Discord Server Setup 2026: Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:01] This is the Discord server that you roles, and automatic moderation. I've also created a free template for you that you simply need to copy and the entire

[00:13] But so that you can customize it yourself later, we will build the server together from scratch, and I will also show you the places where you can make adjustments yourself. Many of the things I showed in the video in 2023 are

[00:27] completely different today, and therefore starting your own starting your own Discord community is a completely new experience.

[00:40] who is the server actually for? For a group of friends, a private project, a gaming community, or your stream viewers? Depending on how you answer that, the structure of

[00:54] . But let's get right to it . To create a Discord server, you simply need to go to the "Add Server" button on the left side of the Discord interface, and then the process will guide you through it

[01:07] step by step. You have the option to select pre-made templates on the lower page here. Let's do it step by step, because at the end of the day, these templates are simply pre-made channels. And so that

[01:19] you understand this and get it right, create it yourself. friends" or "for a club" or "for a community". In this case, let's take as an example a content creator who

[01:32] wants to build their own community, i.e., a club or community. Now all you have to do is give it a name, i.e., what you want to call the server later, in my case Milson 1489, and you can of course also upload an image here as a

[01:44] server icon. Did you do that? Simply click on "create" and your Discord server is created and ready to use. We'll now adjust everything step by step, and I'll also explain some of

[01:56] the left side you have the text channels and voice channels. You're probably already familiar with this from other servers you've visited. What you can do here now is divide everything into categories, and for that purpose,

[02:08] . Simply right-click to create a category. I always use different categories here, and we'll set the permissions together later. First of all, very simply, create a welcome category, don't

[02:21] Then there's another category I'd like to have so that my content can be automatically if I go live, upload a new YouTube video, and so on, I need to

[02:33] create a new category. Then I would like to have a "Community" category where all my stream viewers can chat later, or rather, my YouTube viewers and so on. I could create a new one now.

[02:45] category called "Text Channels" up here, and I can easily rename it by right-clicking, selecting "Edit Category," and then renaming it to " Community and now I can sort everything by clicking and

[03:00] Welcome" category to the very top. This includes, for example, my Nelson 1489 category, then Community, and then Language Channels. And category for all my moderators, i.e., those who support me and who should be able to

[03:15] converse in their own area . Right-click Create category, Moderators, Create category. Now we have [music] Next, of course, we also need

[03:28] the appropriate channels and the appropriate roles. So let's go in there too . Let's start, for example, with the welcome category. If I want to create a channel in a category now, such as a text channel,

[03:41] voice channel, or others, I can simply click on the plus sign for the category and select a text channel to send text, or a voice channel to talk using voice, i.e., with a

[03:55] headset or microphone – it's very simple. And a forum, we won't go into that any further now . At the end of the day, the forum is just like the forums we knew from the past. and then have conversations within those posts . Simply a

[04:10] text channel. I would like to have a welcome channel for all new people on my server. Greeting. Then I would like to Plus text channel [music] and I'll call it "Rules for the

[04:23] rules on my server". And what you can always do is And that used to be more difficult. For example, you had to use the Windows Emoji to insert the items in order to put an emoji in front of them . You can now simply

[04:36] click on the emoji symbol here and, for example, select Paper for rules, create a channel, and you'll see that an emoji is simpler. You can do this anytime you want to edit such a channel.

[04:51] Edit here via the gear channel. Then, for example, when greeting someone, I can simply click on the emoji here and then select something like this waving hands emoji . Then I add the " Save changes" option, and that's how I build

[05:03] my individual channels. Depending on where you want to add a channel I can then go to create a channel again, and the channel would then of course be included there. I would like to have a links channel,

[05:16] create a channel, then a community, voice channels, and moderators. I'll quickly create you can take a look. I do n't think we need to do all of this together right now. Are all the channels created now? I've done this without

[05:29] emojis for now. Then the whole structure looks like this. So, we already have enough channels where people can chat or read information. But in order to know who is allowed to write and post what,

[05:42] roles are needed. And you can easily set the roles right here via your server. Go to the dropdown menu, then Server Settings, and you'll find the Roles tab there. Initially, you have a

