Our Discord server has a 'points' system for chat activity and I'm about to lose mod status because of it.
By @niaish · Internet
I've been a mod for a gaming community Discord for about three years. A few months ago, the server owner implemented a bot that tracks chat messages and awards 'points,' and now he's decided that the top 5 most active users will be the only mods. I don't have time to spam chat all day, so I'm about to be demoted.
The full story
I helped build this community from the ground up. It's for a relatively niche online game, and when I joined as a mod, we had maybe 200 people. Now we have over 10,000. For years, I've handled disputes, written guides, organized events, and onboarded new members. I spend a few hours a week doing actual moderation work, which I think is a reasonable commitment. About four months ago, the server owner, who is a bit younger than me (I'm 31, he's around 22), got really into these gamification bots. He added one that tracks every single message sent. You get points for talking, for reacting to posts, for posting memes, etc. At first, it was just a fun little leaderboard on the side. But last week, he announced a new 'moderation policy.' Effective at the end of the month, the moderator team will be automatically populated by the top 5 users on the points leaderboard. they says this is the 'most democratic' way to ensure the mods are 'truly active and engaged' members of the community. The problem is, the top users aren't helpful, they're just extremely online. They're college kids who literally post 'gm' every morning and then spend hours spamming reaction gifs and arguing about random stuff in the off-topic channels. Their message count is sky-high, but it's all fluff. My actual moderation work—deleting spam, mediating arguments in DMs, updating server rules—doesn't earn any points. I don't have the time or desire to sit in general chat all day just to keep a number up. I explained this to the owner, and he just said 'the system is the system' and that if I valued my role, I'd 'make time to be part of the community conversation.' I feel like my years of actual work are being completely dismissed in favor of a meaningless metric. I don't know if I should just quit now or try to spam chat for the next few weeks to save my spot.
How people voted
- OP Is Right — 23% (15 votes)
- Both Messy — 44% (28 votes)
- OP Is Wrong — 33% (21 votes)
Readers say “Both Messy” (44%) — 64 votes and 5 comments so far.
What people are saying
@ashwelp — The 'most democratic way' is to reward the people who have the most free time to sit on discord all day? lol okay.
@elliemm — On their side. I've seen this happen in so many communities. Good mods get pushed out by 'engagement' metrics.
@karaok2 — sounds soft.
@brynnee — I'd just quit. Why would you want to moderate for someone who doesn't value your actual work?
@niahm — This is the most zoomer manager thing I have ever read.
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