Suggestion: Mentionable but simplified "labels" separate from normal fully-configurable roles.

On my server, a common use of the Role system for us is notifying people when we want to play something. We do this by having a role for a given game which people who own that game are given, and which people then mention (in our looking-to-play) channel when they want to play.

This works pretty well most of the time, but it has a few drawbacks:

• It creates a long list of roles that have different names, but identical permissions/characteristics, cluttering the management interface.
• Users can't be allowed to manage their own label-roles without the use of an external bot, limiting their ability to represent themselves without an admin's help or a clunky message-based interface.
• These label-roles are not separated from roles that have any function other being mentioned, again cluttering interface space.

My suggestion is that a parallel system to Roles be created, which I'll refer to as labels. A list of possible labels would be created by server admins, and users would choose which of those labels to apply to themselves. Users could also choose whether they want to be notified when that label is mentioned, or just have it show on their account for that server.

These would differ from full roles in that they would not have associated permissions, but simply be a tag that other users can mention in the same way as roles currently act. Permissions could be created associated with managing labels, such as having some labels be controlled or limited, but my focus with this concept is in allowing individuals the freedom to mark their own specific interests within a server.

From my earlier example, these labels could be used for games or activities that users in the server are interested in playing in place of the current use of roles. Other applications could include academic subjects, or preferred musical genres, or languages, or common geographical locations, or any other interest users may wish to flag themselves for.