Note:
- Stage channels are only available within Community servers. For more details on enabling community, please check this article here!
What does this FAQ cover?
- What are Stage channels?
- For Community Server Owners and Administrators
- For Stage Moderators
- For Audience Members
- FAQs
What are Stage channels?
Stage channels are a special type of voice channel you can create in your Community server. They are for conversations and events where some people can talk and others can listen as the audience.
If you’re running an event where you want only a select number of participants to be speaking or on video at a time with a majority of the audience in passive, listening mode - then Stage channels offer a great way to support and run that event!
In testing, we’ve seen people use Stage channels to run AMAs, Fireside Chats, Townhalls, Reading Groups, and more!
How do they work?
Within each Stage channel, a member can be a Stage moderator, a speaker, or just listen from the audience.
Speakers are displayed at the top and the audience members are listed below, so it’s easy to see who is able to talk.
Stage channels are a great way to broadcast to the whole server, because they can be pinned to the top of the channel list when they are “opened.” All you need to do to open a Stage is write a topic, and it will show up at the top below your server title or banner.
Lastly, there are no enter or leave sounds in Stage channels. We want to make it super seamless and easy to hop in and out of Stage channels and not feel like you’re bothering people.
So, you’re encouraged to sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation. Leave whenever you feel like it!
Who can speak in a Stage channel?
Let's talk a bit more about how speakers, Stage moderators, and audience members can interact and speak within the Stage channel!:
- Speakers are people who can talk in the channel. Speakers can easily move themselves back to the audience by clicking on the “Move to Audience” button.
- Stage moderators are special speakers who can set a topic on the Stage channel and open it.
- They also have the power to add, mute, and remove other speakers. In short, they’re in charge of keeping the conversation flowing.
- You can add entire roles or individual members to have Stage Moderator permissions.
- All server members (with permission to view the channel) will join Stage channels as the audience and will be muted.
Stage Moderators can become speakers on their own, but non-moderators and all other audience members must be invited up to speak or if they choose to, they can raise their hand and request to speak, which has to be approved by a Stage Moderator.
How Do You Start A Stage?
To start a conversation on a Stage channel, you should first have the crucial permissions to manage the Stage channel as a Stage Moderator or Server Admin. These permissions include:
- Manage Channel
- Manage Permissions
- Move Members
- Mention @ everyone when a Stage starts
- Manage Events
Once you have those permissions, simply select the desired Stage channel in your server channel list and choose the option that best fits how you want to manage the Stage for the conversation.
- Start the Stage will open up the Stage channel for server members to either join the audience. You will need to input a topic for discussion!
- Create Event will take you through the steps to set up and schedule an event that can take place in the Stage channel.
- Continue without starting will allow you to open the Stage channel without inputting a topic for conversation and notifying the server the Stage has started. This option allows you to set up the Stage, for server members to join the audience and wait, and for Stage Moderators to check the audio devices of speakers for the event.
Music will play for each server member waiting for the Stage to formally start and while Stage Moderators/Admins set up the Stage for the conversation. The music is available on a user level and not managed by server admins. To mute the music, press on the music note button!
Stage Moderators can become speakers on their own, but non-moderators and all other audience members must be invited up to speak or if they choose to, they can raise their hand and request to speak, which has to be approved by a Stage Moderator.
For Community Server Owners and Administrators
If you're ready to start running your event in your community server, follow these steps below on how to create a Stage channel and set up Stage moderators to get your Stage up and running!
How do I create a Stage channel?
Note: Stage channels are only available in Community servers. To learn how to convert your server to a Community, check out our article on Enabling Your Community Server.
In order to create a Stage Channel, you will need to have the “Manage Channels” and “Manage Roles” enabled for you in the server.
If your server is already a Community server and you have the needed permissions, follow these steps below:
- Start by creating a new channel.
- You can do this by pressing the “+” button in the sidebar channel list or by heading into the Server Settings menu and selecting "Create Channel".
