[New] Forums: Trust levels gate actions but not content — no level-gated/locked content (Skool's core engagement+monetization mechanic)

Area: Forums (audit p2) · Surface: Trust levels (TrustLevel helper) + forum/category visibility · Dimension: competitor-gap · Severity: enhancement

Skool's defining feature is a gamified level system where members unlock forums/categories/content as they earn points — it drives both daily engagement and upsell ('hit level 3 to access the advanced channel'). We already compute a 0-4 trust level per user but only use it as an anti-spam gate (can't upload, can't post links). Exposing trust level (or a configurable points threshold) as a content-access tier on forums/categories would let tenants build the same engagement loop competitors monetize, on infrastructure we already have.

Evidence

platform/src/Helpers/TrustLevel.php defines 5 levels (LEVEL_NEWBIE 0 … LEVEL_ROYALTY 4). Usage gates only actions: FileController.php:1021-1023 `if ($trustLevel < 2)` blocks uploads; PageController.php:131 describes the link-posting gate. grep for level-gate / unlock-level / require-level across forum visibility code returns nothing — forum/category visibility is binary public/private (findRelatedThreads gate uses `f.visibility = 'public'`), with no 'unlocks at level N' tier.

Suggested fix. Add a nullable min_trust_level (or min_points) column to forums/forum_categories; enforce it in the visibility checks used by showForum/showCategory/findRelatedThreads; surface a 'Unlocks at Level N' lock state in the index. Keep default NULL so existing forums are unchanged.

Filed by the automated tenant-app audit and adversarially evidence-verified. Status: verified. Open — not yet actioned.