[05:55] [music] But of course we want to have a few more roles and that's super simple too. Let's go into creating roles. Then I can create a new role here. You can

[06:07] already see "Add everyone" and "New role" below. Let's call this one, for example, Admin. They can then assign a color. Let's take an orange like this one. Create another role for me. Always save. Down here. Moderator, also a color. Then

[06:21] one more roll. I call that Bot, which is also a color. And then another role as a member. And I'll add a color there too. I have now created my roles, and I need to assign rights to these roles. Then I can assign

[06:33] assign rights to these roles. Then I can assign corresponding rights. The principle is that simple . I can now do the following. I have a sequence here. Admin at the top, moderator, bot,

[06:47] member Everyon. It is important to keep this order in mind, because rights are granted from bottom to top . This means that if the bot were below the member level, for example, the bot could not time out [music] members

[07:00] or anything else. That means I would follow this order here, Here, members can be grouped in the right-hand display according to their roles . I would activate that if you want them to be

[07:14] grouped. I'll show you. I do this for all my roles here, including the bots, the moderator, and the [music] admins. I can now manage myself, for example, via members. Simply

[07:27] add it to the admin role here. [music] But I can also do the same thing by But I can also do the same thing by simply checking the admin box. What has happened now is that the users

[07:40] happened now is that the users their role. You can see this, for example, if I go to one of my other servers. Here I have this grouping: Bots, Support, VIP,

[07:53] Chatterbox, and below that the individual members are displayed. What we need to do next is define the rights in the roles, and to do that you go back to this dropdown menu up here, then to

[08:06] server settings and then to roles. And to start, I would recommend that you go to the default permissions here to set the permissions for "at Everyone" . Since all other roles

[08:18] inherit the rights of Add Everyone, it can be reused very simply. I would first like to

[08:30] viewing channels by default, creating expressions, I would remove that, managed things as well; that's obviously not something someone with the Adverbone role should have. Then a little further down.

[08:44] I would also leave the option to create invitations and change nicknames . This is advantageous, for example, if you have members who can then invite other [music] members , blah [laughter] change nicknames, so that everyone

[08:58] can change their name on the server. Then I would send messages and can post at all. However, I would not allow any threads, neither public nor private; I would

[09:12] remove them for now. Now, of course, you can allow everyone to embed links, attach files, and add reactions. The question is, do you really want to allow that for everyone? Is everyone allowed to

[09:25] post links on your Discord server, and is everyone allowed to attach files? If you don't want that, simply remove these two hooks here. Then external emojis and stickers of course and [music] mention everyone here and all roll that out.

[09:40] If this is enabled, anyone on your server could prefix their message with @everyone and ping anyone on your server. Then a little further down. Show message history,

[09:53] we'll leave it as is. Voice messages, if you want members to be able to send voice messages on your server, I don't want that, for example. I also don't want to create surveys . Only moderators should be able to do that, for example

[10:05] voice channel permissions. Of course, connecting, speaking, using video, using soundboard could also be left on; using external sounds can I would also leave voice activation on . If it is not enabled,

[10:22] speak in a voice channel on your server will have to use push to talk. It we just need a few more settings down here. Let's settings down here. Let's

[10:37] application commands, yes, activities too, yes. But using an external app, I would remove that, because it could happen that someone uses it to cause damage to the server . Well, I would

[10:53] Creating events should only be done by moderators, and everything else should be disabled already disabled all rights . Saving changes

[11:05] We can go up once and then move on to the next role member. now inherits from the Add Everyone role. That means everything that Add Everyone has, the member also gets. This means you can now go in here and,

[11:20] for example, set additional rights that the member should receive. In this case, there aren't any. But what comes next is Bot. Bot, I would like to add something. If you scroll all the way down, you'll find the administrator.

