Engagement & Fun

How to set up Starboard on your Discord server

This tutorial explains how Starboard works, how to choose the highlight channel, how reaction thresholds are counted, and which safety settings help prevent spam.

Reading time 6 minPublished July 24 2026Last update July 24 2026Published by SiennaNation
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A message is posted to Starboard only after it reaches the configured threshold with reactions that are allowed by your emoji, role, channel, and age rules.

Overview

Starboard watches message reactions in your server. When a message reaches the required number of valid reactions, SiennaNation posts a clean highlight embed in your selected Starboard channel with the original author, message content, source channel, reaction count, and a jump button back to the original message.

Community highlights

Posts popular messages into one dedicated Starboard channel after they reach your reaction threshold.

Custom reaction rules

Choose specific emojis, allow any emoji, and tune the threshold to match your server size.

Anti-abuse controls

Ignore self-stars, bot messages, bot reactions, old messages, and channels or roles you do not want counted.

Clean moderation trail

Dashboard saves are recorded in the audit log with the values that changed, so staff can review setup changes later.

Dashboard setup

Open the SiennaNation dashboard, choose your server, then open the Starboard module. Start with the required channel and threshold settings, then add safety rules once the basic post flow works.

Open the Starboard dashboard.Go to Dashboard, choose your server, then open Starboards from the module list.
Enable the feature.Turn Starboard on only after selecting the channel and confirming the permissions below.
Choose the posting channel.Pick the text channel where highlighted messages should appear, for example #starboard or #highlights.
Set the reaction threshold.Choose how many valid reactions are required before SiennaNation creates the Starboard post.
Save and test.React to a recent message with the configured emoji and confirm the Starboard post appears correctly.

Emojis and threshold

The emoji list controls which reactions count toward Starboard. If the list is empty, any emoji can count. If you add one or more emojis, only those emojis count.

  • Use a lower threshold for small communities, such as 2 or 3 reactions.
  • Use a medium threshold for active servers, such as 5 reactions.
  • Use a higher threshold for large servers, such as 8 or more reactions.
  • Custom Discord emojis can be used if they are available to the server.
Recommended starter setupEmoji: star reactionThreshold: 5Channel: #starboard

Behavior settings

Starboard can be strict or flexible depending on the way your community uses reactions. The safest setup is to start simple, then enable extra behavior only when you need it.

Update existing posts

Keeps the Starboard embed in sync when the reaction count changes.

Remove when below threshold

Deletes the Starboard post if the original message drops below the threshold.

Allow attachments

Includes supported images and media from the original message when possible.

Auto-react

Lets SiennaNation add the configured emoji to new Starboard posts for clarity.

Anti-abuse rules

Starboard is community-driven, so safety rules matter. These options help stop members from farming their own messages or pushing low-quality posts into the board.

  • Ignore self-stars so authors cannot count their own reaction.
  • Remove self-star reactions if you want the bot to clean them automatically.
  • Ignore bot messages when automated posts should never be featured.
  • Ignore bot reactions if only human reactions should count.
  • Use minimum and maximum message age rules to avoid old-message spam.

Role and channel restrictions

Restrictions let you decide where Starboard is allowed to work. You can keep the board open to the whole server or limit it to specific channels and roles.

RestrictionUse it whenExample
Allowed channelsOnly some channels should feed Starboard.#general, #media
Ignored channelsMost channels should work, but a few should be excluded.#staff, #logs
Allowed rolesOnly trusted members should be able to push messages to Starboard.@Member, @Booster
Ignored rolesSome roles should not count toward highlights.@Muted, @Bot

Permissions and common fixes

If a message reaches the threshold but does not appear, the issue is usually a permission, emoji, threshold, or restriction mismatch.

Starboard channel

SiennaNation needs View Channel, Send Messages, Embed Links, Read Message History, and Attach Files if media should be shown.

Source channels

The bot must be able to read messages and reactions in the channels where messages can become starred.

Reaction cleanup

If you enable self-star or bot-reaction cleanup, the bot needs Manage Messages in the source channels.

The Starboard post did not appear

Confirm the module is enabled, the selected Starboard channel still exists, the threshold was reached with valid reactions, and the source channel is not blocked by channel restrictions.

The reaction count looks wrong

Check whether self-stars, bot reactions, ignored roles, ignored channels, or message age rules are filtering reactions out of the final count.

The bot cannot clean reactions

Reaction cleanup requires Manage Messages in the source channel. Without that permission, Starboard can still count reactions, but it cannot remove invalid ones.