Discord Server Rules Template: Copy, Paste and Enforce

Rules are the basis for every moderation decision. If they are missing or too vague, your team argues about every timeout all over again, and members feel treated unfairly. If they are too long, nobody reads them. Good Discord server rules are short, specific and say clearly what happens when someone breaks them.

In this guide you learn what belongs in a rule set and what doesn't. You get two templates to copy, a general one and one for gaming servers, and you learn how members confirm the rules: through Discord's own Rules Screening or with a button from Lizbot. Finally, it covers how to change rules later without old confirmations still counting.

What belongs in rules and what doesn't

Rules describe behaviour your team wants to enforce and is able to enforce. Anything you don't control or would never punish doesn't belong there. A good rule of thumb: every rule must be explainable in one sentence, and a moderator must be able to decide from the rule whether it was broken.

What belongs in:

• How people treat each other: respect, no insults, no hate, no discrimination.
• Spam and advertising: what is allowed, where and with whose permission.
• Content: keep it clean, including avatars, names and statuses.
• Privacy and safety: no doxxing, no scam links, no asking for passwords.
• Structure: which channels are for what.
• Evasion: alt accounts used to get around punishments are forbidden.
• Discord's own rules: a note that Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines always apply.
• Consequences and appeals: what happens when rules are broken and how to appeal.

What doesn't belong in:

• General info: how to get roles, when events take place or who is on the team belongs in a FAQ or an info channel.
• Vague wording: "Don't be annoying" can't be enforced fairly. Write "No unnecessary pinging of members or roles" instead.
• Rules nobody checks: if you forbid something your team never acts on, the other rules lose weight too.
• Legalese: long paragraphs put people off. A bold keyword and one or two sentences per rule are enough.

Ten to twelve rules are enough for most servers. A rule about staff discretion closes the gap for cases you couldn't foresee. You don't need to list banned words one by one, a word filter catches them.

Template to copy: general

This template fits almost any server. It matches the Lizbot template General, which you can later insert in the dashboard with one click.

```
1. Respect. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. No insults, no provoking, no bullying.

2. No hate. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and any form of discrimination are forbidden, even as a "joke".

3. No spam. No message floods, no chain messages, no unnecessary pinging of members or roles.

4. No advertising. No links to other servers, shops or channels without staff permission, not even via DM.

5. Keep it clean. No NSFW, violent or disturbing content, including avatars, names and statuses.

6. Right channels. Use channels for their purpose. Off-topic goes into the off-topic channel.

7. Privacy. Do not share other people's private data (doxxing) or screenshots of private conversations without consent.

8. No evasion. Alt accounts to evade punishments or manipulate votes are forbidden.

9. Safety. No scam links and no requests for passwords or payment details. Report suspicious messages.

10. Staff instructions. Follow staff instructions. If you disagree, discuss it calmly via ticket, not in public chat.

11. Discord rules. Discord's Terms of Service and Community Guidelines always apply.

12. Discretion. Staff may make decisions not explicitly listed here when necessary.
```

Template to copy: gaming

Gaming servers add voice chat, fair play and looking for group. This version matches the Lizbot template Gaming.

```
1. Play fair. No flaming, no toxic behaviour, no insults after lost rounds.

2. No cheating. No cheats, exploits, boosting services or account sharing, and no advertising for them.

3. Voice etiquette. No mic spam, no soundboards without consent, push-to-talk with background noise.

4. Recording. Only record or stream voice chats with everyone's consent.

5. LFG. Looking-for-group posts only in the LFG channel. Include game, platform, rank and time.

6. No advertising. No advertising other servers, clans or streams without permission.

7. No leaks. No spoilers without spoiler tags, no leaked content.

8. Keep it clean. No NSFW, no politics, no religion.

9. Trading. No real-money trading of accounts or items through the server.

10. Staff. Mods have the final say. Complaints via ticket.

11. Discord rules. Discord guidelines always apply.
```

Adapt the templates to your server. If you don't have an LFG channel, drop that rule. If you allow self-promotion in a specific channel, name it in the advertising rule.

Spell out the consequences

A rule without a consequence is a request. So write below the rules what happens when someone breaks them. A tiered set of penalties has proven itself:

• 1st offence: verbal reminder or warning (/warn)
• 2nd offence: timeout from 1 hour to 1 day, depending on severity
• 3rd offence: kick from the server or timeout of up to 7 days
• Severe offences such as hate, doxxing, scams, NSFW or raids: immediate ban without warning
• Warnings expire after some time, appeals are possible via ticket

What matters is that your team actually applies these penalties. Lizbot helps with that: in the dashboard under Moderation, you set in Automatic escalation what happens after a certain number of warnings, for example a timeout after 3 warnings. Under Warning decay you decide after how many days old warnings stop counting. That way your written rules match what the bot actually does. More on this under Moderation with Lizbot. How to work together as a team is covered in the guide Discord moderation team.

Discord's Rules Screening or a button with Lizbot

So that members don't just see the rules but agree to them, you have two options.

