Confusing display of custom power level in room user list

[dregad]

Steps to reproduce

1. Go to a room that was migrated from Gitter, e.g. https://app.gitter.im/#/room/#ADOdb_ADOdb:gitter.im
2. In the room's People list, notice that users who previously were admins before Gitter migrated to Matrix, are now listed as Mods. However, @MadLittleMods informed me that they effectively are Admins, but with a Custom power level of 90 (see discussion thread).
3. Invite a new user, and make them Moderator
4. In the user list, they are shown as Mod just like the old admins, but in reality their Power level is 50

m.room.power_levels in room for example (all actions can be accomplished by a user with a power level of 90):

{
    "ban": 50,
    "events": {
        "m.room.avatar": 50,
        "m.room.canonical_alias": 50,
        "m.room.encryption": 90,
        "m.room.history_visibility": 90,
        "m.room.name": 50,
        "m.room.power_levels": 90,
        "m.room.server_acl": 90,
        "m.room.tombstone": 90
    },
    "events_default": 0,
    "invite": 0,
    "kick": 50,
    "redact": 50,
    "state_default": 50,
    "users": {
        "@dregad-544c57d4db8155e6700ce750:gitter.im": 90,
        "@dregad:matrix.org": 90,
        "@gitter-badger:gitter.im": 100,
        "@mnewnham-5593f15f15522ed4b3e32b93:gitter.im": 90,
        "@moderation:gitter.im": 100
    },
    "users_default": 0
}

Outcome

What did you expect?

The People list should display the user's actual power level, and definitely not regroup custom power levels with standard ones, which is confusing (and misleading).

What happened instead?

Custom power level 90 is displayed as Mod

Operating system

Windows

Browser information

Firefox 102.4.0esr

URL for webapp

app.gitter.im and app.element.io

Application version

Version de Gitter : 1.11.23-rc.1 Version de Olm : 3.2.12 / Version de Element : 1.11.23 Version de Olm : 3.2.12

Homeserver

gitter.im and matrix.org

Will you send logs?

No

[t3chguy]

I'd argue this is a bug of the gitter migration, they should have made the bot PL101, admins be admins and mods be mods rather than arbitrary picking PL90.

[dregad]

The Gitter migration made the thing visible, but the problem is present in any room where one assigns a custom PL to a user, so I'd argue this is a bug of Element 😉

[t3chguy]

This is as it was designed originally, so it isn't a bug, just not a feature you find obvious. Raised here for design to re-evaluate

[MadLittleMods]

Either these labels shouldn't apply to a custom-set power level, we could show Mod (90) to disambiguate (seems like a good option), or we could also do something where "Admin" matches the whatever power level is necessary to change m.room.power_levels.

The spec merely describes a suggestion on how to label everything and power levels can be set to any positive (assumed) integer.

Clients may wish to assign names to particular power levels. A suggested mapping is as follows: - 0 User - 50 Moderator - 100 Admin

-- https://spec.matrix.org/v1.5/client-server-api/#permissions

[MadLittleMods]

I'd argue this is a bug of the gitter migration, they should have made the bot PL101, admins be admins and mods be mods rather than arbitrary picking PL90.

I created https://gitlab.com/gitterHQ/webapp/-/issues/2876 to track updating Gitter room admins to a power level of 100.

This is still a shortcoming of Element though.

[Fox32]

Something like matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals#3949 could be an alternative, why limit to just regular, mod, and admin? Sometimes custom levels can be useful.

[MadLittleMods]

Related to MSC3915: Owner power level which could solve the Gitter specific problem where we need @gitter-badger:gitter.im above the rest of the other admins in the room. We could assign the 150 "Owner" level to @gitter-badger:gitter.im and 100 "Admin" to the rest of the admins. That MSC also discusses power levels labels in the alternatives section.