[11:37] the bot, or all bots that I invite to my server and assign to this role, will receive full rights on the server. They simply cannot delete the server, and they also cannot remove me, as the owner or creator of the server, from the server . Since I only bring bots onto

[11:52] my server that are verified, meaning I know they are really okay, it's actually a simple matter. The moderator, however, does not receive administrator rights from me,

[12:04] but receives a few additional rights in addition to the Add Everyone role. Specifically, moderators should be allowed to enter the audit log . There are of course some interesting things there, like who did what or posted what . Well, that's always quite

[12:18] exciting too. You can find it here on the left side under Audit Log. [music] so they can understand what might have happened. right to move members to timeout . If you only

[12:32] use moderators on your server whom you truly trust 100%, you can also give the moderators the right to ban or the right to do that. I'll let it out on myself first . Moderators should

[12:45] not be able to use @everyone in my settings. This is possible if you work very closely with your moderators and they are then allowed to post messages where an "Add everyone" is used. So, for example, if they handle announcements for you, then

[12:58] too. My moderators are allowed to create polls. My moderators are also allowed to mute or move members, and my moderators are allowed to create and

[13:11] manage events. Save. Then I'll have those finished too. Yes, and then there's the admin role. Super simple. For Admin, for permissions, simply Administrator. That grants full rights, and that's that. That's it

[13:23] set aside. I can take another look here. Does my role or user have the admin role? Yes indeed. And the rights have been fully set up. But important that we make sure the channels have the right rights,

[13:38] and that can make life a little easier again. We do have categories. Now I can of course go to individual channels, such as the welcome message, and go to individual channels, such as the welcome message, and

[13:51] the individual rights for different roles and members under permissions in that channel . This can server grows, it becomes difficult to identify errors later, such as why something shouldn't. You can make it easier for yourself by going to the category level

[14:07] . That means, on Welcome I only have channels where nobody simple. That means I go to Welcome and can now right- click on Welcome, edit category and then

[14:21] switch to Permissions. Now I can check here to override the permissions. That means, [music] I can say on the channel what someone is allowed to do that they are not normally allowed to do , or what someone is not allowed to do that they are

[14:35] , or what someone is not allowed to do that they are normally allowed to do. Okay, simple example. We have granted everyone the right to send messages. But we don't want that in this category . Send messages and

[14:48] create posts. So we're only removing the right here, everything else remains. category level, all other channels below this category will receive the same rights. This is visible because permissions are

[15:01] synchronized with the "welcome" category at the top. Zack, we also see that the mouse has been synchronized. The " welcome" category has therefore been set. Theoretically, only the administrator is allowed to post there, meaning the bots and me, and

[15:16] the category where I want to post my links, new YouTube video goes online or when I go online on Twitch. So, back to the category, edit category, permissions, and

[15:32] and create posts" and the category is finished. In the as it is set, because that's already determined by the roles . And the last category we need to work on is actually just

[15:47] [music], the moderator category. It's currently accessible to everyone else as well . If we now go to Edit Category and then to Permissions, I can make the entire category and all channels within it

[15:59] private by going to Private Category here and adding a role, namely Moderator. And now only admins, bots and moderators can enter this category and all channels within the

[16:14] category. This can be seen from the fact that a can see the channels. Not everyone can see the channels. Simple, too. And so you can actually set up this right-hand system very simply within minutes

[16:29] , without having to go into each channel and adjust everything manually . The next thing you can do is go to your server up here and then to Server Settings, where you can

[16:43] activate a community. This means you can turn a server into a community server, which will give your Discord server a whole lot more features. I'd like to go through it with you step by step. To

[16:56] activate this, simply click on " Activate Community" here and you will then receive means you can check the box here; a verified email address is required. This has the advantage that only users with

[17:10] a verified email address can join your Discord server. This helps keep a lot of spam and scam bots away from the server. The next feature is media content. I would also activate that, because it

[17:24] ensures that the media shared on your server is pre-filtered to some extent. Confirm once by clicking "Next" . Now you can select the rules and policies channel, which is great because we've

[17:36] already created it under Rules and Channel for Community Updates. There, information for your moderators on the server and general updates from Discord itself are posted, and I would post that, among other things, in the moderator

[17:51] channel below and then in the discussion. This means that only moderators can see and receive this. This will confirm it once again. And now we can see here just one last step: security settings. Specifically,

[18:04] whether the basic security settings have . And [music] if you've rebuilt it the way we just did , you can see disabling risky permissions for Everyone. And all of that

[18:18] happened. They were all deactivated, so we did the permissions correctly. If we now go down to "I understand and agree" and complete the setup, the

