Tools for Automating Server Management

While Discord recommends being as hands-on and human as possible, there may come a time when you want to bring in some additional support to help out. 

Here are a few ways you can scale your community and automate manual processes.

Design Your Server for Safer Use 

  • Turn on Explicit Media Content Filters: Permit Discord to automatically scan and delete any media in the server that contains explicit content with a filter. You can choose to scan nothing, everything, or only content from members without a role. Don't delay and set a filter today, especially if your server is public!‍
  • Set up Verification Levels: In your Server Settings, you’ll find the option to choose from a series of Verification levels. From None to Highest, you can set up gates to prevent spam and require members to verify their identity before they can interact in your server. 

Implement your AutoMod

Designed to assist your hardworking moderators, Discord’s AutoMod feature helps keep your server clean and safe by automatically filtering out harmful or undesirable messages around the clock.

Choose from filters made by Discord or customize your own with lists of words or phrases and the actions AutoMod will take when they’re found in your server. This allows you to…

  • Keep Community Conversations Welcoming: AutoMod detects and acts on messages containing harmful words or phrases before they’re ever posted, reducing immediate harm and exposure for your members and moderators.‍
  • Enjoy Peace of Mind: AutoMod alerts your team when members try to use words from your list. Assign actions like Timeout from the alert to diffuse difficult situations and reduce the need for your moderators to be everywhere at once.‍
  • Allow for Nuance: No one can fully replicate a moderator’s eye for context, but Wildcards get close. Wildcards allow AutoMod to detect variations that partially match listed words or phrases and flag when members try to circumvent filters.

Explore our Help Center article to adopt your AutoMod today.

Set Up Moderation Bots

Some servers also use moderation bots to handle things like banning keywords or handing out warnings to offending members.

A well-configured Discord moderation bot can be set up with different rules for different channels and automatically take action should any users violate those rules. You can also set them up to provide reports and keep your admins or mods up to date on any actions it takes.

By setting up some levels of auto-moderation, you and your human mods can concentrate on more significant issues while the bot is busy taking on smaller things. But setting up auto-moderation is a balancing act.

What Are the Pros of Automating Moderation?

  • React Quickly: When your community is still in its early stages, handling moderation is easier. However, as your community grows, you might find that you need help staying on top of everything.‍
  • Protect Your Time: You don’t want to be online 24/7 to watch every message for signs of trouble. Setting up automation can handle or streamline harmful situations to prevent burnout. ‍
  • Fair Judgment: To err is human, after all. As you create cool content for your community, consider assigning more tasks to your auto-moderators and reduce the chance of biased decision-making.‍

Finally, remember to regulate the consequences. As your community grows, things may get a little more complex. For example, if someone posts irrelevant content in a channel just once, they may just need a quick reminder of the channel’s topics. But if they’re repeatedly ignoring the channel topics and spamming with inappropriate content, more severe consequences may be needed. Auto-moderation can keep an eye on repeat offenders and act accordingly.

It’s important that all types of moderation and support remain as fair and consistent as possible. Remember to hold everyone in your community to the same standard, regardless of who they are or their history.

Important Reminders

  • Not every violation will have a simple solution. Situations may require some more in-depth people management or further escalation, so it’s recommended to leave context-based decisions to a human rather than a bot. 
  • Don’t give bots or humans more permissions than are absolutely necessary.

For more on bot configuration and best practices on moderation, head to the Discord Moderation Academy, and check out this article.

Scaling Community Support

Is It Time to Scale Your Community Support?

It’s essential to build a community where members feel heard and supported. Although being on hand to help is a cornerstone of a healthy community, that can get harder as your server starts to grow.

That’s when it’s time to scale your support.

Ways to Scale Your Server Support 

  • Introduce FAQs: As your community becomes more established, you won’t be able to answer every question individually. Instead, make key information accessible by turning a running list of frequently asked questions into an #FAQs-channel. Keep the channel read-only and direct members there before they ask a question.‍
  • Create Dedicated Spaces for Asking Questions: A support channel will keep questions out of the general chat and make it easier for you or anyone else to answer any questions.‍
  • Be Transparent: Let your community know when you’ll be online by pinning office hours to your support channel.‍
  • Peer-to-Peer: You’re only one person who can only do so much but where possible, encourage an atmosphere where all members can support each other. If some community members are already doing this, reward them with a unique role. Others will know who to look to for support and be inspired to start doing the same.  

It’s important to find the right balance of humanity and auto-moderation. Build for safety and use automation as a tool to let you focus your energy on other important aspects of managing your community. 

With thanks to LogoCat for all their help in writing this article.