Discord's Rules Screening is only available on Community servers. You find it in Server Settings under Safety Setup, in the DM and Spam Protection settings. New members have to accept the rules before they can talk or send direct messages through the server. Discord allows up to 16 rules there. Advantages: it runs without a bot, and the confirmation is built firmly into joining. Disadvantages: there is no role you can use to unlock channels, and no versions that let you ask for confirmation again after a change. The details are in Discord's Rules Screening FAQ.

Lizbot's Rules acceptance module posts the rules as an embed with the button Accept rules. Whoever clicks gets a role, usually the member role, which unlocks the rest of the server. Each version has a version number, and the dashboard shows how many members have accepted the current version. The module also works on servers without Community features and is included in the Free plan.

How to decide:

• Small server for a group of friends: a clearly visible rules channel is often enough.
• Community server where members only need to agree: Discord's Rules Screening is quick to set up.
• Server where accepting should unlock channels or where the rules change often: Lizbot's button with role and versions.
• You want to filter out bots first: put a verification step in front of the rules.

1. Prepare the rules channel

Create a channel such as #rules that everyone can see. Deny @everyone the permission to send messages there so that only Lizbot writes. If the rules should unlock the server, deny @everyone View Channel in the other categories and allow it for the member role. How overwrites work is explained in the guide Set up Discord roles.

Also drag the Lizbot role above the member role in Server Settings under Roles. Otherwise Lizbot can't assign it.

2. Set up the Rules acceptance module

Open the dashboard, choose your server and go to Modules. In the Protection group you find Rules acceptance. The module is off at first: switch it on, otherwise Lizbot refuses to publish later. Then open the module's page and fill in under Settings:

• Rules channel: the channel you prepared
• Role after accepting: usually the member role. Without a role, Lizbot only counts the confirmations.
• Template: fills title and rules with a ready-made rule set, such as General or Gaming. There are more, for example Strict, Family friendly, Creator community or Roleplay.
• Title and Rules: this is where you adjust the text. Formatting works like in Discord, for example **bold**. You have 4000 characters in total.

At the bottom, the Preview shows how the embed with the button will look in Discord. As soon as you change something, a bar appears at the bottom: click Save changes there. Only then can you publish.

Lizbot deliberately does not hand out roles with staff permissions such as Administrator, Manage Server or Ban Members via the button. If you pick such a role, members get an error message when they click.

3. Add the consequences

The template in the module only fills in the rules. So write your penalties yourself as the last paragraph in the text field, for example under a bold heading If you break the rules. That way they are right in the message members agree to.

If you want to post rules and penalties without an accept button, there is a second way: on the Moderation page, Post rules from template posts the chosen rule set to a channel, with a second embed for the consequences.

4. Publish and test

Under Publishing, click Publish. Lizbot posts the rules with the button, and the dashboard shows Version 1, the date under Last published and the number of members who have accepted this version. With In Discord you jump straight to the message.

Test the whole thing with a second account or ask someone from the team: click the button, read the short confirmation that only the person clicking can see, and check that the right channels are visible afterwards. Anyone who has already agreed and clicks again only gets a note that they have already accepted this version.

5. Change rules and have everyone confirm again

When you change something important, such as a new advertising rule, existing members should know about it too. That's what the switch Ask to confirm again after changes is for.

This is how a change works:

1. Adjust the text in the dashboard and save.
2. Click Update. Lizbot edits the existing message instead of posting a new one, as long as the channel stays the same.
3. If the title or rules text has changed, the version goes up, for example to version 2. The embed's footer shows the new number.
4. If the switch is on, Lizbot removes the role from all members who have it, step by step. The dashboard reports how many members need to confirm again. Anyone who wants to keep access clicks Accept rules again.

Lizbot only counts real changes to the title or text. If you only adjusted spaces at the start or end, the version stays the same. For small corrections such as a typo, better leave the switch off before updating so the whole server doesn't have to confirm again.

Announce a re-confirmation beforehand, for example in the announcements channel. Otherwise people who suddenly can't see any channels won't know why. Make sure #rules stays visible to everyone, even without the member role. How to announce changes and keep versions traceable is described in detail in Changing Discord rules.

Make rules look better with the embed builder

Besides the rules you often want to show more info, such as a short explanation of the server or links to your channels. For that there is the embed builder in the Free plan. You design embeds with a title, text, colour, images and up to five link buttons, save them and send them again with /server embed send. The accept button with role and versions is only available in the Rules acceptance module.

Checklist

• Rules are short and specific, with a bold keyword per rule
• Consequences and how to appeal are listed below the rules
• Escalation and warning decay in the dashboard match your penalties
• #rules is visible to everyone, only Lizbot can write
• The Lizbot role is above the member role
• Rules published and tested with a second account
• Re-confirmation only for important changes and with an announcement

Common mistakes

• Member role also given out via autoroles: then newcomers skip the confirmation. Only the button should assign the role.
• Rules channel only visible to members: anyone who lost the role can't find the rules any more and never gets back in.
• No penalties: without consequences, every timeout feels arbitrary.
• Re-confirmation for every typo: it annoys people and lowers the number of active members.
• Different rules in Lizbot and in Discord's Rules Screening: if you use both, keep the texts identical or point to #rules in Rules Screening.