Community Moderation Rules: Templates for Discord Servers and Forums

Why written rules matter

Unwritten rules get enforced differently every time, by whoever happens to be online. One moderator lets a joke slide, another bans someone for the same joke a week later, and now you have an argument about fairness instead of a decision about behavior. A written set of rules turns "the mods are being unfair" into "here is the rule, here is what you did." That is a shorter conversation, and it is one you can point to instead of relitigating.

Written rules also protect the people running the community, not just the members in it. Volunteer moderators need something to stand behind when they act, especially when the person they are moderating is a friend, a long-time member, or someone who argues back. And you are already bound by rules you did not write: Discord's Community Guidelines apply to every server regardless of what you post in your own channel, and your hosting provider has terms of service too. Your own rules do not replace those. They sit on top of them and cover the community-specific behavior the platform rules never mention, like which channel a topic belongs in or how many self-promotion posts are too many.

A rules template you can paste

Use this as a starting point, not a finished product. Cut anything you will not actually enforce. A rule nobody enforces teaches members that rules are optional.

1. Be respectful. Disagree with ideas, not people. Personal attacks get removed even when the underlying point was fine.
2. No harassment or hate. No slurs, no targeted insults, no content that attacks someone for who they are. This applies to DMs sent through the community as much as public posts.
3. No spam or unsolicited promotion. Do not post the same message repeatedly, and do not advertise your own server, product, or channel without asking staff first.
4. Stay on topic per channel or board. Off-topic conversation belongs in the channel or board built for it, not wherever you happen to be posting.
5. Keep NSFW content out of unmarked areas. If your community allows mature content at all, it stays inside channels or boards marked for it and nowhere else.
6. No doxxing or sharing private information. Do not post anyone's real name, address, workplace, or other identifying details without their consent, including your own if it exposes others.
7. Follow staff instructions, and appeal privately. If a moderator asks you to stop or edits your post, that is not up for debate in public. Message staff privately if you disagree with a decision.
8. No alt accounts to evade a ban. A ban applies to the person, not the account. Creating a new account to get around one extends the punishment.
9. Mark spoilers. Use the spoiler tag or format for plot details, results, or anything else someone might not want to see yet.
10. Use the community's shared language in shared spaces. If the community runs in English, keep public channels and boards in English so moderators and members can actually follow what is being said.

Discord-specific rules and settings

Discord gives you settings that enforce rules automatically instead of relying on a moderator being online at the right moment. Most servers need a mix of these rather than all of them.

• Verification Level. Raising this requires an account to meet an age or activity threshold (like having a verified email or being a member of the Discord server for a few minutes) before it can post, which cuts down on throwaway accounts made purely to cause trouble.
• Slowmode. Limits how often each member can send a message in a channel. Useful in busy channels during an argument, or permanently in channels where quick back-and-forth isn't the point.
• AutoMod keyword filters. Discord's built-in AutoMod can block messages containing specific words or phrases, flag suspicious links, and catch mention spam, all before a human moderator sees it.
• Role-gated channels. Use roles and permissions to keep certain channels visible only to verified members, subscribers, or staff, so new accounts land somewhere calmer first.
• A #rules channel with reaction verification. Post your rules in a dedicated channel and require a reaction (or a Community server onboarding step) before new members can see or post in the rest of the server.
• A modmail or ticket channel. Give members a private way to reach staff, whether that's a dedicated ticket bot or a simple channel only staff can see, so appeals and reports do not turn into public arguments.
• Audit Log. Every timeout, ban, kick, and role change is recorded here. Check it when a decision is disputed instead of relying on memory.

For enforcement itself, Discord's own tools cover most of what you need: a Timeout for a short cooldown, a Kick to remove someone without a permanent record, and a Ban for anything that should not come back.

Forum-specific rules and settings

Forums move slower than chat, which means the rules can lean more on structure and less on real-time watching. A few settings worth building into any board:

• Pin the rules as a locked thread at the top of each board, or at least the top of the forum, so new members see them before they post.
• Turn on a posting-requires-membership setting if you want to keep drive-by posts out entirely, requiring an account before anyone can start a thread or reply.
• Give members a report button on every post so problems reach staff without anyone needing to know who the moderators are.
• Keep a moderation log of edits, deletions, and bans, visible to staff, so decisions can be reviewed later.
• Use timed bans for offenses that deserve a break rather than a permanent removal.
• Lock or pin threads to close arguments that have run their course or to keep announcements visible.
• Set up user groups so trusted members, moderators, and regular members have different posting and moderation permissions.

Forumera, a hosted forum platform, has these built in: reports on every post, a moderation log, bans with an expiry date instead of only permanent ones, thread lock and pin, user groups, and a members-only posting setting. If you're comparing what a hosted forum needs to launch with, the features page covers the rest, and you can start a forum directly if you want to see the moderation tools rather than read about them.

A moderation ladder

Consistent enforcement means everyone gets the same escalation path for the same kind of offense, not a different outcome depending on who is on shift.

Appeals should go somewhere private, not into the channel or thread where the ban happened. Give the appealing member a way to explain their side to someone who was not involved in the original decision, and be willing to reverse a call when the explanation holds up. A ladder that never bends looks less like fairness and more like a wall.

Writing rules people actually read

Nobody reads a rules page that reads like a legal contract. Keep the list under ten items. Put the three that matter most first, since most readers stop scrolling before the end. State the reason for a rule in one short clause rather than a paragraph, so people understand the point instead of just memorizing the letter of it. Date the last revision at the top so members know whether they're reading something current. And put the rules where new members actually land, whether that's a welcome channel, an onboarding step, or the first board they see, rather than buried in a settings page nobody visits.

Chat vs forum: how moderation differs

Chat moves fast, and damage spreads in minutes rather than days. A harassment pile-on in a busy Discord channel can hit dozens of people before a moderator opens the app, which is why automation (AutoMod, slowmode, verification levels) and having moderators spread across time zones both matter more there than they do on a forum.

Forum posts move slower and stay searchable indefinitely, which changes what matters. Edit history, a working report button, and a moderation log matter more, because a post from six months ago can resurface in a search result or get quoted in an argument, and you need to know what it originally said and who acted on it. Both formats need the same written rules underneath. What changes is how much of the enforcement has to happen automatically versus how much can wait for a human to review it later.