Understanding BigFishTackle Trust Levels 1–4
Our forum uses trust levels to gradually unlock features as members spend more time reading, participating, and helping the community. The goal is simple: reduce spam, protect the forum while new users learn their way around, and give more abilities to members who have shown real, consistent participation. By default, Discourse uses five levels total: 0 New, 1 Basic, 2 Member, 3 Regular, and 4 Leader. Admins can customize the thresholds, but the default system works like this.
Trust Level 1 – Basic
This is the first level you earn automatically. By default, you reach Trust Level 1 by entering at least 5 topics, reading at least 30 posts, and spending at least 10 minutes reading. This level is mostly about showing that you have spent a little time exploring the forum and learning how things work. It is based on all-time activity, so once you earn it, you do not lose it.
Trust Level 2 – Member
This is the level where the forum starts recognizing you as a more established member of the community. By default, you reach Trust Level 2 by entering at least 20 topics, reading at least 100 posts, spending at least 60 minutes reading, visiting on at least 15 different days, giving at least 1 like, receiving at least 1 like, and replying in at least 3 different topics. PM activity does not count toward the likes, posts-read, or replied-topic requirements, and replies to your own topics do not count toward the “3 different topics” requirement. Like Trust Level 1, this is based on all-time activity and is not lost once achieved. By default in Discourse, TL2 and above can send invites, including invites to specific topics, which is why on BigFishTackle the Invite button becomes available once you reach Level 2.
Trust Level 3 – Regular
This is where things become more advanced. Trust Level 3 is not based on your lifetime totals alone. Instead, it looks at your activity over the last 100 days, so it reflects whether you are an active regular right now. By default, you need to view 25% of topics created in the last 100 days (capped at 500), read 25% of posts created in the last 100 days (capped at 20,000), reply in at least 10 different topics, visit and read at least one post on 50% of the last 100 days, give at least 30 likes, receive at least 20 likes, receive those likes from at least 5 unique users, receive them across at least 7 different days, have no more than 5 moderator-confirmed spam or offensive flags, and have no suspensions or silences in the last 6 months. You also must have all-time minimums of 200 topics viewed and 500 posts read. Unlike Levels 1 and 2, Trust Level 3 can be lost if recent activity drops below the requirements, although Discourse uses a low-water mark of about 90% and gives a 14-day grace period after promotion. By default, TL3 users also gain helpful community-cleanup abilities such as re-categorizing and renaming topics.
Trust Level 4 – Leader
Trust Level 4 is different from the others because you do not earn it automatically by reading or posting more. It is a manual promotion by staff only. In other words, this level is reserved for members the admin or moderation team trusts deeply and wants to empower further. Think of this level as a hand-selected community leader level, not just an activity milestone.
Fastest way to move up
The best path is to do normal, genuine community activity: read across a variety of public topics, visit on different days, reply in different discussions, give likes to helpful posts, and contribute the kind of content other members appreciate enough to like back. For Level 3, consistency matters a lot more than one busy weekend, because it is measured on a rolling 100-day basis.
Why the forum is set up this way
The trust system helps keep the forum clean and useful. New members can learn the platform safely, while active members gradually gain more freedom and responsibility. It is one of the main ways the forum balances openness with spam prevention and community quality. Also, keep in mind that these are the default settings. Admins can adjust them for the needs of a specific forum.