Tips and tricks

A collection of the things experienced guild leaders wish they'd known on day one. Each tip is short; follow the link for the full story.

Getting around the dashboard

• Press / to search. It jumps to the search box at the top of the dashboard, which finds members, forum threads and, for games with loot, items. Press Enter to search the forums in full.
• Press G, then a letter, to jump to a page. Like hotkeys in a game:

• Shortcuts pause while you type. They don't fire inside text boxes, so you can't jump away from a half-written post by accident.
• Start your day on the Command Deck. The Dashboard shows this week's numbers, weekly quests, upcoming operations, who's online now and the guild log in one place.
• Most pages link to their help article. Look for the help link next to the page description, or browse this help center from the dashboard.

Members and roles

• Moderation follows the role, not the rank. Officers need the Moderator role to pin, lock and delete; the Officer rank alone isn't enough. See Roles and ranks.
• Watch for overdue promotions. Promotion Watch on the Command Deck (admins and the owner) lists members whose renown has outgrown their rank. Dismiss a suggestion and it comes back if they gain two more levels.
• One invite link per person. Links work once and expire after 7 days, and whoever opens one first gets its role. Send them by private message. See Invite and manage members.
• Use Suspend, not Delete, for a break. Delete takes effect straight away with no confirmation; Suspend just stops someone signing in until you choose Activate.
• Use Guest for trials and allies. Guests can read but can't post, vote or claim loot.
• Members who join with Discord bring their history. Anything they did through the Discord bot before signing up merges into their account the first time they sign in with Discord.

Recruiting

• Make a public forum category your shop window. Tick Public on a category such as "About us" or "Recruitment" and anyone can read it on your website without an account. Real guild discussion sells your guild better than any About page. See Forums.
• Link any button to #apply. It jumps straight to the Application form on that page. Put one in your home page's hero. See Recruitment.
• Close applications instead of deleting the form. With Taking applications off, your site tells visitors you aren't recruiting right now, and reopening is one switch.
• Send application alerts to an officers-only Discord channel. Only the applicant's name and Discord username are posted; answers stay in Spawnix.
• Show which roles you need. A Muster board block lists the roles you're recruiting, each marked open, limited or closed. See Page blocks.

Your website

• Name a page Home. The page with the URL /home is your front page. Without one, your first page is used. See Website builder.
• Check the phone layout. Click the phone icon in the editor's top bar. Blocks stack automatically on phones, and you can arrange them by hand if the stacking isn't right.
• Your forum borrows your home page's menu. Put a Navigation section on your home page and the public forum pages use it too, so the site feels like one place.
• Let blocks follow your theme. Blocks that use theme colors update when you change the theme, so a new look is one click instead of an afternoon. See Site themes.
• Add a background video. Upload an MP4 or WebM to a Video block and turn on Play muted on a loop (background video). That option is for uploaded files; YouTube, Vimeo and Twitch links play normally.
• Embed your Discord server. The Embed block can show your Discord server widget. Turn on "Enable Server Widget" in your Discord server's settings first.
• Count down to raid night. A Countdown block shows the time left to your next weekly session or wipe day.
• Put your guild's data on the site. Guild widgets such as Roster, Events and Polls update by themselves. Only public events and polls you mark Show on website appear.
• Templates arrive unpublished. A site template from the marketplace adds pages you can edit before anyone sees them. See Marketplace.

Forums

• Moderator tools hide behind the gear. Moderators and above see a gear at the top right of forum pages. Click it to show the moderator tools (pin, lock, move, rename, delete); the button then reads Moderating. It's off by default so you read the forum like everyone else, and your choice is remembered in that browser.
• Format with shortcodes. Type [b]bold[/b], [color=red]text[/color] or [spoiler=Boss tactics]...[/spoiler] and they show as formatting. Click Shortcodes in the editor for the cheat sheet and Preview to check the result. See Forum shortcodes.
• Spoilers stay hidden. Spoiler text is hidden in forum search results and in Discord previews, so boss tactics and story spoilers don't leak.
• Quote with one click. The Quote button on a post drops that post into your reply, with the author's name.
• Search like a pro. Use "quoted phrases" for exact matches and -word to leave a word out.
• Moderators see every category. You don't need a special rank for officers to read the officers' area; the Moderator role already sees everything.

Events and polls

• Use event templates. Install an Event packs item from the marketplace and pick a template under Start from a template when you create an event, or with /events create in Discord. See Events and roster.
• Set your time zones. The owner sets the guild's time zone in Settings, and everyone can pick their own on the Account page. The Events page switches between your time, guild time and UTC, and the event form lets you type in any of them. /events create reads times in the guild's zone.
• Click a day to create an event. Clicking a day on the events calendar opens a new event with that date filled in.
• Public events do double duty. Turning on Show on guild website puts the event in your website's Events widget and, with event announcements on, posts it to Discord with RSVP buttons.
• Rank-limit sensitive polls. Polls can be limited to ranks for viewing and voting. Polls without a rank limit can be posted to Discord with vote buttons. See Polls.

Discord

• Let people use the bot without an account. Under What Discord roles can do, tick Take part for @everyone (or a member role) and people can vote, RSVP and claim loot straight from Discord. They show up as Discord members, who don't count toward your plan's member limit. See Connect Discord.
• Let event leads post from Discord. Tick Events for your raid-leader role and they can create and cancel events with /events create without dashboard access.
• Press Send test after every change. It confirms the bot can still post in your announcements channel.
• Look things up from Discord. /item finds an item in your database, /characters shows who plays what in World of Warcraft guilds, and add-ons bring their own commands such as /dkp and /reserves. See Discord commands.
• Restyle the bot. A Discord styles item from the marketplace changes the color, wording, footer and picture on your bot's posts.

Loot and items

• Import your item list from a spreadsheet. The item database imports and exports CSV files, so you can build the list in a spreadsheet and bring it in at once. See Item database.
• Protect the rare drops. Rarity claim rules set the minimum rank that can claim each rarity, so new recruits can't claim legendary items.
• Limit a haul to who showed up. A loot haul can be open to the whole guild or only to people who RSVP'd going to an event. See Loot and items.
• Show off your hoard. Hauls you mark Show on website appear in the website's Loot widget, showing items and how many need or want each, never who.

Renown and profiles

• Renown comes from being active. Your guild earns renown for new members, threads, posts, events held, polls, published pages and loot hauls. Renown is never sold and never unlocks features a plan pays for. See Renown and seasons.
• Some marketplace items unlock at a guild renown level. Keep your guild busy and new items open up.
• Choose an avatar in seconds. On your profile, click Choose a picture to pick from the built-in gallery, or upload your own. See Profiles and characters.
• Put members on your website. Members who turn on Show my profile on the guild website get a public profile page on your site.

Marketplace and add-ons

• Add-ons are just a menu item away. Install one from the Add-ons tab and it appears in your sidebar. Removing it hides the tool but keeps what members entered. See Add-ons.
• Look for updates. Items you've installed show Update available when a newer version is out.
• Starter kits and rank ladders are owner-only. They can change everyone's ranks, so only the owner can use them. You'll see who changes rank before anything happens.

Plans

• Limits never take things away. If you go over a limit, you keep everything; you just can't add more until you upgrade or make room. See Plans and billing.
• Extra guilds are cheaper. If you run more than one guild, every guild but your most expensive one is half price. See Multiple guilds.