Managing Your Discord Notifications & Security

Komard's Klass

Managing Your Discord

Lesson Plan for fellow project owners, creators, and colleagues

Prepared by Komard

OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

The purpose of this lesson is to show you how to manage your Discord account and the servers you're a part of for safety and manageability of the Discord servers.

There is a lot to knowing Discord and for those just entering the world of Discord it can be overwhelming. We wanted to take a moment to give you some of the basics of Discord as well as some Pro-Tips to help make your journey using Discord a bit easier.

GETTING STARTED ON DISCORD

The first thing to know is that Discord has been around since May 13, 2015. Let me tell you it has come a long way since it was first introduced. The functionality that has been added over the years is amazing and has allowed a much wider spectrum of users outside of the gaming industry it was originally built for.

Some of those features include:

• Ability to have 1 on 1 voice and video calls
• Live streaming and screen sharing
• Music and entertainment integration
• Customization of profiles and servers
• Channel following (To keep you notified of things important to you)

So how are people using Discord? There are all kinds of reasons people use and set up discord servers. Among the top reasons are:

• Gaming
• Music
• Education
• Science and Technology
• Content creators
• Anime & Manga
• Dating
• Communities and Social Clubs
• Web 3
• Journaling

The point here is that you can literally use Discord for nearly any reason you like.

SETTING UP YOUR DISCORD ACCOUNT

To create a Discord account in and of itself doesn't require much knowledge or time. Creating this account will allow you to not only use Discord but to become a part of the servers and communities you care about.

You should know that Discord can be used in a web browser as well as an application that can be added to your computer, mac, or smart devices, or all of your devices if you're anything like me.

1. Go to the official Discord Website, (discord.com) using your preferred browser.O
2. Click on the button “Open Discord in your browser”. You'll then see this page. V It's here you will decide what name you want to use. Some things to keep in mind here as you are creating your new username include that the name will be what represents you as a Discord user. So if you're representing a business you may want to use something that relates to the business you are in. Then click on the arrow to the right of the username creation field to continue.
3. Next you will see a box popup that asks if you are human and a captcha to verify you are not a bot. Complete the tasks and continue.
4. Next you will have to enter some of your personal information starting with your Date of Birth. This is because the Discord TOS requires users to be at least 13 years old. EOnce you have completed this step click the “Next” button.
5. On the next page you're going to be given a few options. The options give you the ability to create a brand new Discord Server from scratch or you can use a template including Gaming, School Club, Study Group, Friends, Artists & Creators, or even Local Communities. A couple of points I would like to make here are 1. If you're not sure what each template has or doesn't have that will or won't suit your needs you will want to research them to know which will fit your needs best. Or if you are feeling adventurous you can create your own from scratch. For the sake of this lesson we will be creating one from scratch. But the focus of this lesson is to manage your account and settings on the account and servers you join. R
6. You should also note that if you're not in need of a server at this time you can join one that you have an invite to by clicking the link below templates.
7. Who is the server for? If your not sure you can skip this step, otherwise select the option that suits your needs the best. V For the purposes of this lesson we will be selecting “For me and my friends”.
8. The next part is where things begin to get a little exciting. This is where you get to start customizing your server. Here you will get to select an image that represents your server as well as to set the name of the server. IOnce you have added your image and made sure the name you want to use is correct, hit the “Create” button to continue the process.
9. What is your server for, or about? This is where you get to decide exactly what you want the primary purpose of the server to be. You can skip this if you are not there yet, or you can complete it. E Once you have completed the topic hit the “Done” Button”. To finalize the setup you will have to enter your email address and password. W You will get a confirmation email that you will need to verify. Follow the instructions in the email and you can then get to get into the nuts and bolts of Discord. Then you will click the “Claim Account” button. Congratulations, you have now set up your first Discord server and account!

WHAT YOU GET

When you go to the discord app for the first time this is what you will see. From here this is where we will set and establish all of the settings that will help you manage notifications as well as your security settings for your account. For the purposes of this Klass we will not be setting up a server. However we will produce a lesson in the future that will walk you through each step.

