Setting up a levelling system on Discord

What it is actually for

The point is not handing out points. It is answering a question every newcomer has without ever asking it: who am I dealing with? Who has been here a while, who knows the subject, who answers often.

It is also a remarkably effective moderation filter. Gating a channel, a command or an entry behind a minimum level screens out disposable accounts better than any written rule: an account created this morning can wait, but it cannot participate.

What a levelling system does not do: revive a dead server. With no conversation, counting messages counts nothing.

The setting that decides everything: the delay between gains

With no minimum delay, the system rewards volume. Sending twenty one-word messages becomes profitable, and that is exactly what happens: the channel fills with “yes”, “lol”, “ok”, and people writing real sentences are overtaken by people writing none.

One minute between gains is a good starting point. A two-word message then earns no more than a two-line one, which removes any reason to spam.

Also exclude channels that should earn nothing: command channels, meme channels, the welcome channel. Otherwise the top of the leaderboard is whoever posted the most images.

The curve: how long to reach a level

Progression that is too fast empties the system of meaning: the first ten levels fall in one evening, and there is nothing left to reach. Progression that is too slow is never noticed.

The useful benchmark: a regular member should reach the first reward role in one to two weeks. Long enough to feel earned, short enough that they do not give up first.

An exponential curve — each level noticeably harder than the last — is the default and the right choice in most cases: early levels come fast and encourage, later ones are earned.

Voice XP, often forgotten

On many servers — gaming, help, groups of friends — most of the life happens in voice. Counting only text there produces a frankly wrong leaderboard: the most present members are absent from it.

Two precautions if you enable it: require a minimum number of members in the channel for a gain to count, otherwise someone connects alone and goes off to do something else; and check waiting or music channels are excluded.

Rewards

• Five well-spaced roles beat twenty. Beyond that a role signals nothing — that is the nature of a signal: it loses value when it is common.
• Decide whether roles stack. Stacked, the member list becomes unreadable; replaced, everyone shows one role and the latest achieved is visible.
• No sensitive permission on a level role. A level measures activity, not trust: a patient account can reach it.
• Access to a channel is a far better reward than a colour: it gives something to do, not just something to show.

The leaderboard

A leaderboard is only interesting while it stays reachable. Dominated for two years by the same three people, it motivates nobody — it discourages, in fact, because it says the seat is taken.

Two remedies: a periodic reset, or a rolling-window leaderboard alongside the all-time one. Both give whoever arrives today a chance.

How Kuratos helps

The Levels module covers all of the above: text and voice XP, delay between gains, adjustable curve, excluded channels and roles, double-XP channels, reward roles stacked or replaced.

The leaderboard is published inside Discord and on a web page dedicated to your server, so you can share it elsewhere without a screenshot.

The level also works as a condition elsewhere in the product: it can gate a custom command or a giveaway entry — the best filter available, since it can only be obtained by actually taking part.