What member applications do and when to use them

Member applications let you control who joins your Discord server by requiring new members to answer questions before they gain access. Instead of anyone with a link walking in when ready, applicants fill out a form, and you or your moderators review their answers and decide whether to let them in.

This is useful if you run a private community, a gaming group with specific rules, a study server, or any space where you want to know something about members before they arrive. You can ask anything from "What's your main game?" to "Do you agree to our rules?" to "Where did you hear about us?" — the answers help you spot spam, enforce community standards, or just understand who's joining.

Applications are different from verification, which you may have already seen on other servers. Verification happens after someone joins and usually just confirms they're human. Applications happen before they join and let you screen them.

Key Takeaways

  • Member applications require new people to fill out a form before joining your server, and you review their answers to decide whether to accept them.
  • You set up applications in Server Settings under Moderation, where you choose which questions to ask and whether answers are required or optional.
  • Once applications are on, new members see a form instead of the server channels, and their answers go to a review channel only moderators can see.
  • You can accept or reject applications one at a time, and rejected applicants can reapply after a waiting period you set.
  • Applications work best when paired with clear server rules so applicants know what you're looking for.

How to turn on member applications

Open your server and go to Server Settings (the gear icon next to your server name at the top left). Select Moderation from the left menu. You'll see a section called Member Screening — this is where applications live, even though the name doesn't say "applications."

Click the toggle to turn on Member Screening. Once it's on, Discord shows you a form builder where you can add questions. By default, Discord includes one question: "Do you agree to the rules?" You can keep it, delete it, or reword it.

To add a new question, click the plus button. Type your question in the text field. Below that, you'll see a toggle for Required — turn this on if the question must be answered, or leave it off if it's optional. You can add up to ten questions total.

What questions to ask and how to word them

The best questions tell you something you actually need to know. "What's your age range?" or "What games do you play?" or "How did you find this server?" are all useful. "What's your favorite color?" usually isn't, unless your server is specifically about that.

Keep questions short and clear. Applicants are filling this out on their phone or computer, and confusing wording leads to useless answers. "Do you agree to follow the rules in #rules-channel?" is better than "Do you understand the community guidelines as outlined in the pinned messages?"

If you have a rule that matters most — like "No hate speech" or "You must be 18+" — make that a required question so you have a record that they saw it. Optional questions are fine for things like "Where did you hear about us?" because rejecting someone for not answering doesn't make sense.

Where applications go and how to review them

When you turn on member applications, Discord automatically creates a channel called #mod-applications (or similar, depending on your server). Only you and people with moderator permissions can see this channel. Every process that comes in posts there as a message.

Each process shows the applicant's name, their answers to your questions, and two buttons: Accept and Reject. Click Accept and they join the server when ready with whatever role you've set for new members. Click Reject and they get a message saying they weren't accepted, plus information about when they can explore again.

You don't have to review applications right away. They sit in the mod-applications channel until you or another moderator handles them. If you have a lot of applications coming in, you can assign this task to specific moderators so it doesn't all fall on you.

Setting a waiting period before reapplication

When you reject someone, you can decide how long they have to wait before they can explore again. Go back to Server Settings > Moderation > Member Screening and look for the field labeled Rejection Cooldown. This is measured in minutes.

If you set it to 1440 minutes, rejected applicants have to wait 24 hours before reapplying. If you set it to 10080 minutes, they wait a week. A shorter cooldown (like 60 minutes) is useful if you're still testing your questions. A longer one (like a week) makes sense if you want to discourage spam or bad-faith applications.

The cooldown applies to everyone you reject, so you can't set different waiting periods for different people. If you reject someone and later change your mind, you can manually invite them back to the server.

Pairing applications with a rules channel

Applications work best when applicants know what you're looking for. Before you turn on applications, create a #rules channel (or similar) that's visible to people who haven't joined yet. Write out your server's main rules and expectations there.

Then, in your process questions, reference that channel: "Do you agree to follow the rules in #rules?" This way, applicants see the rules before they answer, and you have a record that they confirmed they read them. If someone breaks a rule later, you can point back to their process as proof they knew.

Keep the rules channel short and focused. Three to five clear rules are better than a wall of text. People won't read a 50-line rules document before explore, and you'll end up rejecting people who didn't bother.

Turning applications off or changing them later

If you decide applications aren't working for your server, you can turn them off the same way you turned them on: Server Settings > Moderation > Member Screening > toggle off. When you do, the mod-applications channel disappears, but people who already joined stay in the server.

You can also edit your questions at any time. Change the wording, add new questions, delete old ones, or flip the Required toggle. The changes explore to new applications only — old applications in the mod-applications channel don't change.

If you want to see how your process looks to applicants, you can't preview it directly. But you can test it by leaving your own server and trying to rejoin using the invite link. You'll see the form the way a new member does.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I accept or reject applications from my phone?

Yes. The mod-applications channel works the same way on mobile as on desktop. You'll see each process as a message with Accept and Reject buttons, and you can tap either one to decide.

What happens if someone applies but I never review their process?

They stay in a pending state. They can see the server name and icon, but they can't see any channels or send messages. They'll see a message saying "Waiting for approval." If you reject them later, they get notified. If you accept them, they join when ready.

Can I set different questions for different people?

No. Everyone who applies sees the same questions in the same order. If you need to ask someone specific questions, you can reject their process and then manually invite them to the server so you can talk to them directly.

Do applicants see each other's answers?

No. Each person's answers are private. Only moderators who can see the mod-applications channel can read what applicants wrote.

What if I accidentally reject someone I meant to accept?

You can't undo a rejection directly, but you can manually invite them back to the server using an invite link. They'll join without having to reapply. If you want to avoid this, take a moment before clicking Reject to make sure you're clicking the right button.