It's important to start small, even if you already have a fair sum of followers. Don't put in too much effort for something that might not go as far as you're hoping. Yes that might be a bit deterring, but depending on the content you're attempting with your server, you might not exactly get a lot of activity with it. The community runs itself, you're just helping gather them and offering fun stuff for them to do while hanging out!

You should start small by putting just the essential channels / categories, and then allowing users to suggest others in the future. If you're unsure how you want your stuff to look / what's important to add, go into other servers! Look around, take notes of what's being used for the kind of server you want! Just remember to keep things easy and organized for your followers! Split up stuff to make things easier to understand and find! Here's some examples from my own server.

I typically have my more important chats at the very top, Admin Chat especially, to make it easier for my mods to access things quickly in case of emergency. Alongside that I also have my more important channels up top for everyone so those can enjoy the rest of the server without having to scroll around too much.

(Additional note, I put all of my staff usernames in the server-guidelines and list who’s what so people who need them will be able to know who to go to. If they read the rules, then it shouldn’t be any trouble for them. But if it helps, pinning your staff usernames where your help-desk is also useful.)

Archiving your channels is sometimes better than outright deleting them, make an Archived Category and disable the ability for people to chat in those channels to keep things untouched. That way both you and them can check back on things in the event you need to.

This is usually a debatable topic-

!!!BUT FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS UNHOLY DON'T ADD VENT CHATS!!!

Yes you heard me right, STOP THAT. I know it's a rather blunt approach but nothing good ever really comes from telling random strangers about your  life. It's dangerous and can often spawn negativity and toxicity, as well as endanger minor's who are in a very sensitive state of mine. If you're worried about users then ask to DM them to talk it out.

Blacklist are also a bit of a debate, but what I've learned is that the best means of having one is to set boundaries on it. Don't have a channel for people to 'suggest' their triggers, they'll abuse it. If they're really concerned about it then ask them to DM you to get it added. More often than not it'll sift the silly one's like 'content creators' from the actual legitimate triggers.

Alongside that, enforce tags and censoring. Have channels specifically for certain things that happen to get tagged a lot.

Also, don’t get a censor-bot, those things can really cause more trouble than they’re worth.

If you're looking for a specific look and you happen to have trouble with designing a good layout that will work, ask for help! There's no shame in asking. Alongside that, look at other servers and check out what they're doing and if that's something you want in yours, add it! This sort of thing should typically come last, but it helps to get your rules / directory laid out in some notes before adding them on the off chance you want to add image borders. (I've made that mistake plenty of times myself XD)

Choosing your staff can be a  tedious process, and it's best not to leave it up to chance, even if  they happen to be a friend. Because when I say a single person can make or break a team, I mean it. I've had a team of 7 fall apart after bringing on just 1 particular member that after a while didn't get along well /  didn't speak their mind about certain issues bothering them.

Take your time, and look over your choices.

Another  thing to mention is to be careful about overworking your staff. I  generally have a setup of Owner / Mods / and Mini-Mods.

Me being the Owner, manages pretty much everything and gives the okay  where it's needed. But I also listen and look over a lot of the stuff my  staff brings up to me. Sometimes I turn it down, sometimes I let it  pass. It's a tedious game but a worthwhile one once you make it past  those rougher bumps.

My Mods are  the one's who dictate more serious situations, who I trust with the  community of my server. These people are mature and can keep their  biases in check when it comes to dealing with certain trouble. Yes they may mess up, but if they're worth it in the long run? Talk to them, work with them, and correct them.

My mods typically have a good chunk of permissions, but one of the things I don't allow them to handle is moving / editing channels. I allow them access to announcements but not the server-guidelines / channel-directory, because they don't need to.

Mini-Mods are basically trial-run Mods in training. These lil dudes are my  backbone to the community. They interact with the server more often than I do. Because of this, people aren't as afraid of bringing up  their issues to them. And in turn they bring the more serious issues to  my Mods to look over. They help work so that the Mod's don't have to  work as much, and in turn, you the Owner as well. Sure they can be a bit  tricky to get on the right path, but what I've done that works is to  make a lil handbook about handling things in the server! (I've also allowed my mods / mini-mods to review this with me to make sure they understand  what to do and where everything is.)

I also give limited permissions to these guys when it comes to letting people into the server / banning others, at least until they're due for a promotion to Mini-Mod+ lmao.

Ask your Staff how they feel about certain individuals you're thinking about hiring onto the staff team, chances are they might have information pertaining to them from other servers. Alongside that, sometimes they can recognize a particular vibe, so it's important  to check over all information they give you. Because this new face might not exactly be the person for the team depending on their attitude  or personality. They could be too blunt with their opinions, they could  be too energetic and jump the gun, they could be too anxious to offer  their opinion and in turn drag some other people down with them if they decide to quit. You never know.

How I generally go about hiring  staff is through a process of review. I do have a google form application but I factor in a few other things.

Activity - Check their discord activity, how many posts have they made since they've joined?

Detail  - Did they post in the application that they host / have hosted other  discord servers? If so, what kinds? Did they put any detail into their  summaries of these?

