Discord is a free community communication software designed for communities. Users can create or join servers that interest them, and each community member is a unique entity. This article will explain how to create and manage the role system within a Discord server.
What are roles?
Roles are an identification mechanism that Discord server administrators can use to set up a custom set of roles within their server, including names, display colors, and permissions.
How to create Discord roles?
Create a new role
First, your Discord account needs to have “Manage Roles” permission. Click on the “server name” located in the upper left corner of the Discord server (shown in the box 1 in the figure below), and then click on “server settings” in the pop-up menu.
Server settings
Next, click on “Roles” in the left menu, and then click on “Create Role” on the right side to open a brand new role.
Create Role
Setting display role name and color
Roles can set a “display role name” and a “display role color” representing the role within a Discord server, and the color affects the nickname color of the role’s community members. If a community member has multiple roles, the color of the role with the highest priority will be displayed.
Setting name and display color
Setting permissions
There are a total of 41 different detailed settings for role permissions.
Setting link requirements
In mid-December 2022, Discord introduced the “linked roles” feature, which is an advanced application of the “connections” function.
The “connections” function allows users to link their Discord account with other supported third-party accounts, and “linked roles” combines the server’s role requirements with the “connections” function.
How to add or remove role members?
Click on the role you want to adjust, select “Manage Members” (box 1), and you can add members (box 2) or remove members (box 3).
Adding and removing members to/from a role
What is Role Priority?
The order of roles in the server settings determines their priority. The higher a role is placed, the higher its priority. In the example below, the “Bot-specific” has the highest priority in this server. The priority of roles affects various factors such as “Role Display Order,” “Role Color Display,” “Management Permissions,” and more.
Role Priority
Role Display Order
Roles with higher priority will appear above others in the member list on the right-hand side of the Discord server. If a particular role is not desired to appear in the member list, the “Display role members separately from online members” option can be turned off in the “Display” menu for that role. This will remove the role from the member list.
Role Display Order
Role Color Display
If a member has multiple roles, their nickname color will be the same as the highest priority role they possess. In the example below, Bonka’s highest priority role is “Admin,” which is why their nickname appears in red.
Role Color Display
Scope of Manage Roles permission
If a lower priority role also has “Manage Roles” permission, the permission of that role will only be able to manage roles with lower priority levels. Roles with the same or higher priority as the role will be unable to be managed, and will display a lock icon with the message “Role is locked because it is a higher rank than your highest role” (as shown in the figure below). This mechanism is also in place to prevent community members with manage role permission from making unauthorized changes to the server.
Scope of Manage Roles permission
