Why your Discord server is inactive

A vital part of maintaining your community (especially while growing!) is making sure that your community remains active. Sometimes member activity is actually weighed more than the member growth, especially while building a healthy server.

When someone decides to join your Discord server, they want to be greeted with a fluid stream of positive conversation, not the tumbleweeds and crickets of an inactive chat. So that begs the question:

How does one keep a server active?

There are dozens of things you could be doing wrong, or doing right. By identifying these things you can strengthen your community by correcting, removing, or enforcing a certain event.

So what am I doing wrong then?

There are many basic things a server owner or staff member could be doing wrong, which could all build up over time and turn the server into a literal ghost down. Thankfully, correcting these behaviours and issues is simple!

Your topic is too broad

There are hundreds, upon thousands of other ‘lounge’ or ‘chill’ Discords out there that are a lot more popular than yours. What sets you apart and why? Why is what you’re doing any different to what they are doing? When creating a Discord server you should have a set niche in mind, a unique niche. Try not to pivot that niche/idea too much, as it’ll upset your previous members and cause them to possibly leave or not participate in chat at all.

How do I fix that?

If you’ve got reasonably low members, a solid idea, and a relatively new Discord, you’re in the clear. Simply start making small adjustments to the channel structure to more suite your niche. If your Discord is about food, create cooking channels, food picture channels etc.

You’re advertising in the wrong places, the wrong way

Advertisement can be the most beneficial method of growing and sustaining your user base actively. This is why it’s important to not fuck it up. It’s important to attract the right kind of users that are interested in what your server is about, I reccomend reading my advertisement writing guide here to learn how to write a compelling advert for your Discord server.

Proper places to advertise are obviously your partner servers and most prominently Discord server listing sites, like Discord Street. Discord Street is so much more than meets the eye, there are tonnes of features which help promote the growth and activity of your Discord server.

Finding servers to partner with is incredibly easy, as you only need to start with a single server.

1. Find your first partner server, either through a Discord listing site or someone who has come to you for the partnership.
2. Partner with his partners.
3. Partner with his partners partners.
4. ???
5. Profit.

You’re not engaging with your community

Everyday, you should be spending time with YOUR community. Talking with them, interacting, participating in activities. Just because you’re in a managerial position does not mean you’re too good to talk with your members. Get into voice chat, get into the general chat, and talk to your members. Participate in their conversation, let them engage with you by setting an example and creating a positive environment where conversation flows easily and your members are comfortable. Don’t criticise your members too much, and definitely don’t try to be a know-it-all dictator. No one has ever labeled a power-hungry server mod as one of their ‘friends’.

You’ve created a toxic environment

The server is a literal cesspool, there’s no positivity or encouragement. Toxic users and trolls rule over your server. Obviously this doesn’t bode very well when trying to grow your Discord server into a flourished, positive community.

The fix for this is painfully simple: warn, kick, and ban.

If someone is showing toxic behaviour and harassing users or staff do not be afraid to stand up for your community and warn or possibly kick (on the first offence) the perpetrator. It really is as simple as that, it shows that you as a member of staff are actively trying to benefit your community by standing up for your members, and simply creates a more positive, talkative chat.

You should definitely be welcoming new users to the server as they come in, it’s as simple as tagging them and exclaiming a welcome. It’ll make members linger for longer, and entice them to look around. When welcomed, users will feel more influenced to introduce themselves to the surrounding community and its members. Overall, welcomes generate a professional, welcoming look for your server.

No positive encouragement to talk

By simply introducing a levelling system in your server, you’re reinforcing the behaviours of simply talking in chat. Create benefits for reaching certain levels such as special “Level 10 Giveaways”, where only users who have surpassed level 10 can participate to win prizes. Now this definitely isn’t to say you should not grant your regular users with a generous giveaway every once and a while, in fact you should be doing giveaways for your regular users.

By correcting these practices, you will slowly start to see success, just my simply by fathering a positive, niche environment. However this is only the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to server design and improvements, as there are plenty more considerations & improvements to be made to a Discord server so that it will thrive.

If you enjoyed this article, please do not forget to give it a few claps (It helps A LOT, and you can give up to 50 Claps at a time!), and if you are still looking for information or help, consider checking out the Discord Growth server. Discord Growth is the Official Discord Street server management tips & tricks platform. Come and learn from our Discord Growth Experts, ask questions, and more. Join now at Discord Growth!

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