Discord

Model Hogwarts is completely Discord-based. If you don't currently have a Discord account, you can create one on the Discord website. It's quick, easy, and free! Discord can be run through your browser, or you can download the app for your computer or your phone. Once you have an account and have picked your favourite platform (or set up Discord on *all* your platforms), you can join our Discord Server by clicking this link! Say hello and follow the steps in our How to Join guide to join in the fun!

## Channels

Each **channel** on Discord is a separate instant messaging conversation. There are no voice channels on Model Hogwarts.
Channels in Model Hogwarts are divided into OOC and IC channels. Each IC channel represents a specific location, with some as places in Hogwarts (such as the entrance hall or the courtyard) and some as locations in the greater wizarding world such as Ollivander's and The Three Broomsticks. The channels are further gathered into **categories** that describe what set of locations they are in.

Both channels and categories can be muted, meaning you won't see them light up when new messages appear. However, you will still get pings from these channels.

## Roles

A user on discord can have many roles that give them certain permissions. There are several ways roles are used on Model Hogwarts.

### Year roles

A user will have a role that describes where they are in their journey through Hogwarts. These can range from **First Year** to **Seventh Year**, but also include roles like **I Got My Letter!** for students who are newly accepted to Hogwarts and **Summer Camper** for those attending Summer Camp. This role will affect how good they are at spell casting, as well as what classes they can see.

### House roles

A user also has a role that describes which house they are in. This will allow them to see their common room.

### Pronoun roles

Another set of roles are given based on the pronouns that each student puts on the New to Model Hogwarts sheet. They determine which dorms you can type in and which bathrooms you can see.

### Club roles

Club roles display which club each student is in. The leader will ping the club role to alert the students about when club meetings are occurring. These roles are self assignable using `**.rank [clubname]**`. For a list of clubs, type `**.ranks**`.

## Pings

Pings are notifications on Discord. There are several different ways you may get pinged.

### @ everyone

These pings will alert everyone to specific announcements, updates, and events. Usually this is reserved for important things, so make sure to read announcements carefully. Non-staff do not have the ability to ping everyone.

### @ here

These pings alert online members, and will not alert offline members even if they come back online. This is reserved generally for casual events.

### Role pings

Sometimes an entire role will be pinged, whether to signal the start of class or a club, to schedule a House event, or to contact a team.

### Individual pings

A person might ping you individually if they have a specific issue, question, want to roleplay with you, or want to show you something. They may also ping you if the conversation is moving fast and they want to reply to something specific you said.