Discord Part 2

Now that you’ve tried out Discord (or just read about it), let’s dive deeper.

I mentioned before that servers can have roles. To create them, click on the down arrow next to the server name on the top left. Go to go Settings. The list will include Roles, Emojis, Stickers, and more advanced things. Click on Roles, and add any ones you may wish. For example, I choose Reader and Author roles. All roles have certain permissions. You can even assign colors to each role to see the difference in the feed. Under the Permissions tab are various entitlements you can assign to roles. Be careful about letting someone else manage your server. You might lose it. But you give permissions for small things such as allowing users to kick someone out or not allowing them to change their nickname.

For assigning roles, I went to my expert—the fourteen-year-old. Owners of the servers can assign roles to members under that same Settings tab (top left down arrow). Click on Members and then the Plus sign next to the user. Choose an already created role. For those starting out, it’s best to do the assignments yourself. You can interact with users to ask what role they want. If you have many users, consider using a bot to auto-assign roles as people join the servers. My limited research showed that Mee6 bot and Dyno bot work well. (More on bots soon.)

You can also view your server as the various roles you created. This will let you see what your users are seeing and ensure everyone is on the correct channels. For writers, having a “spoiler” role can allow those who wish to discuss your newest book’s details permission to use your Spoiler channel. To view roles, click on Roles in the Setting menu. Choose a role and click on the Display tab. On the bottom of the screen is View Server as Role. Notice there is an Everyone role. This role allows you to broadcast a message and pings everyone on the server. Use a @ before a role to ping that group, e.g. @everyone.

As your audience gets larger, you will need to find some trustworthy people to help manage it. Choose their name under Membership and give them a role such as Moderator or King of Channel X, however you want to phrase it. Then add permissions to that role, such as banning members or muting members in the voice channel. Again, you’ll need to do this if the server is getting big and unmanageable. Spam happens, and proactive management will help ensure it doesn’t take over.

Bots are programs added through third parties to make your servers more exciting, fun, or workable. They are basically AI that can perform minor tasks for you with just a command. To get a bot, start with a Google search with the words Discord, bot, and what you are looking for (like management, music, etc.). For example, let’s say you want to use Mee6 for management and have it create a welcome for all new users. Google search for the bot and download it from their site. Most bot sites will look similar to Discord and have a large Add to Discord button. You must allow the bot permissions and basically invite it to your server. So far, I haven’t found one how will make me a mixtape or buy me a seafood dinner. Oh, well.

Once bots are installed, many have slash commands. These commands allow you to engage the bot for its purpose. There’s a bit of code-speak with these commands. For example, on the NaNoAlbany server, they use Sprinto to manage writing sprints. Commands for this bot include _sprint :Time :Length (:00 :30), which creates a thirty-minute sprint that starts at the top of the hour. It also uses _join to join in a writing sprint, _forgetme to get out of the sprint, and _wc Number (your word count) to tell the bot how much you wrote. This is just one example of a bot. Other bots do different tasks Groovy for music, Dank Memer for memes, Starbot to track your stats, and many more. Do the research and find the ones that work for you.

I’m still experimenting myself by joining communities and starting my own server to see what might happen. If you want to join me, here’s the link. I’m still adding content, users, and bots, so it’s tiny. But, together, we can build a community.