Keys to a Safe Server Setup
Tips for a safe and secure server setup on Discord, written by our server admin for Dank Memer Official.
Kable
6 min read
July 12, 2020
In today's digital playground of social media outlets, there are many avenues we cross as we tow the many parties in our midst. We peruse the tapestry the internet has to offer in the way of our peers', subjects of our admiration, or information streams from news and more. As we explore these options for our expressions and engage with others letting the air to their own, there are essential placemarks to knit into your foundation of that content tapestry. Should you find yourself on the platform known as Discord, you'll find the offerings below to be beneficial for a smooth experience in avoiding abrasive users while curating creative grounds for you and your friends.
The Mission
Security is the storefront of this writing, but it's essential to acknowledge the orbiting facets that makeup a discord server. Its purpose, and the people or demographic of intent should be determined to prepare for the inevitable situation of maleficent users finding ingress to your online home. Is your server centered around a game or an extending service beyond Discord? Is it a chat room for you and your friends? Is it a piece of your business that can centralize your support stream to cater to your consumers? Whatever intent drives your situational need, or desire, to culminate an online community within Discord, it is critical to keep at the forefront of your mind as you begin constructing the digital atmosphere. Like anything in today's world, we cross parties with apparent malicious personalities, and intermingle with "bad actors" who portend a positive posture before preparing our doom (points for alliteration). The immersive nature of the internet can be leveraged by someone who intends to disband your trust later after obtaining their goal. Whether that goal is the destruction of the community built, defamation of a business, or sewing seeds of dissent among the friends made; it's critical to be prepared for those moments when you need to 'close ranks' and protect yourself, your friends, and other passive users within your community. Luckily, the platform is rich with tools to help you achieve learning and building defensive metrics to guard your environment. Let's start with you first.
The Motions
While it's healthy to trust and 'sharpen' your characteristics among strangers who you can learn and grow from, it's essential to keep in mind what drives you in this community you've built. Framed from the potential propositions above in regards to your server content, find a resolvable comfort level while withholding your defenses as you mix with individuals. Here are some initial offerings to achieve an initial deterrent of the malice inclined.
Respect the Hierarchy, Know the Hierarchy
Native Discord offers a hierarchical system in the form of "roles" that you can assign to your users that allow them permissions to various platform features and their ability to view channels in your server. This first point is one of the most important as these roles are the baseline for overall server security. In your server settings menu, you can adjust these permissions to grant a tier offering default that takes on global application (within the server). The "@everyone" role is the Discord default role that covers every single current or potential user in your server, and we will start with that. Important note: Members inherit the combined permissions of all roles given. The first thing to do to save yourself double work later is clear the @everyone role of all permissions. Discord defaults are set up for roles created after the @everyone role and take on the same permissions as the @everyone role. Doing this first gives you a role sheet that has permissions cleared, so you can add various allowed actions by a role as you go "up" the hierarchy.
As you work up the role positions, add approved features for the members you intend to role within these positions.
Start with the ability to send messages and see message history for your @everyone role. Leave the other permissions turned off. For your members role, turn on the ability to invite, and see messages Note the difference in see messages vs. see message history. Maybe even give them the ability to add their nickname. I recommend saving the permissions that allow posting images, links, etc. for users you'd identify as regulars who are frequently flying to your server — The ones you can count on not running amuck or posting content that could be abusive.
Continuing up the hierarchy gives your moderation team the ability to manage users (kick/ban/manage messages/view audit log).
HOL UP: as you scale the hierarchy of roles, be sure to only turn on the NEW permissions you are adding.
Remember, they take on all permissions combined, so if the role can see messages within the @everyone role, they don't need those permissions granted in any other role. This assignment granularity helps you close ranks or lock down your server if you need to take up defenses. It also assists in discerning what roles can do which things within your server. Finally, as you get to the moderation bots, and top-level role, you can begin giving out the manage server permissions, and admin permissions (if you truly trust someone with this). You'll notice in the second image above, "Administrator" doesn't get administrative granted permissions. Why is this? Let's call it a "pseudo admin" — Instead of giving that role full overrides for the entire server, which would allow every channel's view and grants every control for any role beneath it, grant by channel overrides to the role for all of your "publicly" hosted channels.
Notice I denied the ability for the general public, i.e., @everyone to see the channel, adjust the Muted role so that anyone who could see the channel (in this case, the contributors), who may also be muted, would maintain their mute within that channel. No positive overrides are given except to our pseudo admin.
The Motive
This baseline will give you the ability to manage your server correctly. It will allow you smooth action if you need to take moderated initiative toward a user who is abusive to your community members. There are generic options Discord provides as far as defending against alternate accounts, user bots, and spam accounts. Within your server menu, you can adjust these thresholding items under the Moderation tab. You're now ready for those bots I mentioned above....beep boop
Bot Moderation and Bot Gaming
We are not alone — intelligence exists beyond our digital universe in the form of bots that have been created from various programming languages to offer a vast array of features to encourage community growth and to moderate your community as it grows. The sub-culture of Discord varies as far as popular opinion is concerned about which bots offer the best one-stop-shop use, and the answer is whatever you find that benefits you.
As for managing your users, auto-moderating the content, and creating a role gate [see below], I recommend using Carlbot. Carl is a powerful moderation bot offering bulk role management, react roling, server logging, trigger responses, and custom command creation. Great for use in managing your new and highly secure server!
...but what about some fun? Discord comes from gaming roots, and as such, many bots offer gameplay ability. My personal favorite, backed by a vast community that naturally cultivates grounds to increase your server membership, is Dank Memer. Memer is a quippy, memey, fuckery style bot that offers a suite of fun commands. From meme creation (from your photos even) to image generation built-in on your favorite meme templates, varied autoresponse trigger dad jokes (Triggher, I barely know her!) finally a HUGE competitive economic system that has a regulated currency. You can gamble, play slots, blackjack, post memes, and even die from by the hands of the hobo in your attic! Autoposting content capability is available too!
ROLE GATE
This is a good example of putting those granular permissions to use in leaving the ability to see messages off for@everyoneand the ability to see messages on for the role the bot will give once the user reacts the emote. You would make sure you have the channel overridden to be seen for the@everyone* role and be unseen by your base members' role.
The Tea
Overall, Discord is a platform offering a multitude of built-in or 3rd party developed services. Beginning your journey is easy, so long as you keep the security in mind first. Build that community, and pursue your goals with ease. Good luck finding out what a weeb is, and who thought of the wumpus during your journey. There's no help in regards to either from here, but you should be able to extrapolate the framework for a reliable and secure server to grow and enjoy!