Server Structure
In the Basics section I will cover everything regarding a basic server setup in a chronological order. First, the server needs a channel structure and content for those channels. This will serve as a framework for you to expand on and personalize to your liking. You can use my template to get started as well, but bear in mind templates do not support features unlocked after creating a server like announcement channels, forum channels and Onboarding.
Basic server layout
Channels act as dedicated areas where people discuss certain topics, as well as providing information or functionality by acting as a bulletin board. A good practice is to create separate channel categories for channels that share a common theme or subject, aiming to make navigating the server as easy as possible. Channels at the top should have information via read-only channels, i.e. people can read but not write messages. Common examples of this are #rules, #welcome-and-rules, #announcements, #social-feed, #livestreams, #resources, #kickstarter-updates, etc. To get you started, here’s the channel structure I recommend to begin with:
Be aware that when you create a channel, you also need to set up permissions. The easiest method is to set the permissions per channel category, and then sync the channels with the category. This means you only have to set up the permissions for those channels once. For read-only channels you will need to manually disable allowing @everyone to send messages in them. You don’t have to change the permission to view messages, as they inherit all permissions from their role by default. For private channels, you only have to disable everyone seeing the channel. We’ll talk more about this in the following guide, roles-and-permissions.
Tip
A common pitfall is to create channels around user-generated content pro-actively, without having enough content being generated by members to keep the channels populated regularly. Communities are very dynamic, and with its growth comes different needs. Adding channels reactively based on signals from within your community ensures that they will be in demand early on, so don’t feel obliged to add all the channels you see above just yet.
Channel Content
Now that you have set up a basic channel structure, it’s time to provide those channels with content! In this section, we’re going to cover the following areas:
- The welcome/rules channel
- Showcasing official links and other social media
- Adding channel topics
The welcome/rules channel
Your welcome channel is where your new members arrive when they join your server. It’s your first impression and a very crucial part of your server. It’s also your first chance – and for members that tend to mostly lurk, probably your only chance – to convince them why they should stay and join the conversation.
Writing the welcome message
To start with, write a post welcoming your new members and accompany it with an image that represents the brand or product. After that, you can go more in-depth about who you are and what the server is about. As first impressions last, it is worthwhile to put some effort into decorating this area. Be sure to check out formatting-101 for tips on how to format your text effectively. Later on, we’re going to add more sections that explain the purpose of the server and its rules. Neatly dividing these sections with banners from assets and clean formatting will improve readability tremendously, so make sure to keep that in mind from the start. Here are some examples:
Adding rules
Rules are an integral part of the Discord community to help make it a place where everyone can feel safe and welcome. As your server needs to be aligned with Discord’s official Community Guidelines and Terms of Service when enabling Community, I recommend that you incorporate those too. Ensure that the list is not too long to avoid walls of text and keep the rules itself short and concise. Additionally, leave some room for interpretation: users with malicious intent will try to dance around the rules and try to take things literally. By being specific without giving exact examples, you can always refer to the judgement of the server admin or moderators to decide whether a post is in line with their vision. If you have any rules that are super specific to the server’s theme or main purpose, you can also list those separately to put emphasis on them. Below is a basic template to serve as a baseline you can expand on.
- No spamming or flooding the chat with messages
- No bashing or heated arguments with other people in the chat
- No adult, explicit, controversial or otherwise NSFW content
- No offensive content (harassment, racism, sexism, homophobia, other derogatory remarks/profanity or insults)
- No advertising
Showcasing official links and other social media
Next to a channel for a word of welcome and the rules, it’s good to collect official information and links, as well as external resources and community information to put it into another channel. This can be your website or a specific page, official social media accounts, Kickstarter campaign, Itch page, Steam Store page, and so on: anything that users can explore to find more information about the company or product. I always find it nice to use emoji with the links to have users quickly identify the listed URLs. This way, you keep the visual element that represents your URL without having huge embed tiles which you can’t always control the information of. Check out the image below for some examples. If you like to use these, I linked a starter pack of 19 emoji representing the majority of platforms in extra-resources.
Tip
Format your links like this [Link text](https://example.com) to create hyperlinks. To remove the embedding for all the links you just posted, simply click the top right “X” of any embed that follows your message. This removes all embedding from the entire post for everyone, keeping your welcome page neatly organised. If you need specific embeds to show, use angle brackets like this: <https://discord.com>. For masked links, you use [Link text](<https://discord.com>)
Adding channel topics
Now that you have a basic structure and official pages in place, the final steps include channel topics for all the channels available. Channel topics are helpful for (new) members to understand what each specific channel is about before posting. You can also include links or references to other channels to give members everything they need to start having a meaningful conversation. Tip
Don’t forget to write topics for private and read-only channels, too!