Stages are a new way to connect you and your community to the things that everyone is passionate about in a more personal way — whether it be a specific video game, an artist, a hobby, or topics like if Yoda really knew about Order 66 beforehand. We want to expand these opportunities to allow our communities to let new users find these spaces, which means we're here to help provide some guidance into some of the best ways to use these spaces and what is not allowed.

Note to Server Owners and Moderators

Since Stages will be spaces that exist within your server, server owners and stage moderators are responsible and accountable for the Stages being held. We empower and equip our communities to have the tools to help them properly ensure that these spaces are not engaging in any violations and are kept safe and welcoming. Stages are extensions of your server and activity that happens within them will be representative of your server. You'll have the ability to make your stage available only to members of your server or open to anyone on Discord. Public Stages have some different features and must follow additional requirements as described below.

Stage Guidelines:

1. Abide by the Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. This means that issues reported to your server should be addressed by your moderators and admins. Your moderator team should know when to escalate issues to Trust & Safety. Servers that violate Discord's Community Guidelines and Terms of Service will be subject to further action from our Trust & Safety Team.

• We want Discord to be a safe, positive, and inclusive experience. Our Trust & Safety team will investigate Stages that are reported to us or that we proactively identify as likely in violation of our policies, and Trust & Safety team members may temporarily join a live Stage to investigate potential violations.

2. Respect people's intellectual property and other rights. Only incorporate content that you own or have a license to use. Do not invade anyone's privacy, libel them, or otherwise violate their rights.

• • Discord does not currently provide a recording or transcript feature. If you choose to use third-party tools to record or transcribe your event, you must make sure that you are following relevant laws, including getting consent from speakers and audience members if needed.

3. Foster a healthy and positive environment. People should feel welcome in your Stage. Create environments where people want to spend time with each other, share interests, participate in community events, and build friendships. Do not cultivate general toxic behavior, harassment of others, or other derogatory content.

4. Have a moderator team. Moderators can help ensure nothing rule-breaking is happening during your Stage events and can find meaningful ways for your members to engage. Build a moderator team that members of your community can trust and turn to for help. Note: Moderators will help facilitate your conversations in your Stage and should help enforce your server-specific rules as well!

5. Have a topic and description that accurately describes the Stage that is free of profanity. Help potential members understand why they want to join the Stage. The Stage title and description should accurately reflect the nature of the event, and not mislead users about who will be speaking or what will be discussed.

6. Do not host explicit, graphic, or sexual content. Explicit and NSFW content is not allowed in Stages. Stages should be appropriate for audiences of all ages 13+.

7. Public Stages: Be mindful anyone can join your server while your public Stage is live. Though these Stages are extensions of your community, when you opt-in to make your Stage public, you are also temporarily making your server public while the event is live. This means that you should make sure that any and all sensitive channels are marked private and have the appropriate roles and permissions set up.