- Select the “Stage Channel” option as the Channel Type
- Note that currently only users with Manage Channels and Manage Roles can create new Stage channels!
- Once you hit "Next", you will be prompted to add roles or members who you want to grant Stage moderator permission to.
How do I Enable Video or Screen Share?
When you are a speaker on a Stage channel, you can enable your camera to turn on your video by pressing the video camera button and Turn On Camera.
If you would like to Go Live with a window or screen as a speaker on a Stage channel, you can press the screen share button to Share Your Screen.
Speakers in Stage channels must have a server role with Video permission or be given the Video permission exclusively in the Stage channel to enable their video or Go Live.
As always, when you, stage moderators, admins, and speakers are using Video or screen sharing content with Go Live, make sure to follow Discord’s Community Guidelines.
Stage Channel Capabilities and Limits
There are some differences in capabilities and audience size limits depending on whether your Stage channel is Audio Only or is utilizing Video/Screen Share.
Audio Only Stage Channels
- There is no limit on how many people can be on stage and talking.
- Audience Viewing Size: Up to 10,000
Video/Screen Share in Stage Channels
-
- Stage moderators/server admins and Stage speakers with the proper permission can Go Live with 1 stream at a time.
- Up to 5 people on Stage can enable their cameras and Turn On Video.
- Audience participants in a Stage automatically tune into both the screen share and the speakers’ videos.
- Audiencing Viewing Size:
- Free: 50
- Boosting Tier 2: 150
- Boosting Tier 3: 300
- Audience participants in a Stage automatically tune into both the screen share and the speakers’ videos.
Once a server has reached the minimum 14 boosts for Tier 3, each additional boost afterwards will give an additional 30 seats (up to a maximum of 10,000 seats) to Stages using video or screen share.
Want to learn more about Server Boosting? You can check out this article here.
What Happens When the Stage Channel Hits its Video/Go Live audience limits?
- If video/Go Live has already started in the Stage channel and the audience viewing size has reached its maximum limit, no more users can join.
- If video/Go Live has not started and the stage has more than 50 audience members (and is not Boosted to allow for a greater audience viewing size) then the Speakers and Stage moderators will not be able to start their video or screen share.
Note: For this reason we suggest you start your stage with at least one video on if you plan on doing video/screen share and anticipate you may hit your audience viewing size limit
How do I add/remove Stage moderators?
Note: In order to modify the Stage moderators, you will need to have the “Manage Channels” and “Manage Roles” enabled in the server.
We’ve built a special UI to make it easy for you to add/remove Stage moderators, but the underlying permissions are built on top of the permission system. This is why you might already see roles selected in the UI since those roles already have the set of permissions at the server-level.
Stage moderators must have these permissions on the Stage channel itself:
- Manage Channels
- Mute Members
- Move Members
You can also add or remove additional Stage moderators after you’ve created the Stage channel by going into your Channel settings!
On the desktop app, once you press the "Edit Channel" button, you can then select "Channel Permissions" in the left side bar, and you'll then be able to add and remove your current Stage moderators.
How do I modify the “topic”?
When the time comes, simply open the Stage channel and click “Open the Stage” at the bottom of the screen!
From there you will be able to set your topic and open the Stage!
The topic will be displayed at the top of the Stage channel while active, and it will also be displayed at the top of your channel list while the event is active.
For Stage moderators
Now that your Stage channel is created, we'll walk through all of the abilities of a Stage moderator and how to use these moderation tools!
What can I do as a Stage moderator?
As a Stage Moderator, you will have the ability to:
- Move yourself from Speaker to audience and vice versa.
- Disconnect members (from Stage Channel)
- Move members from Speakers to audience
- Move members from audience to Speakers.
- View audience members who have requested to speak.
- Enable or disable requests to speak.
How do I remove members from the channel?
For Desktop/Browser:
As a Stage moderator, you can right-click a specific audience member and then a menu will appear where you can press the “Disconnect from Stage” button to remove (kick) that member from the Stage channel.
