I’m writing here again to complain about the silly trust level shenanigans on the forums. Today I noticed I lost my TL3 status YET AGAIN for no reason other than probably not reading enough posts. How much is enough? Apparently you need to read TWENTY THOUSAND posts every few months or you get demoted!
Who has time to read so many posts when a lot of them don’t interest me (e.g. posts complaining about D4 before the game is even released)!
As a background on my saga, see these earlier posts:
Now some of you might be asking why should I care? Well the reason is that I actually use one of the features of TL3. Namely, I embed links and images in a lot of my guides and suggestion posts.
For example, I often link to wikipedia with definitions of certain uncommon terms, or embed links from codecogs which allow me to present LaTeX formatted text for math equations.
Can we please give permanent TL3 status to those who use the forums in a productive way?
If someone breaks the forum code of conduct for any reason, that should be grounds for demotion (or even a forum ban if it is severe enough). The reading and "like"ing requirements are pointless and annoying (they can even be botted by use of an auto-click and scroll system).
If any community managers read this, please consider granting manual TL3 privileges to known useful forum posters.
I seriously doubt that would happen. Manual TL3 means that even if you get an account violation that would drop you from TL3 normally, it won’t. It has to be done manually. There is no system to notify CMs if a manual TL3 person gets a violation and Blizz does not control the Discourse forum software.
Keeping track of the Manual TL 3 folks and making sure they are behaving is a somewhat labor intensive process. That is why there are only a VERY few people who have that status.
It required the sponsor to submit names, justifications, get initial D3 CM approval (who is usually the sponsor). CS approval, Management approval. It is sort of like a mini MVP program without the green. Guide writers and tech/bug support forum helpers. I know every single person on the list.
If we ever get an MVP program back again, that is likely the next time you will see something like that implemented. I would be shocked if it happened before a new Diablo game releases of some sort. I was the last MVP for Diablo 3 so not really any reason to make new ones, and the few who needed TL3 for other reasons got it.
As for why, the forum software updated yesterday and likely refreshed your flags. It should have made you log back in as well.
Those D4 threads are goldmines. No one says you actually have to read them. Sometimes I just put something else on and then aimlessly scroll through one of those threads. You don’t have to spend long at all on each post, only a few seconds. If you find a long threads with a lot of bickering back and forth, you can knock out a few hundred posts in a few minutes.
It’s bad that I’m gaming the forums, isn’t it?
I’m not really sure who decided the TL3 requirements. The other ones are all pretty trivial. The 20k posts read in a 100 day rolling window is just ridiculous. Reading 200 posts a day doesn’t really seem like a good measure of “trust” level. There’s a decent number of well liked, trusted, and respected posters like yourself who don’t quite manage to hit that.
I don’t think it is that high for the D3 forums. WyomingMist used the basic template when making the FAQ, but each forum is adjustable based on how busy it is. So 20k posts might be fine for Overwatch which is very active, but not for D3 or SC. I don’t know what the actual number of posts or likes is though.
It’s been said before, but a person shouldn’t lose their trust level due to inactivity or lack of keeping up with whatever requirements that are set. Instead they should only lose it if they acted poorly enough to warrant removing or reducing their trust level.
My opinion is that anyone who has maintained TL3 for 6 momths should have TL3 manually awarded: however, a forum suspension resulrs in permanent TL3 revocation. This includes anyone manually awarded TL3.
That would have to be manually monitored though so it is unlikely. The forum software does not tell the CMs who select manual TL3 that their sponsored person got a forum timeout.
What is more logical is to work within the software limits that exist - scale down the requirements to get TL3 and how often those requirements reset.
For example, the 20k reading is already reduced - although I don’t know the actual number, so just change the 100 days to 200 days.
That means someone staying active keeps TL3 AND if they catch an account action, they get the perma demote.
Simple to change the forum trust level settings and it works within the framework to give players what they want and the auto violation checking that is needed.
I figured as much given that no one to my knowledge has ever had their manually awarded TL3 status revoked to date on the D3 forum.
P.S. There was a brief time during the first 3 months of the forum where the 20K reading over 100 days did not apply. After that, has there been anyone who received TL3 who did not meet 20k?
Interesting… Pretty sure some of the latest EU folks. A Mod (although not marked as such) and an MVP (Tech/CS sort). Any normal players who got TL3 before August 2019 were manually added.
Our forums are not busy enough to sustain 20k over 100 days so I hope so!
Agreed, there is maybe enough for 5k for me (of threads I think are important or interesting). I mostly interact with the DH forums. I have basically read EVERY SINGLE POST in the DH forums as well as was very involved with this last PTR feedback cycle. This doesn’t come close to satisfying 200 posts per day.
The idea that number of posts read/viewed is any sort of indicator of how trustworthy a member is likely to be is so bizarre to me. That I feel obligated to log in each day to trawl through posts, even on topics I’m not all that interested in, just so I can maintain TL3 and edit and embed images/links in a guide I myself have created is simply mind-boggling. Surely there’s a better metric for trustworthiness?
I agree. I think it should be a combination of a more modest number of posts read and no account actions. In a scenario like this, there should be no manually awarded TL3, if MissCheetah is correct that CMs are not notified of account disciplinary actions.
Alternatively, as many, many people have requested in the past, expand the number of ‘trusted websites’ that TL2 users can link to include commonly used sites like D3 Planner, Diablo Fans, Icy Veins, Imgur, etc., so that losing TL3 won’t be such a penalty for members who just want to help out in the bug report forums, for example.
I think they now include the basic Blizzard sites that we might link to like the Support system, other threads with info, game guide, etc. I THINK those were white listed. I can link them on the EU forums and I am an nobody there.
I am correct in how it works. The issue is that folks who do guides and tech/cs support are hyper focused on small subsets of data. They don’t have the regular engagement to keep TL3 but need to be able to link folks to pictures showing the proper menu options to fix something, etc.
So, there are a small subset of people who are not super active, but add a lot of help to other players and need TL3, that have it.
Those who sponsor them are responsible for watching them, because there is no auto reporting process.
I do think a hybrid of longer time-outs for engagement would work well. You keep it, but only if you don’t break the rules or go long term AFK.
