The discussion centers on whether users should be able to disable Trust Level Promotion notifications in Discourse, a feature currently controllable only by admins. jidanni, representing regular users, argues that such notifications are unnecessary for those uninterested in community engagement or privileges, proposing an opt-out option. Others, including Moin and Stephen, counter that these messages serve an important purpose: informing users of newly unlocked privileges and responsibilities, often customized per site, and that disabling them could leave users unaware of expanded access. Jagster agrees with jidanni that these messages are noise for users who don’t value badges or trust levels, noting that TL transitions (especially TL1→TL2) may not meaningfully change their experience. mattdm and Stephen question the need for user-level opt-out, pointing out that most users receive only two such messages and that the notifications are infrequent and useful. JammyDodger acknowledges the value of user feedback but concludes that the current system — where admins can disable notifications — is sufficient, and that adding user-level control offers little benefit for the development effort. jidanni raises accessibility concerns, suggesting that older or less tech-savvy users (like “Grandma”) might find these messages confusing or alarming, and that non-admins should have some control to simplify interfaces for such users. Lhc_fl dismisses the idea as unnecessary, arguing that only experienced multi-forum users would want such a setting — a niche group. The topic is ultimately marked for closure by JammyDodger, who reaffirms that Trust Level notifications are intentionally designed to inform users and that admin control remains the appropriate level for configuration.
For me, the message is more than a notification what trust level I have. Therefore, a notification like for all other badges would be enough. But this message is the chance for the staff to tell you about for example new privileges and responsibilities. This message can be customized, so it can be different from the one you got at another discourse forum. It would be a bad idea if users could disable that. Maybe think about it more like other messages from staff, you cannot choose to not receive messages from staff in general.
There is a difference between an admin choosing that this message is not needed in a community and a user deciding they do not need a message, without knowing what it will say.
I reckon the issue is exactly that: for me. For me badges are just pure noise. I don’t do anything here to get badges. Same thing with TL. I’m regular one and I don’t use those rights. At some point I may drop back to TL2 and it just doesn’t change anything for me. So, I don’t need those messages either.
Those aren’t messages from admins. Those are automatic messages from an bot.
I can live with those, It happends so rarely. But if I would have an option to stop those for good I would use it.
So — is it a thing that should fix ASAP? No. Is that a thing that should fix at some point? Not really, but if it can be done easily it would be nice.
I don’t get it. What is it that bothers you about these messages? Trust level promotions actually do materially change what you can access on most Discourse sites, so it’s useful to most people — but beyond that, they are so infrequent that having the option seems like more noise, bother, distraction than the notification.
Most users will only ever see two of these messages. Dismissing those already sounds like far less work than picking through your preferences to find a setting to disable two PM notifications.
Are you sure? That’s not how these topics come across. Discourse has tens of millions of users worldwide and has existed for a decade. If these were all legitimate issues you would have found scores of topics on the matter to respond to, rather than create your own.
Well, my users have asked why they get PMs that actually doesn’t mean much. I mean transitions from TL0 to TL2 are quite… not-so-important. At my circles anyway. Same thing with badges.
They weren’t even annoyed, just asking if those can be disabled. My solution was stop using badges, giving zero value for likes, promoting to TL1 right away, make reaching TL2 a bit harder and eliminate automatic TL3 totally. Minor problem solved.
But yes. I’m living in dream world without spam and badly behaving adults
I totally agree building opt-out/in for such trivial notices is far away from useful benefit/expence ratio. But no matter how many is using Discourse world wide CDCK just doesn’t know what users think or ask. So that can’t be an argument.
Maybe I’m the only one on this entire “Meta” (that’s all it’s called on my cell phone’s app info) who has never been an “admin” (of this mysterious software with no name )! Yup, a lowly regular user, (with an advanced degree in computer science )
We do get a lot of admins on here. Personally I enjoy getting feedback from a diverse range of Discourse users (even if I don’t necessarily agree with it all ).
There are some people who do really dislike the badges and the notifications they deem ‘non-relevant’, and it has cropped up a few times before (especially from those who have joined multiple Discourse sites). We do have the opt-out for some onboarding as you reference in Excitement Opt-Out Panel, but I do agree with @mattdm that a change in Trust Level is a significant enough change to inform people about as it often grants new abilities that people would find useful (and which can be tailored on a per-site basis, so no ‘Discourse-wide’ absolutes).
Just as a small extra note, the fact that you’re engaging in UX and ‘meta’ discussions about the software itself I think raises you a couple of notches up from the ‘lowest end user’. I should see if I can rustle you up a badge for that…
I’m guessing you don’t use Mastodon either? And you are naming your documents as office365? Or web-sites are named after browser?
This has nothing to do with software, Has never been. Is is matter of a site, or forum here. You don’t like name Meta here. That’s fine, it is your opinion. But never ever my forum wan’t be Discourse next to second Discourse on user’s phone.
Okay, just the other day I opened up one of those promotion trust mails, and it said I was supposed to reply to the Discobot to start a tutorial. I would offer a good old-fashioned link to the tutorial in addition.
Completely agree. The people who don’t want these notifications are likely people who wouldn’t want to change any settings. But I think there should be a site setting to turn them off.
It really goes against the fundamental point of trust levels to elevate the level of access a user has without informing them in some way, doesn’t it?
They’re there as much for the users as they are the site operators. How would anyone know they can now send a PM if they aren’t told? At TL1 users are also prompted to complete their profiles, something they may not want to do at the point of registration. I find that profile data to be pretty helpful when responding to people. A site setting would dead-end these things.
If people are fussing about two messages which let them know they have a greater degree of access and freedom, then they’re leading pretty charmed lives.
Not so much, actually. TL1 → T2 isn’t giving that much. And because of that, and when likes aren’t de facto in use TL-wise it is totally same to keep standard user at TL1 and raise them manually to TL3/4 if needed.
Or an admin uses settings that doesn’t send those messages. Notificatons shows anyway.
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Personally I enjoy getting feedback from a diverse range of Discourse users (even if I don’t necessarily agree with it all 