Moderating Discord Servers
In case you're unfamiliar, Discord is a messaging app similar in many ways to Slack. It was originally developed for gaming communities. The voice chat makes it a great tool for staying in sync during collaborative play.
It's also great for organizing discussions around specific topics or events.
Discord:
Women of React was my first online conference of 2020. The organizers (Rachel Nabors Sara Vieira Jenn Crighton, Jenn Creighton, Kevin Lewis) used YouTube streaming and Discord community engagement. This worked really well, and allowed for lots of customization. The video was made public so anyone could view it live, even those who were not registered. Only registered attendees were invited to the Discord server at the same time.
The added step of needing to sign up for the conference was likely a deterrent for trolls who would have seen an event by and for women in tech as a target.
Using Discord allowed us to set up custom mod commands, post to specific channels when certain events occurred, and generally gave us more control than many other platforms would have.
Personally, Discord's desktop app is my preference over the web application. Choose one or the other (or both!) You can create your own server for free. It only requires a name to get started.
Roles
You can set up as many roles as you like for your Discord servers. However, I recommend keeping them to a minimum. Start with organizers, mods, and speakers.
Administrator permissions are available to any organizers who will be involved with moderation or have other administrative access to the Discord Server. Don't give permissions to organizers and other staff members who don't have special permissions. You can always add or remove roles later.
These permissions should be granted to your Mods role at a minimum:
- Kick members - Ban members - See Text Channels and Voice Channels – Send Messages, Manage Messages, Read Message History
You can add additional permissions to suit the needs of your particular community. Some permissions, such as "Change Nickname", are completely unnecessary but can be fun to allow volunteers a little more freedom.
Channel permissions
By default, everyone has the same basic permissions (write and read messages, etc.) when you create a new public channel. You can limit access by making it private.
You can create a channel that is only for moderation notifications and conversations. Use the roles you've created to set channel permissions.
You can get pretty granular with these permissions, all the way down to determining who can use external emojis! As a rule, give each person only the minimum permissions they require to fulfill their role. Your mods do not need to manage the webhooks. Participants don't even need to use the @everyone command.
Channel Welcome
Add a channel purely to guide new members of your server. Post your code of conduct and any Discord-specific instructions to this channel and then lock it down. (In the channel's settings, deny everyone permission to write messages.) This will ensure everyone who joins your server will at least be able to see the information. It's not clear if they will read it.
Make sure your welcome channel is on the top of your channel list. New members will be directed to the channel that is first. Drag and drop can be used to reorder your channels.
Installing Dyno Bot
Now, let's get on to the fun stuff. Dyno is a customizable bot for managing Discord servers. Sign up with Discord and select the "Add to server" button. Select the server where you want to add the bot, and then confirm the permissions you would like it to have. Some permissions are not necessary. Use your best judgement (e.g., you can uncheck "Speak" and make any necessary adjustments later if necessary.
Once that's done, you'll be redirected to your Dyno dashboard and you can begin customizing it to fit your needs. You should pay attention to the module section. Click "See All" to navigate to the module section.
Try not to get overwhelmed by all the options! For right now, focus on the Automod and Moderation modules.
Configuring the Automod Module
Start with the Automod module and then select "Settings". First, create a new Discord mod-log channel and set it up as your log channel. This will save you the time of having to go through a lot of conversation to find your log. This channel can have exactly the same permissions as the mods channel that you already created. From there you can decide what should happen to messages caught by filters on your server. I suggest the following settings:
- Banned Words : Delete Warn – All Caps : Warn Mass Mentions: Copy, Warn Auto Mute Link Cooldown: Warn Image Spam: Copy, Warn Auto Mute
These settings can be adjusted if necessary. Depending on the audience or the focus of your event, for example, you might choose to use the All Links filter to keep members from posting any links at all.
You can adjust the limits that trigger these filters. You might be more relaxed about using emojis. You can increase the limit from four to whatever you feel is reasonable. Perhaps you can change the time that users who violate the rules remain automuted. These will allow you to deal with more pressing issues before Automod does.
To finish setting up the Automod module, list the channels and roles you'd like Automod to ignore. Your rules should apply to everyone on all channels. If you need to modify individual rules for mods/staff, you can adjust the settings of the relevant filter separately. Click the gear icon next the filter you wish to adjust.
Configuring the Moderation module
The Moderation module is a bit more complicated. First, verify the settings that you wish to enable. The following options are recommended:
- DM users on kick/ban/mute – Delete mod commands once executed – Enable ban match command
Sometimes moderators make mistakes. Your moderators should clearly log any action they take. Your moderation log channel will automatically receive a list of mod actions. You can also use your mod log channel for this.
Writing custom commands
Dyno Bot can perform most of the operations you need, but it doesn’t allow members of Discord to report violations. You have more control and flexibility over the experience of your participants by adding custom commands. The following sections show a few commands I recommend.
When you are ready, click on "Add Command", and fill in the form. The command you enter under "Command", will be used by the members. The text under "Responses" detail what happens when the command is run. You can find more information about custom command syntax on the Dyno Wiki.
Report
This command will be executed with?report [username][message]. The command will be deleted immediately and the response will be sent to the mods channel. This response will include the time that the report was submitted, the username and username of who it was being reported, as well as a message. The $1 is the first argument, or the first word that was after?report. The $2+ is the second argument or word plus everything that follows.
Anonymous Report
You could call this a day and celebrate your accomplishments, or you could go one further step and give your participants anonymity to report code of conduct violations. Discord Servers You now have an anonymous reporting system.
There are a few issues with this method. Give the command a unique name. If you feel you are getting spam via the anonymous report command, you can always create an anonymous reports channel (the way you created modlog) and send your responses there.
Call mods
The?mods command allows you to call public for moderator assistance, but this could draw unwanted attention. It will be deleted immediately after being used, but it will post a message to mods channel. You can replace the third sentence with anything you want to use as an alert for moderation.
Next steps
Once your server is up and running, make sure that your mods (and everyone in your community) are familiar with the reporting process. Also, be sure to teach your mods how to use your custom commands. You can find more tips and tricks on training moderators in my post on moderating online events.