Case File - Have they ever gotten into any trouble with the server before?

I typically record these applications for future reference, and I take a  week for submissions, another week to look over everything with  everyone, and if things look good, alert the users who I’m interested in  joining if they’d be open for an interview, set a time, have it, allow everyone to look over the interview itself and move on from there.

Those  that don’t make the cut I at least send them a message to tell them so, so at the very least they’re not sitting in the dark waiting.

How I usually go about interviews is to just ask them questions and get a  read on their general personality while they answer them. Doing this can usually help you get a better read on who you think is going to get  along with your team. Questions can range from;

- What made you want to become a mini-mod for this server in particular?

- Your application says you’ve helped host a server before. What kind of environment was it like there?

- Are you better off working in your own sector on things or do you prefer teamwork?

- So are there any times/days you are not available or have limited availability? Obviously we don't expect you to be here or engaged 100% of the time so this is more of knowing more about you and your free time.

- What are you not comfortable handling in the server?

- Are there any events/ideas you would want to see in the future for the server?

Of course these are just typical questions and you're free to use them as you wish, I still allow my mods to pass me any questions they might want me to ask the person in general.

If a staff member does something that warrants a means of punishment, it’s always best to talk it over with those you trust on what that sort of punishment could be done. Oftentimes demotion is a fair verdict to place if the staff member is willing to accept the charges.

But this cannot be said for every case, and it’s hard to place down just what KINDS of punishments should be handed out. Sometimes it’s best to just sit down, and speak about the situation to make the other recognize what’s wrong in order to get them to understand just how bad it really is. Afterall, what hurts more than knowing you disappointed your team?

Dropping a staff member can be a pretty anxious thing to do, no one likes to let a familiar name go, but sometimes it’s for the best. Sometimes these reasons can stem from a misjudgement on your part with their vibe, prompting anxiety to spread  throughout the rest of the staff. Or they just don’t really do a whole  lot and don’t attempt to interact when you’re asking everyone to help out.

Either way, a well spoken leader knows when to step up and point out these things WELL before they attempt to just drop a staff member. But when things are all said and no improvement is done, sometimes all you can do is finalize letting the person go.

Best way to go about this? Talk to the rest of your staff, ask if what you think you’re doing is fair. If they agree that it’s time to let the person go, then go ahead and write up a message, and send it to the staff member in question to talk to them about letting them go.

Sometimes they might just be too busy in life to keep up with the hassles of everything, and that’s okay! But when a user is in need and tries to msg  them, only for them to not respond because they’re already busy, that gives your server the title of being unreliable.

When in doubt, talk it out.

So I run both an 18+ server as well as an all ages server (within discord guidelines ofc.) And what I’ve done that generally works when it comes to user age and identification is by installing a two-factor authentication process.

The process basically goes like this. Users come in, they can only see the rules and interact with the help-desk. In order to make an introduction they HAVE to read the rules, (or if they’re stinky, scroll to the bottom without reading and click the green checkmark). Doing this gives them the verified role, HOWEVER, this doesn’t give them any other access but to just the introductions chat.

This is to help with both bot-spam and raids.

Not only that, if you’re an 18+ server and are worried about minors getting in, your TOS should protect you from that. Because you listed NO MINORS  ALLOWED, if they click that checkmark, they basically admitted to lying that they weren’t but went on in anyways, that's on THEM if something happens.

It’s not a perfect process, but it’s worked for me. I just ban the minor’s that lie, and kick the ones that realize ‘oh shit my bad’ until they’re of age.

Another way to check for age is to check their username in other 'all-age' server for an introduction. Or, a discord user's profile page. Usually you can find their age in there, and if not, they might have some links to their twitter / carrd that gives you just that. Screenshot it just in case when you do find it and see that they’re a minor,  because they might try to change it to get around your system.

Bots are a useful means of helping you out with your server, but sometimes you don’t need a lot to keep a server running. I’ve only got a handful I use, and here’s how I use em!
This lil dude helps with auto-roles, as well as announcing when a new person came in or left.

This one helps record messages that have been edited or deleted. Very useful for problematic people trying to cover their tracks, as well as recovering data that may have been accidentally deleted.

Not Quite Nitro is good for those who want to use emojis from other servers who also have it. A great addition on the off chance you don’t have enough nitro boost to get more emoji slots.

Disboard is great for putting your discord server on the radar. Sure it also puts you in the crosshairs of bots, but it pays its weight in users finding you.

This one is tricky depending on how you want it to be used. If you’re making an rp server? Make it an optional addition, because not everyone has the patience / expertise to set a character up with that thing. I know I don’t. XD

Alongside just having it in your server for those that use it for personal reasons, I would say be careful with it, and know what you’re getting into by adding it should you want to open your server to systems who frequently use it in that regard. In that case, you miiight want to use Pluralbot instead for systems. I have mods in my server who know how to talk to people who use this type of bot in case there happens to be an issue.

