Roles and permissions

A role is two things: a set of permissions, which is what somebody may do, and a rank, which is who they may act on. They answer different questions and are worth keeping apart in your head — a rank-90 auditor holding nothing but view audit log outranks your moderators without gaining any of their powers.

Every server starts with five roles. You can rename them, recolour them, change what they hold, and add your own.

Reading is a permission

This is the part that surprises people. Read messages is something a role can lack, and a role without it's somebody who is in your server and can't see it.

That's what makes a genuinely read-only tier possible — and it's why the Guest role isn't empty. A read-only role that can't read isn't read-only.

Who can start a call

Ringing somebody in a direct message is start calls. Answering is join voice, the same permission as walking into a voice channel.

Keeping them apart is what lets you limit who places a call without stopping anyone picking one up. A role with join voice and no start calls can be rung by anybody and can answer; it just has no call button of its own. That's the shape behind "only paying members start calls". One permission covering both would leave somebody unable to answer a call placed to them.

Every role that could already call keeps it when you upgrade, so nothing stops working the day you take the update. Take it off the roles you want to restrict.

Who gets what when they join

Server settings → Role editor → When somebody joins.

Two settings, not one, and the split is the point:

• With an account — a durable identity, vouched for by a certificate authority. Losing a device doesn't lose it.
• As a guest — a key generated in the browser. Anybody can throw one away and mint another in about two seconds.

A public server usually wants accounts on Member and guests on Guest: come in, read everything, and make an account if you want to talk. That combination isn't expressible with a single default, which is why there are two.

Changing a default only affects people who arrive afterwards. It never re-sorts the members you already have.

Roles that hand themselves out

A role can say what it asks of somebody before it grants itself: days since they joined, messages they have sent, or both.

Fill in both and it means both — a fortnight and fifty messages. Time on its own is something a patient stranger also has, and it's exactly what somebody planning to abuse a server would wait out.

It only ever promotes. Nobody is moved down for going quiet, and anybody already holding a higher role stays where they are. It's checked when somebody joins and after they post, so a role earned while they were away arrives the next time they turn up.

Built-in roles don't offer this. A server that wants an automatic tier wants a new role for it, rather than Moderator quietly acquiring people.

Rank, and who can act on whom

Kicks, bans, mutes and role changes all refuse against an equal or higher rank. One admin can't kick another; only the owner can act on an admin.

The same rule applies to handing roles out. You can't grant a role at or above your own rank, and you can't put a permission into a role that you don't hold yourself — otherwise delegating manage roles would be delegating everything.

A worked example

Say you're running a public support server.

1. Guests read. Set the guest joining default to Guest. People can turn up with no account and read every answer already given.
2. Accounts talk. Set the account default to Member, then take attach files and join voice off it. New accounts can ask questions; nothing else.
3. Regulars get more. Make a Regular role at rank 45 with attach files and join voice, and have it grant itself after 14 days and 50 messages.
4. Helpers moderate. Make a Helper role at rank 50 with manage messages and kick members, and hand it out yourself.

Nobody has to watch the door, and the only thing you decide by hand is who becomes a Helper.