For Mobile:
You can tap on a user’s profile to bring up their profile card to view this same menu and press the “Disconnect from Stage” button.
How do I move a Speaker to the audience?
For Desktop/Browser:
You can right-click directly on the speaker, and a menu will pop up where you can select the “Move to Audience” button to move that speaker to a listener role in the audience.
Once you do this the member will not have the ability to speak unless you grant them Speaker privileges again.
For Mobile:
You can tap on a user’s profile to bring up their profile card to view this same menu and press the “Move to Audience” button.
How do I move an audience member to Speaker?
For Desktop/Browser:
As the Stage Moderator, you can right-click directly on an audience member, and a menu will pop up where you can select the “Invite to Speak” button to invite them to become a Speaker.
Once they accept the invite, they will be automatically become a Speaker.
For Mobile:
You can tap on an audience member's profile and bring up their card! From there, you can click on the “Become a Speaker” button to invite them to speak.
How can I see who has raised their hands?
As a Stage moderator, you can click on the "Show Requests" button in the action bar on your screen.
After you click that button, you'll see the Request to Speak menu! In this menu, you can:
- Accept or Dismiss Requests to Speak
- Grant access to speak by clicking the Invite to Speak button or remove users from the queue by selecting the Dismiss or “X” button.
- Allow Requests to Speak from @everyone
- You can also turn off the ability for audience members to raise their hands by turning off the toggle next to “Allow requests to speak”
How do I end the event in a Stage channel?
The live event will end whenever the last moderator leaves the channel.
The Stage channel itself will remain as a permanent channel (unless deleted) and a new topic can be set if you want to run another event later.
For audience members
For those of you who are just tuning in for the show, these guides below will help you learn how to join, interact with, and exit the Stage channel!
How do I join a Stage channel in a server?
Stage channels behave just like normal channels. So just tap or click it and you’re in.
The great thing here is that by default, you will join as an audience member with your mic muted. You can request to speak if you want, but otherwise, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.
If you're a Stage moderator, you'll have the option to join as a speaker or as an audience member!
We’ve also made it silent to join and exit Stage channels, so you’ll never have to feel like you’re bothering others. Come and go without interrupting anyone!
How do I request to speak as an audience member?
You can click the raised hand button in the bottom left of your action bar to request to speak.
If a Stage moderator grants you access to speak you will see an invite bar at the top of your screen where you can accept or decline the invitation to speak.
A Stage moderator can also invite you to speak without you raising your hand—however, you will always have to accept the invite before you can become a Speaker.
How do I leave the Stage channel?
If you want to exit the Stage channel simply press the “Exit Quietly” button in the bottom right of the action bar.
This will allow you to exit the event, but will not make any disconnect noise for the rest of the audience or Speakers.
FAQs
Q: What version of the app will this feature be available on?
A: All versions - desktop, browser, iOS and Android!
Q: How many people can be in a Stage channel at once?
A: Stage Channels can currently support up to 10,000 people.
Note: To video or screen share on stage up to 10,000 people, your server will need to be boosted up to 338 boosts in total.
Q: Is there any limit to the amount of moderators I can have?
A: No, but remember that the Stage moderators of the Stage channel have the ability to mute or remove any member from it.
Q: Is there any limit to the amount of speakers I can have at once?
A: No limit on the number of audio-only Speakers! However, there is a limit of 1 Go Live stream and up to 5 video participants at a time.
Q: Can I run multiple stage channels at a time?
A: Yes, you can have multiple different active events within a server!
Q: Are there limits to the amount of Stage channels I can have?
A: There is no special limit for the amount of Stage channels you can have in one server!
Q: Is video or screen share in stages available?
A: Yes! Video and screen share are now available. Please refer to [insert section link] above for details.
Q: Is text chat in stage available?
A: Yes! We now have text chat in stage available so you can chat directly in your stage channel.