Planning events is a pretty tough thing to do, but your best bet when dealing with this is to pre-plan. Depending on how big your event is  going to be, take the time to set it up properly, have mods beta-read  your rules, draw / make advertisements to gather attention on different  platforms. Last minute announcements do no one any favors, give the  people a chance to look forward to upcoming events so they too can plan  out what they’ll do at that time.

Depending on what your server hosts, whether it be species, fandoms, or a particular genre of stuff,  statistic’s show what the people want, and sometimes that can be what  keeps your community active. How to gather these so-called statistics?  Simple! Host a poll.

With how much activity your server gets, people might favor  mini-games like trivia night or jackbox as opposed to drawing contests  and such. Some variety of things you can do to ask what the people want;

- Trivia night
- Movie night
- Cards Against Humanity
- Jackbox

- Drawing / Writing Prompts
- Raffles for art / discord nitro
- Drawing / Writing Contest
- Secret Santa’s
- Art Fight

Hosting these events can be a hassle, so it’s always good to have  everyone’s hands on deck if you can help it. That way you can split the  effort and make everything run smoothly. Even a Trivia Night needs a mod  or admin to keep an eye on the crowd to make sure things are going okay.

When it comes to drama, the worst thing you can do is fan the flames.  Containment is the best approach for these sorts of issues, as well as  keeping quiet. If you have a lot of people talking about it in one  particular channel, simply bold your message and remind them to not talk  about it anymore.

In the event that something bigger happens  that causes people to spam the channel complaining and such, simply take  away the ability for users to talk in that chat and promptly state in  that chat to not speak about the situation anymore or else users will  risk getting muted, before eventually opening up the chat again once  you’ve either deleted all the messages or some time has passed enough for  everyone to calm down.

I've only had one of these situations occur, and thankfully I was smart enough to mute the chat so anymore damage couldn't spread. But it just goes to show that you never know what's gonna happen, so stay prepared.

Collecting evidence can be a  life saver for many reasons. For starters, it allows new staff members  to recognize who to look out for, as well as what to do in future  scenarios. I often keep track of a variety of things, ranging from  reminders of people posting nsfw content in the wrong channels, to straight up bans.

If you look back at my ‘Channel Organization’ section, you’ll find how this setup looks like in my own discord.

Case -Files hold the records of those who have either done a bad or have been straight up banned. We have a 3 strike system in place so files have  their marks set in a way where you can just look and tell who’s on their  last strike as well as when they got their first one.

Receipts hold  the more compacted data of the files, it tells us all of what happened  in a written statement, as well as tags of the usernames involved so  should something else arise with that user, all we have to do is search  for their username and we’ll get our info in a snap.

Message-logs also help to record the data of events that happened where messages were deleted.

Pile-of-Whatever  is kind of a spam channel for screenshots, tagged of course. Where they’re linked in Receipts to help us track em back. We also post wips of messages for announcements or people we need to DM.

Approaching users during a situation can be just as stressful and tedious, and the best way to  handle this? Have more than one judge. You have your mods, and then your  jury the mini-mods.

Based  on how the situation is, have a side-room which only those with a  specific role can enter and speak in and give it to the accused. Mini-mod’s can look but not speak,  mostly to keep from too many voices getting lost in the chat (unless they were involved). Alongside that, make sure EVERYONE gets a chance to  speak, even if it’s just the accused cursing their head off before  leaving the server.

More  often than not I tend to get into a voice call with my mods to talk  while this stuff is happening to help these things go by faster and stay  on point. All the while we talk to the individual in a private channel.  Generally I have two channels, one for the accused and one for the  victim. (You can see these in my ‘Channel Organization’ section.) When these sorts of situations are done and over with, I typically just copy the conversation into a doc, save it, and delete the chatroom to refresh everything for the next trial.

In the end, it’s always best to try and talk it out if you can before a verdict is reached.

When it comes to working in a  server, it’s always best to create a boundary for yourself between both  it and your life. I learned the hard way that in being an owner, without  a fallback, my server mods will struggle when conflicts arise and I’m  not around to smack the hammer down.

All  the same, it’s important to take breaks from situations you find  yourself stressing over. If you’re sick, put someone else in charge who  you and the other’s trust to lead them for the time being. If you have  to take care of your home life and family, find a fallback, someone else  who can take care of the server in your absence altogether that  everyone can agree will do a good job. Don’t just give it away to  someone random, make sure to pass that torch onto someone you can trust.  No matter how tired you are…

You have your team, and your  community. At the end of the day, this isn’t a job you alone can do, so  don’t think you have to. Sure everyone depends on you to help keep the  place going, a good leader is one other’s will miss when they’re gone!  I’ve had my mods tell me the server would fall apart without me, and as  much as I wish that weren’t true, it does feel nice to know that all my  efforts have made the difference.

Rely on those you trust, because at the end of the day, they’re your friends.

You’re gonna make mistakes. This much is true. My server isn’t perfect  and that’s okay. It’s still growing and changing and a lot of stuff you  probably started with isn’t gonna be there after a while. That just  happens. Change is a good thing though sometimes, so don’t be afraid to  accept that.