manually. I donā€™t know any of the Blizzard staff in those regions so I canā€™t ask for people to be boosted :frowning: I am not boosted over on those regions either. My permissions are for the US forums only.

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Bet someone will make a bot for itā€¦ [/sarcasm]

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