Category moderators currently cannot set topic timers, despite expectations that their privileges should allow it. putty observed that assigning Trust Level 4 (TL4) enabled access to topic timers, but expressed concern over TL4’s additional permissions—like viewing flagged and hidden content—which cannot be adjusted. ondrej confirmed this is expected behavior, referencing the Trust Level Permissions Reference, which shows many category moderator actions are TL-dependent. Arkshine noted that the code hardcodes topic timer access to staff and TL4 users only, with no built-in way to modify this—though a Theme Component (TC) could potentially override it. All agree that better granular control over permissions would be beneficial.
We are trying to give category moderators the ability to schedule topic timers, but they can’t see it for some reason.
This Discourse topic made me think that category moderator privileges would be sufficient for this, but I’m not sure:
As soon as we assigned these users TL4 they could see the topic timer. Is this intended?
Our only concern with granting these users TL4 is that they have some permissions that aren’t able to be adjusted—namely being able to see content that was flagged and hidden. Is there a middle ground here?
This does seem to be expected behaviour. If you look at the Trust Level Permissions Reference guide you’ll see a lot of user actions are TL (trust level) dependant including those of category moderators.
are hardcoded to be only available for staff and leader (TL4).
I don’t see any way to modify this behavior (though it’s possible to do something with a TC).
I agree that it would be nice to have better granular control here.