[18:30] community feature will be unlocked for your Discord server. and you get loads of new features as well. Here, for example, on the left side you now have additional functions, a community overview, and you can further configure your server

[18:42] . Among other things, you can set the language to German here, you can security notifications, [music] but for now it's very simple, just to have the community function. What you also get are server insights. And

[18:56] server insights are super exciting because they give you a dashboard users are joining or leaving. How many posts are generated on your server? [music] So, you can see some more analytics data. There

[19:08] is also the introduction, also called onboarding, which provides a really cool process for everyone who is new to the server to help them get acquainted with it . But the whole thing is even more

[19:22] extensive. Therefore, a video will follow on creating the As soon as the video is available, it will be linked below this [music] video. community is in it, and we don't actually need the introduction for the

[19:38] think is really exciting, though, is that you get the opportunity to use a bot here, a bot that helps you keep your server up to date and also to moderate it a little . And since the Mi 6 Bot,

[19:54] which I recommended years ago, is now very expensive, here's a new bot, the Sapphire Bot, which is completely free. The only thing that costs extra is if you want the bot to have its own name

[20:06] , but you do n't necessarily need that. That means, to simply go to Add to Discord, then you should be logged in in your browser. This selection screen will appear in your Discord account, and here you simply need to

[20:19] In my case, that's the Nilson 1489 server. Then click "Next" and here you can assign the rights. They 're all pre-selected, I'd leave it that way. If you have multi-factor authentication, you'll need to

[20:32] enter that information again, and then you'll be able to access the Sapphire Bot dashboard and do a lot of things . But first let's check if the bot side you should now see the Sapphire Bot, and all we need to do now is

[20:45] add it to the bot role. That means right-click on Safire, then roll and then Bot. And then the bot will have exactly the capabilities or rights it

[20:57] . First, I want the bot to greet all new users on the server. And that's why I have this welcome channel here. For that, settings at the top and then to participation. Here I now have the

[21:13] system notifications, since Discord already includes the feature to welcome new users already includes the feature to welcome new users message. No. Send a request to members

[21:25] . No. Send a message if someone boosts this server. We don't need that either. And neither. Helpful tips gone. OK. Sapphire Botard dashboard, where we now have the option

[21:40] to assign a new message under Welcome Messages . Confirm once with Goded, then click on join Messages and here I can simply add a message, up to three of them. We only need one. Where exactly do I select a new message on

[21:54] the server? Upon greeting. Then continue styling message and now it would all look like. And I can edit it with Edit. For example, I can write "moin" here, followed by the

[22:08] write "moin" here, followed by the username, then a new line. Have fun on Preview, I can see how everything should look, and with Safe Changes, the welcome message is set up,

[22:20] and new users on my Discord server will automatically be greeted with this message in the welcome channel . Simple, right? Now I would like to use a new feature, namely Join Rolls. And Join Roles help, for example, in games,

[22:33] so that new users who come to the server are automatically placed or assigned to the member role . Confirm once with Gotted, then select Plus Member and that's basically it. The following roles will be assigned to

[22:46] roles are automatically assigned to users who access the server. assign more if I want, but this simple one is sufficient. It's important to always click " save changes" at the bottom when this appears; then the changes will be applied. But

[23:00] what we definitely still need is some kind of moderation, and for that there is Auto Moderation. Here , if I confirm everything with Godit , I can go to Advanced and

[23:15] filters or auto-moderation for all sorts of things. For example, I like to use the spam filter because it allows me to delete messages from people who spam too much. How does the system generally work? You can

[23:30] needed. Generally, if you go to, for example, "Add condition", then one of Zeeh's options will appear. You can enter exactly ten and then you have the option to say what should happen if more than

[23:45] three messages are sent within 5 seconds . Can I customize it, e.g., five messages within 5 seconds? I'll leave it at the default 3 and 5 seconds; then something should happen, and

[23:58] the plus sign, and then you can, for example, delete messages. Now you can say "delete all". Then all messages that he just spammed, or that the person has spammed, will be deleted. Or you can say "Delete Overflow",

[24:12] then only the messages that exceed this limit of 3 will be deleted. I want to delete everything. Then this whole thing is done. Use Safe changes once and you'll have auto-moderation. And

