Understanding Victorious Christians’ Trust Levels
The user trust system is a cornerstone of Victorious Christians. Trust levels help us:
- Gently introduce new users to the community, so nobody gets overwhelmed or accidentally steps on others’ toes while learning.
- Grant dedicated, longtime participants more rights over time, so they can contribute to moderating and maintaining a welcoming environment.
It reflects a natural growth path for any community: as members participate more, they earn greater trust and responsibility.
Victorious Christians uses five trust levels. You can see your current trust level on your user page, and an overview of all trust levels is visible on the admin dashboard (if you’re an admin).
How do users learn about the trust system?
- Welcome Message
Every new user receives a personal welcome message mentioning the trust system and explaining that there may be temporary limitations for safety. They’re also invited to start an optional interactive training conversation with VictoryBot (our friendly bot). - Promotion to Trust Level 1
Upon reaching Trust Level 1, users get a congratulations message inviting them to set up their profile or even start a new topic. - Promotion to Trust Level 2
A congratulatory private message is sent once you reach Trust Level 2. - Promotion to Trust Level 3
This triggers a detailed message describing new abilities. It also invites users to the “Lounge” area, visible only to TL3 and above, providing a place to connect with other highly trusted community members.
Throughout your journey, you’ll get friendly nudges and messages whenever you advance to a new trust level, summarizing what you can now do.
Trust Level 0 (New)
All newly registered members begin at Trust Level 0, indicating that the community hasn’t gotten to know you yet. While you learn how things work, you have a few limitations for your own safety and for the safety of others.
Users at Trust Level 0 cannot:
- Send personal messages (PMs) to other users
- “Reply as new topic” via the Link button
- Flag posts
- Post more than 1 image
- Post any file attachments
- Post more than 2 hyperlinks in a post
- Add actual links in their About Me field (links are temporarily converted to plain text)
- Mention more than 2 users in a post
- Create more than 3 new topics
- Post more than 10 replies
- Edit their own posts after 24 hours
Note: Admins can modify these limits by adjusting the
newuser
orfirst_day
settings.
Trust Level 1 (Basic)
At Victorious Christians, we believe reading and exploring is the best way to learn. So if new users read enough posts and topics, they’ll naturally reach Trust Level 1 fairly quickly.
To get Trust Level 1, a user typically must:
- Open at least 5 topics
- Read at least 30 posts
- Spend a total of 10 minutes reading posts
Users at Trust Level 1 can:
- Access all core Victorious Christians functionality (no more new-user restrictions)
- Send and receive PMs
- Upload images and attachments (if enabled)
- Edit wiki posts
- Flag posts
- Mute other users
Note: Admins can tweak these thresholds in the
tl1
settings.
Trust Level 2 (Member)
Members (Trust Level 2) are participants who’ve come back consistently over a period of weeks. They’ve interacted enough to be considered familiar with how the community works.
To get Trust Level 2, a user typically must:
- Visit on at least 15 different days (non-consecutive is fine)
- Give at least 1 “like” and receive at least 1 “like”
- Reply to at least 3 different topics
- Enter at least 20 topics
- Read at least 100 posts
- Spend a total of 60 minutes reading posts
Users at Trust Level 2 can:
- Use the “Invite others to this topic” button to encourage new participants
- Invite outside users to private messages (making it a group PM)
- Enjoy higher daily limits for likes, edits, and flags (1.5× normal)
- Ignore other users
- Edit their own posts for up to 30 days
Note: Admins can modify these thresholds in the
tl2
settings.
Trust Level 3 (Regular)
Regulars (Trust Level 3) form the backbone of Victorious Christians. They’re the most active, consistent readers and contributors over a span of months.
To reach Trust Level 3, within the last 100 days, a user must:
-
Visit the community at least 50% of those days
-
Reply to at least 10 different non-PM topics
-
View at least 25% of new topics (up to a max of 500)
-
Read at least 25% of new posts (up to a max of 20,000)
-
Receive at least 20 likes and give at least 30 likes*
-
Not receive more than 5 spam/offensive flags (with unique posts and users for each, confirmed by a moderator)
-
Not be suspended or silenced in the last 6 months
-
Likes must be spread out over a minimum number of different users and days. Likes given in PMs don’t count towards these requirements.
Users at Trust Level 3 can:
- Rename and recategorize topics
- Access a secure category only for TL3+ members
- Post links without the automatic “nofollow” attribute
- Hide or silence posts from TL0 users with enough TL3 flags
- Convert their own posts into wiki posts (editable by other TL1+ users)
- Enjoy higher daily limits for likes, edits, and flags (2× normal)
Grace Period: You can lose Trust Level 3 if you dip below the requirements within the last 100 days. However, after you’ve just attained TL3, there’s a 2-week grace period before any demotion can happen.
Note: Admins can adjust these thresholds in the
tl3
settings.
Trust Level 4 (Leader)
Leaders (Trust Level 4) are long-term, highly respected members who have essentially seen it all. They set a positive example and provide guidance for others.
How to reach Trust Level 4:
- Currently by manual promotion by staff
- (Possible future election systems may exist later)
Users at Trust Level 4 can:
- Edit all posts
- Pin or unpin topics
- Close and archive topics
- Make topics unlisted
- Split and merge topics
- Reset a topic’s bump date
- Enjoy even higher daily limits for likes, edits, and flags (3× normal)
- Instantly hide posts by flagging them
- Send personal messages to external email addresses
Why This Matters
We’ve found that this trust system makes our community stronger and more sustainable by carefully empowering active members. It helps shape a culture where everyone has the opportunity to grow in responsibility and help nurture our shared space.
Like everything else at Victorious Christians, our trust system may evolve over time as we learn from real-world community experiences. We’ll keep you updated on any changes.
Got questions or feedback? Feel free to reach out to an admin or start a conversation in our community area. We love hearing from you!