5 Tips to Reinvent an Inactive Discord Server

A discord server with lots of members but no activity is a very lonely place no one wants to be in. Yet, you clicked on this article to figure out how to make it come back to life. Regardless of your intention (sever owner, moderator, or concerned member) I gotchu, dw.

Here are five tips to get you going in the right direction.

Tip 1. Cull the inactive

“Cull”- kick out the inactive. Kicking people out indiscriminately should probably be the last thing on your mind. Selectively kicking out those that have not participated in anything whatsoever, should be on the top of the list, and more so those without a profile picture.

If by chance you begin to feel guilty and decide to dm those you were planning to kick in hopes some of them might help you revive the server, do know that it will be tedious and in probably a waste of your valuable time.

In any case, how and when you choose to decide who stays and who goes is all up to you. If you have no intention of kicking people out, that’s fine too. I just think it’s good server hygiene to keep the member count closer to the true number of active users, especially if it isn’t a public server or one where growth and member count is the end goal.

If you’re still not clear about what kind of members you may want to kick out eventually. Allow me to provide some scenarios that would likely have you second guessing your decision to kick someone out.

Scenario 1: I’d say you shouldn’t kick out the month-long lurkers who only react to messages. They’re engaged, but are probably too busy, shy, or socially awkward to engage with others directly. I’d instead recommend you reach out to them or prompt them with questions, so they have a reason to engage with others.

Scenario 2: Maybe kick someone who was once active but has disappeared for several months after, and then checking up on them and getting no reply. Do kick out people who have never been active nor contributed to the group after a couple months since they entered. This last type clearly has other better things going on.

My recommendations for each type of person are limited and well… not yours. When you cull out members, you’re in one way or another selecting the type of persons that could exist in your server. While we don’t want inactive members, I still think some members need to be given a chance to interact in a revived and engaging server first.

Tip 2. Revisit the purpose of the server

Is the purpose of the server too broad or too specific?

Your vision for the server may differ over time, it happens quite often. But, the goal (i.e. the reason why people joined the server) shouldn’t change unless the majority and the admin have agreed to it. Else, things could get confusing.

Whenever you revisit your server’s purpose, you generally have to figure out where it is in the following spectrums: specificality of the topics and subtopics(channels); the strengths of members and the community you want to develop; flexibility to accommodate other types of activities and events.

I’ve listed some general examples of the topics you could pursue. Regardless of whether it’s broad or really specific, I’ve seen some of these thrive regardless, one way or another.

Revisiting your purpose doesn’t necessarily mean an overhaul, it’s just advice to reflect on what subtopics, topics, and event you should consider exploring so you can keep things spicy, and if you’re out of luck in that department but have everybody’s interest to chance the theme and purpose entirely. That’s pretty much it.

3. Make a calendar for activities and events that’ll lead to more intra-server engagement.

In organizing activities for groups, it’s best practice to have a calendar of activities for an entire year. A server isn’t exactly the most time-sensitive of organizations but having a year’s worth of stuff to do will relieve you of so much stress down the line.

Also, if done right, there should be enough time in between events to still be able to integrate new activities every month and see which activities do well enough to consider if it’s worth becoming a re-occurring activity. After all, you need to experiment to keep things fresh from time to time and eventually when you accumulate enough “worthy to re-occur” events, you may possibly find there’s only so much time in a day to dedicate one event per day.

To help you, there are obvious seasonal and popular days you could look forward to. Christmas for December, Halloween for October, Annual national festivals, and holidays. I leave it to you to determine what obscure dates are relevant to your server’s niche interests. A couple such examples are for May the 4th for Star wars fans, November 11, Pocky day or single’s day for foodies, and servers filled with single users.

After deciding an appropriate activity for the set dates, you’re going to have to disseminate the month’s information. I would recommend you do so on the last week of the previous month you’re disseminating information for. I think it gives everyone concerned enough time to schedule the incoming events for the first week of the month.

4. Talk to people.

I believe that the server’s energy comes from its admin first, then its members. I’ve observed that in some cases, the average member never really has a chance to get to know more than 50% of the other people in the server. It could be timing or the lack of opportunities to interact. But the importance of knowing (and hopefully liking) other members is essential to keeping them engaged and coming back to your server.

If the energy comes from the admin, what needs to be done when people aren’t engaging with one another? Simple, talk to them, facilitate a conversation between at least two people and then slowly segue out to leave them alone in a voice channel and see how other people could eventually begin to flock into the same voice channel.

Another approach you might consider is sending them a cold message. I know I told you not to do it earlier but consider individually inviting them to an event. Preferably one with the intention to “check-up” on one another. The first step to facilitating a group conversation between different people from the server.

5. Partner with other discord groups that have similar or aligned goals

Partnering with other discord groups that have a similar and aligned goal is an interesting behavior I’ve seen in servers that have become rather big. I’ve noticed that at that point, it’s not unusual to find similar intertwined moderators- basically they’re sister servers in a way.

While partnering with a similar server may cause unnecessary overlap and thus pull user’s attention away, I think it’s for the best. Every server somehow develops its own culture, its own inside jokes, and so I find that it boosts the entertainment value for some people when they’re away and hanging out in yours. Still, I’d be wary when the servers are too similar but the other one has a clear selling point for others to prefer one server over. In such a case, you may want to consider repositioning or how to better maintain the relationship.

For example, if you’re a streamer, you can coordinate with your fellow streamer friends to have one big server for all the funny and stoopid things streamers do. After that, I’ve seen some dedicate their servers for announcements and paid content blocked by a paywall. It impresses me because of its clean layout and need for intentionality and dedication to be able to enjoy the server and what it has to offer to its fullest.

Final Thoughts
It isn’t easy to revamp an inactive server that has no reason for people to want to contribute back. So, hopefully this article helped you move in the right direction of revamping your server to the point people want to be there and begin spending time and energy on keeping your server a fun place where people want to spend their time on.