Trust Levels

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What are trust levels and what are they useful for

• Apply targeted moderation policies - Review content from untrusted users more carefully while fast-tracking trusted users
• Implement progressive restrictions - Limit posting frequency or features for new users while giving established users more freedom
• Automate community management - Let reliable users self-moderate while focusing human attention on higher-risk accounts
• Reduce false positives - Use trust context to make better moderation decisions and avoid over-moderating good users

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Our specific levels -1 to 4

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Level -1: Untrusted

• Applied to users with violation rates above 5%
• Suggested permissions: Increased moderation scrutiny, limited posting frequency
• Use case: Users who consistently violate community guidelines

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Level 0: New

• Applied to accounts under 7 days old with minimal content
• Suggested permissions: Standard moderation review, limited posting frequency
• Use case: Brand new users who haven’t established a track record

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Level 1: Basic

• Requirements: 7+ days old, 5+ pieces of clean content, ≤5% violation rate
• Suggested permissions: Standard moderation policies, normal posting frequency
• Use case: Users who’ve shown they understand your community rules

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Level 2: Member

• Requirements: 30+ days old, 25+ pieces of clean content, ≤5% violation rate
• Suggested permissions: Reduced moderation scrutiny, access to member-only features, higher posting limits
• Use case: Regular users with a solid track record

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Level 3: Regular

• Requirements: 90+ days old, 50+ pieces of clean content, ≤5% violation rate
• Suggested permissions: Light-touch moderation, can help with community moderation, reports prioritized by system
• Use case: Long-term contributors who help maintain community quality

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Level 4: Trusted

• Requirements: Manual promotion by staff (automatic progression not available)
• Suggested permissions: Minimal moderation oversight, near-moderator privileges
• Use case: Users who have earned special recognition and trust from your team
• See allowlist a specific author for how to promote someone

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How trust levels are calculated

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Account Age

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Clean Content Count

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Violation Rate

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Calculation Process

1. The system checks violation rate first - if above 5%, assigns Untrusted level
2. For users with acceptable violation rates, it evaluates the highest level where all requirements are met
3. Users progress through levels automatically as they meet criteria, except for Trusted (level 4) which requires manual promotion

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Customization Options

• New user threshold: Adjust what constitutes a “new” user (default: under 7 days)
• Violation rate threshold: Modify the 5% violation rate that triggers Untrusted status
• Content requirements: Adjust the minimum clean content needed for each level
• Age requirements: Modify the minimum account age for each trust level

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Examples of how to use trust levels

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Filters in review queues

• High-priority queue: Filter for content from Untrusted (-1) and New (0) users that need immediate attention
• Standard queue: Content from Basic (1) and Member (2) users for regular review
• Low-priority queue: Content from Regular (3) and Trusted (4) users that rarely needs intervention

• New User Queue: Only show content from users with trust level 0
• Trusted User Escalations: Only show flagged content from trust level 3+ users (likely false positives)
• Violation Pattern Queue: Combine trust level filtering with specific violation types to catch concerning behavior early

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Automated Moderation Rules

// Example: Apply different review thresholds based on trust level
if (user.trustLevel <= 0) {
  // New/Untrusted users: review all content
  awaitReview(content);
} else if (user.trustLevel >= 4) {
  // Trusted users: approve unless the content is severe
  if (severityScore > 0.9) {
    awaitReview(content);
  } else {
    autoApprove(content);
  }
} else if (user.trustLevel >= 3) {
  // Regular users: light review
  if (severityScore > 0.5) {
    awaitReview(content);
  } else {
    autoApprove(content);
  }
} else {
  // Basic/Member users: standard review
  if (severityScore > 0.3) {
    awaitReview(content);
  } else {
    autoApprove(content);
  }
}

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Rate Limiting

• Untrusted (-1): 1 post per hour
• New (0): 5 posts per hour
• Basic (1): 15 posts per hour
• Member (2)+: No limits

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Feature Access

• Basic (1)+: Can post images
• Member (2)+: Can create polls, access member channels
• Regular (3)+: Can report content, moderate discussions
• Trusted (4): Can pin messages, temporary mute users

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How to override trust levels

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Allowlist a specific author

1

Open the author

Find the user in the user dashboard and open their detail page.

2

Choose Update Trust Level

Press the Moderate button and choose Update Trust Level.

3

Set the level to Trusted

The dialog opens on the author’s current, automatically calculated level. Click Trusted in the tier bar and confirm, or press Set trust level manually to pick from the full list of levels.

Note that Trusted is the one level with no automatic path — the dialog lists Manual Promotion as its only requirement.

curl -X PUT https://api.moderationapi.com/v1/authors/user_123 \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"manual_trust_level": 4}'

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Why is my user still at level 0 (New)?

• Insufficient content: They need at least 5 pieces of clean content to reach Basic level
• Too young: Account needs to be at least 7 days old for Basic level
• High violation rate: Any violation rate above 5% keeps users at Untrusted (-1) level

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How often are trust levels recalculated?

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Can trust levels decrease?

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What happens during system updates to the algorithm?

• Level meanings stay the same: A “Member” will always represent the same type of user
• Requirements may adjust: We might fine-tune thresholds based on data insights
• Your moderation logic continues working: Since level meanings are stable, your existing code won’t break

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My trusted user got flagged - why are they still Trusted?

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I blocked a trusted user but their content is still allowed