[24:25] you can do much more with that, for example. Here you have the option to do the same with links or invites. E.g. take actions when a user message includes a discord invite. For example, I don't want my Discord

[24:39] . Then, for example, I go up here and say: "Manage roles and "Okay, the following roles will be excluded." So, they are allowed to post Discord invites. And that's where I'll put, for example, "moderator". Save changes. Then

[24:54] I say "Add group" and " all invites accept" is now selected. And now I can whitelist servers here. So these can be posted as invites own server is automatically configured, and what I have now is that no

[25:08] server invites may be posted on my server , except by moderators or my own server. So this is also an example of such an automatic moderation that can be inserted here . But what's even more exciting now

[25:21] are social media. That means, for example, if I automatically posted on my Discord server . I can do that for

[25:33] YouTube too, when new videos are released, or for TikTok. Let's look at an example. For Twitch setup, then you say which channel? My Twitch channel is called Nilsson 1489. I should spell that correctly, it makes sense.

[25:47] course, I have to link everything together. Then this will be confirmed. Continue. And now I can choose where this should be posted. My Twitch stream and Danielson's is 1489 . As a final step, I go to Open Additional Settings here and

[26:01] can now say, okay, should another role be pinged when I ping the moderators so they know I'm live now? Then I'll do this with a moderator, so they'll definitely get

[26:16] you have to work now. Then the message in the channel should simply be updated each time. Yes, I want it deleted when I go offline again, might want to leave my own message there . Yes, once I click on it,

[26:31] I see the message editor here and can now edit the message. This is what the preview looks like afterwards . Ping rolls, so add moderator and then I see, for example, "This is live on Twitch". See the title,

[26:45] Game Viewers is finished. If I want to edit this, I can go in here. edit this, I can go in here. User Display Name is now live on Twitch and yeah, that's basically it . [laughter]

[26:58] then my message here is also edited, and when I click on confirm , it will be automatically posted in the channel . When I go live on Twitch. go live again, it will be posted again. and my moderators are

[27:13] always informed immediately. The last item we need is under Messages. I would like my rules to be posted properly in the rules channel. For that, I click on "Got it" here, then I can

[27:25] create a new template. And with the template, for example, I'll call them rules. This editor, which we already know and where we have a preview, will then open again. This is what it looks like, and we have Edit. This is what it looks like,

[27:38] nice by deleting everything here, adding an mbettet, and then I can say, okay, what title should go in there okay, what title should go in there ? Regulate.

[27:51] ? Regulate. You should read and accept the following rules if you wish to use this server. And now you can simply post your rules here. For example, I could now make a heading here:

[28:05] now make a heading here: Star Star. Then be nice. Star, star, course, you're free to rotate it as you like. Here you can edit the text however you like. You can then insert further headings here, for example . Again with a

[28:20] the bold text underlined, and you can see what the result will be by going to Preview and looking at the rules. This is what it looks like,

[28:33] for example. So adapt it to your needs, write your rules in there. It works. But in order for it to actually be used, you have to go here and say: "Send and

[28:45] to which channel." Click here to select a channel. Rules, send message and then server, we'll see the rules. Okay, my rules have been posted. Once

[28:57] you've finished setting up your server and want to use it to attract new members , you can click on "Invite to server" above. And very importantly, you have a link here. If you copy it now, it will expire

[29:09] after 7 days. So, edit the invitation link, then it will expire after "never" and then generate a new link. And then you copy this new link and can insert it, for example, under your Twitch channel, under your

[29:23] YouTube videos, in your bio on Instagram or TikTok. So, as you say, you can just send it via WhatsApp and then you can invite people to your server. What I promised you is that you

[29:36] I promised you is that you . I'll put it below the video for you. So, you just need to click on it and create a new server from it, or you can rebuild it step by step

[29:50] template: it is also stated again that no members or bots are copied. This means that you will then have to

[30:02] this created server. Invite the bot and set all permissions and configurations. This is very important again. But now your new Discord server is up and running. You can customize, add, and grow your community

[30:16] . Feel free to write in the comments which features for interested in and [music] we'll see you in the next video. Ciao. Ciao.