Setting up a Discord server

Why Discord made sense

During the final stages of setting up my game servers, I began thinking about ways to provide players with the necessary information on how to join them. Seeing as joining Cobblemon in particular meant players would have to undergo additional steps besides configuring the IP address and port, it was important to provide them with proper support in an accessible way. To ensure information would reach players, I was mainly considering two options; either building a set of dedicated subpages for each game, or setting up a Discord server. In the end I chose to go with the latter, mainly because I wanted to build a community around the games I was hosting, but also because I was interested in getting as much direct player feedback as possible.

My prior experience with Discord had only been on a superficial level. I knew how to create basic text and voice channels, but I hadn't really done anything else besides that. As such, this proved to be a good learning experience, enabling me to go in-depth, learning how to set things up in a scalable way with tightly managed roles and permissions.

I configured the server to require users to apply to join, so that they would need to be manually approved before getting access. Approved applicants would initially only get access to the Lobby, containing read-only channels including a welcome channel, rules and announcements. To gain access to a specific game category and all of its associated channels, newly added members would first need to be assigned that game's associated role. Members of a specific game category, like Cobblemon, would be granted additional roles in line with the ranks they held within the actual game itself. Strict permissions were also set for each channel within each category, most of which were set to read-only, only allowing user posting in a select few. I initially started out with only a couple of core channels for each category, but added more as need presented itself underway.

I'm honestly very happy with how the server turned out in the end. Even though it's mostly all set now, I find that it keeps evolving in new and positive directions still. If you'd like to learn more, please feel free to join us in our Discord server.