There is now an easier way for you to identify if a community is right for you.

Discord is home to many servers and interesting user-interface designs ranging from the pound sign next to a channel (#hash-tag), a million names on the right side of the screen (Members- 99999), and disabled chat bars (please read the #rules first).

We understand this can be very overwhelming to users, so we have created a better user experience on first contact with these communities.

Whether this is your first couple of servers you are joining, the 50th, or a Server Owner looking to simplify your community, we introduce to you the Community Server Welcome Screen.

In this article we will cover:

• How to enable the Welcome Screen
• Customization for Community Server Owners
• Recommended Channels Guide
• Why Should I Set This Up?
• Feedback 

How to Enable the Welcome Screen

To enable the Welcome Screen, your server must have enabled the Community Server Settings! If you haven't done so yet, check out this support article on how to do so! 

Customization for Community Server Owners

Community Server Owners and those with Manage Server permission now have access to this option, you can customize it under Server Settings.

From here you can click on “Set Up Welcome Screen” to get started, you will then receive a window to “Add a Recommended Channel”. Select any channel that you prefer users to see within your server and write a little description about it you want others to see.

Once you have saved your customization you will get an overview of what it will look like. From here, you can continue to add 4 more options or hit “Enable” to show it off to new, incoming users.

Lastly, you can select “Preview” to get a visual on how it will look to new users to give you a better idea of their end.

And that is it! Congratulations on setting up your Community Server Welcome Screen!

Recommended Channels Guide

Now that you have an idea of how to set up your Welcome Screen, it can be a bit difficult to decide what channels to spotlight in your summary from your already amazing 100+ other #text-channels.

Here are some recommendations from us on what type of channels to add to your Welcome Screen.

• A channel where new users can interact (talk, chat, react) with others already within the server. (e.g. #general, #discussion)
• #Rules channel to make sure active engagement is safe for everyone in the community and within ToS/guidelines.
• An #announcements channel to get the latest news specific to your community activities.
• #Finding-Friends or #Looking-for-Group channels for those that want to jump right into the action.

We also suggest naming these channels to ones that are easily definitive and understood by those within and outside of the community for extra clarity.

By naming the channel after the action or activity that is to take place within that text/voice channel, this can prevent confusion on what users are allowed to do within each channel. (e.g. #pictures-only, #meet-new-friends, #introduce-yourself)

Why Should I Set This Up?

Sometimes large communities with many channels, users, and large walls of text can be a bit too confusing for newcomers that want a clear direction of where to go.

This can contribute to bad user experience and cause a user who would have contributed greatly to your community to get lost in our UI.

To combat this, the Welcome Screen provides ease of access and less friction for new Discord users and long time users alike. The impact generated from setting up a Welcome Screen will help with increased retention of users old and new, and raise engagement within your community.

This means more people to stick around and engage with the community in a positive way!

We hope this helps you in your future endeavors in growing your user base by offering a bit more customization and simplicity.

Feedback

We’re always open to hear about how you feel about features, so don’t hesitate to reach out to us at dis.gd/feedback and let us know what you think.