SECURITY SETTINGS

To adjust the account settings you will need to click on the “Cogwheel” in the bottom left corner next to your username. When you do this window will appear. & Do not get overwhelmed by the number of options that show up here. Take them one at a time and be sure you understand each one. For time and the purposes of this Klass we will not be going through all of the options. We will be focusing on the items that will help you to manage notifications and security of your account.

By default the page opens to “My Account”. Its here you have the options to add a phone number to your account (Recommended), change your password and enable Two-Factor Authentication. We change our account passwords every 30 days with a 256 bit password generator. You do not need to be as paranoid as me but it is an option for increased security. I highly recommend taking this action and following the steps. 2FA is a security measure that makes it difficult for those you do not want to access your account and servers. By utilizing these features you can increase and improve the security of your account significantly.

Next click on the Privacy and Safety tab on the right of the screen and this is what you should see. In the privacy and safety section you're given a number of options including the amount of protection you want by default from Discord itself. Personally we kept the default settings for this option. This option scans all direct messages from those not on your friends list. I'd also urge a word of caution here. Do not just add anyone or everyone. It's not a popularity contest and could lead to scams, spam, and troubles down the road.

The next option is where you decide if you want to even allow direct messages from server members. You should note that if you're already in a few servers this option being enabled does not change the DM capabilities of existing servers for you. You will have to manually go into each server and enable this option. This is highly recommended again to reduce the amount of spam and potential scams you receive.

If you're like us and utilize iOS devices you will want to decide if you're okay with allowing for age restricted content or not. We do not as that is not what we are here for.

Earlier we spoke about Discord not being a popularity contest and don't add just anyone to your friends list. Now you can decide whom you want to allow to add or send you a friend request. For Komards NFTS we have all options in this category enabled because we are a public server owner and need to be able to receive messages in the event there is an issue on our server. If you do not have a public server or a server at all you may just want to change those settings.

On this tab you will also be able to manage how Discord uses your data. Pay attention here as there are several slider options here. Make sure you fully understand the options before you say Ya or Nah.

You should also note that you have the ability to request a copy of your data at any time.

The next tab and detail to pay attention to is the “Authorized Apps”. Be selective on the apps you allow to integrate with because there are some apps that do not take security to the level that we do.

NOTIFICATION SETTINGS

It is important that you know depending upon the activity of a server and or the number of servers you are on the notifications can get overwhelming. So we will walk you through the setting here.When you select the “Notifications” tab in Discord you will see several options starting with if you want to enable notifications. This is your choice, but you need to keep in mind there may be some notifications you will want to see.You can set this for each server and channel on the servers you are on as well.

The next option is if you want to enable the “Unread Message Badge”. We personally have turned it on as it helps us with staying up to date with the servers that are active and have things happening in them. If you're easily overwhelmed this may be something you want to disable as the numbers can grow quickly and the badge does appear on each server showing the number of messages that you have not seen.

Push Notification settings allow you to set a timeout. What this does is stops push notifications when you are at the computer if you enable desktop notifications.

The next setting here is Text to Speech Notifications. This setting allows you to decide if you want to have a bot read your messages to you or not. For those that are visually impared this is a great option.

Now lets talk about sound notifications. There are a ton of audio notifications you can enable or disable. The cool part is you can literally disable all sound with 1 simple click. Or you can go through each one and decide what works for you best.

In the last section of notifications you get to decide what emails you will or wont receive from Discord. We have diabled all of them except tips and recommended servers. By having these 2 enabled we are able to continue learning when there are new features and pro tips as well as servers that might fit the kind of communities we enjoy. Thus allowing us to continue building meaning and lasting relationships with new people we may not have otherwise met.

From here your done setting your personal account settings. When you join new servers you will want to go through the settings for those servers to make sure you're protected and secured. Dependant on the way the server is set up you will need to make some minor adjustments.

It is also important to note you should read every server's rules. In most cases they are similar but know that a lot of servers reserve the right to Time out, Kick, Temporarily Ban, or even permanently ban if you violate the rules of the server. Most servers have also adopted a policy telling you to disable DM’s on the server for your safety, and like most rules they are to protect the community as a whole. Remember they can't keep a safe space for us as users if we are not reading, understanding and following those rules.