How to create a Discord server

Creating the server

1. In Discord, click the + at the bottom of the server column on the left.
2. Choose “Create My Own”. The templates create about fifteen channels you will not use half of — and deleting is more tedious than creating.
3. Give it a name and an icon. The icon matters more than you would think: in the left column it is the only cue for finding a server among twenty.
4. Pick the region if the option appears, then confirm.

You are automatically the owner. That status cannot be shared: there is only ever one owner, and transferring it is permanent. Never transfer it to “help someone out”.

Channels: start small

Every beginner’s mistake is opening twenty channels for ten people. The result is mechanical: conversation scatters, every channel looks dead, and newcomers conclude the server has no life.

A starting server needs four channels, no more. You open others when a topic overflows, never before.

• Rules — read-only. What you write there decides what you can enforce.
• Announcements — read-only too. Otherwise announcements drown in replies.
• General — where everything happens at first. That is normal, and it is better that way.
• One voice channel — one. Ten empty voice channels make a server look abandoned.

Discord caps a server at 500 channels and a category at 50. Those limits look distant, but a badly organised server approaches them faster than you would think.

Roles, from day one

Even at ten members, create at least two roles: a staff role and a member role. Not because you need them yet, but because retrofitting them later means redoing every permission in every channel.

One thing to understand before touching anything: on Discord, permissions add up. A member holds those of every role they carry. Adding a role therefore never removes a right — only a channel-level restriction can.

1. Server Settings → Roles → create “Staff” and “Member”.
2. Give Administrator to nobody but yourself. It bypasses every channel restriction, including the ones you are about to set.
3. Put “Staff” above “Member”. A moderator can only act on members whose highest role sits below theirs.
4. Leave @everyone with the minimum: read, post, join voice. The rest comes from roles.

Close the doors before opening

• Verification level (Settings → Moderation): at least “Medium”. It requires the account to be five minutes old — enough to make a raid expensive.
• Explicit media filter: on for all members.
• Remove Create Invite from @everyone if the server is not meant to be public. It is the door nobody thinks to close.
• AutoMod (Settings → AutoMod): at minimum block invite links to other servers and mention spam. It is free and it acts before posting.

Welcoming the first members

An empty server is not a problem: an empty and silent one is. The first ten members set the tone, so invite people who will talk rather than as many people as possible.

Prepare a short welcome message: where they have landed, one thing to do, who to ask. Three lines beat a list of fifteen channels.

How Kuratos helps

Once the server is in place, Kuratos automates what would otherwise need someone always present: the join message and welcome image, self-service roles, auto-moderation and the sanction history.

Adding it takes a few clicks and nothing is enabled by default: every module is configured from a web interface, not through commands you have to remember.