Joining Discord servers usually goes well—you connect with awesome people you already know or you meet cool new people in a bigger community.
But people are people, and so occasionally you may encounter rude or harassing behavior. You can lessen this possibility by preemptively closing your direct messages, but if you haven’t yet—or you’re on a server where the mod team is sleeping on the job—here’s how to immediately address the issue.
How to report someone on Discord
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For direct messages, hit the red Report Spam button in your chat with the person. If you feel that extra measures are warranted, take a screenshot of the problematic direct messages and the user’s profile, then fill out this form on the Discord website.
For situations where someone is acting up on a server (and the moderators aren’t intervening), submit a link to the troublesome message(s) via Discord’s report form. On a laptop or desktop PC, you’ll obtain this info by hovering your mouse over the message, clicking the horizontal three-dot icon, and choosing Copy Message Link. On mobile, long-press the message, then choose Copy Message Link.
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How to block someone on Discord
You’ll find the block option on a user’s profile. For laptop and desktop users, click on the person’s name, then their avatar, and then on the vertical three-dot icon in the window that appears. Mobile users should tap on the person’s name, then the horizontal three-dot icon.
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Blocking a user has an instantaneous effect. Discord hides their messages on shared servers behind a dropdown menu, disables direct messaging between you, and turns off friend requests. (If you were already friends before, that connection will break.) But this effect is not fully two-way—the other person can still see your messages.
(By the way, if you were wondering why bother with reporting if blocking instantly shuts down spam or other unwanted messages—reporting them first helps keep the service free of jerks and bots overall. You’re likely not only person or server they’ve targeted.)
What to do after
Reporting and blocking should nip everything in the bud. However, if the person makes more accounts after being banned, report them again—and specifically call them out for this circumvention of their punishment. (It’s under “Report other issue.”)
Otherwise, if your peace has been restored, you can get back to enjoying Discord. Make the most of the service with our beginner’s guide to Discord, which includes handy tricks for speedier navigation, message formatting, and getting your notifications under control.
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Author: Alaina Yee, Senior Editor
Alaina Yee is PCWorld’s resident bargain hunter—when she’s not covering PC building, computer components, mini-PCs, and more, she’s scouring for the best tech deals. Previously her work has appeared in PC Gamer, IGN, Maximum PC, and Official Xbox Magazine. You can find her on Twitter at @morphingball.