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'''Status:''' Designed, '''not yet implemented'''. Hello World uses only MediaWiki's stock access-level ladder. The model below is the target for the <code>TrustGraph</code> extension in a later phase.

== Problem ==

Wikipedia-style reputation is '''earned''' through activity and admin discretion. There is no mechanism for an established user to '''invest''' their reputation in a newer user to fast-track them — even Stack Overflow's bonus on profile import is a one-time signal, not an ongoing stake.

We want a mechanism for trust transfer with '''skin in the game''': vouching should cost the voucher when it goes wrong, and reward them when it goes right.

== The hybrid model ==

Four layers stacked together:

=== 1. Earned floor (Wikipedia-style) ===

[[mw:Help:User_access_levels|Autoconfirmed gates]] remain the floor. New accounts can't bypass minimum account age and edit-count thresholds without a vouch. This is anti-Sybil insurance.

=== 2. Explicit vouching (Vouch-style) ===

A user with sufficient reputation can vouch for another user. A vouch grants the vouchee a permission advance — they can bypass some autoconfirmed gates immediately.

The vouching primitive itself is inspired by [https://github.com/mitchellh/vouch mitchellh/vouch], which was designed for OSS project trust management in the AI-generated-spam era.

=== 3. Stake-and-slash ===

Vouching locks up a fraction of the voucher's reputation. Two outcomes:

* '''Vouchee thrives''' (earns reputation organically through good contributions): the voucher's stake is returned '''with bonus'''. Vouching becomes a positive-sum action; vouchers are rewarded for picking well.
* '''Vouchee misbehaves''' (sanctioned via revert, block, or RevisionDelete): the voucher loses a fraction of their staked reputation. Vouching is costly when it goes wrong; encourages careful vouches.

Vouches can be revoked by the voucher (with a cooldown) and slashes cascade '''partially''', not totally, up the chain — so a long-distance vouch chain isn't catastrophic to top-of-graph users when a downstream vouchee misbehaves.

=== 4. Transitive propagation (EigenTrust-flavored) ===

Global reputation flows along the vouch graph with decay. A user's reputation is a weighted combination of their earned reputation and the flowed-in reputation from those who vouched for them. Decay prevents unbounded amplification through long chains.

The math is inspired by [https://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/eigentrust.pdf EigenTrust], but adapted to a vouching graph rather than a peer-to-peer transaction graph.

== Editor / oversighter tier ==

The top of the trust ladder — users with [[mw:Help:RevisionDelete|RevisionDelete]] and [[mw:Manual:RevisionDelete|suppression]] powers — is '''granted by admins''', not earned by stake. This is a deliberate capture-resistance measure: oversighter authority shouldn't be purchasable with reputation.

== Worked example ==

Alice has 1000 reputation. Bob is a new user.

# Alice vouches for Bob, staking 50 reputation. Alice now has 950 available + 50 staked-on-bob.
# Bob makes 20 good edits over a month, gaining 30 reputation organically.
# Alice's stake unlocks: she gets 50 back + a 10-rep bonus (for picking well). Alice now has 1010 available.

''Alternative path'': Bob spams. After 3 reverted edits, Bob is sanctioned. Alice loses 25 of her 50 staked (50% slash). Alice now has 975 available. A small fraction also propagates up to anyone who vouched for Alice.

== Implementation ==

Planned as the <code>TrustGraph</code> MediaWiki extension. Vouches stored as a custom data type; reputation accounting in dedicated tables; transitive propagation computed on a schedule via background job. Deferred from Hello World — see [[Roadmap]].

Trust Model - Revision history

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