Vote-Delete

What it is for

Vote-Delete lets members collectively remove a message without waiting for a moderator. It is useful for fast-moving communities where members can reliably identify obvious spam, disruptive content, or posts that break a simple channel rule.

It should complement—not replace—normal reporting and moderation. A threshold that is too low can enable pile-ons; one that is too high makes the feature ineffective.

Open Channels → Messages → Vote Delete in your server’s dashboard.

How it works

1. A member reacts to a message with the configured vote emoji.
2. That reaction starts a vote and also counts as the first vote.
3. Other eligible members use the same reaction to add their votes.
4. Archivian converts the reactions into points. Removing a reaction withdraws that member’s vote and points.
5. When the total reaches the configured threshold, Archivian verifies the current reactions and deletes the message.
6. If the threshold is not reached before the vote expires, the message remains.

Each member can contribute one vote. Bot reactions do not count. Active votes remain open for a plan-dependent period, and Archivian keeps a vote record for a plan-dependent retention period.

A vote can also be ended early. Votes that User-App Spam started are ended when staff clear the incident behind them: the reaction stops counting and the message stays. An early-ended vote behaves exactly like one that ran out of time — the record and the votes already cast stay readable for the rest of their retention period.

Main settings

Enable Vote-Delete

Allows members to start a vote by reacting directly to a message. Turn this off when you do not want member-initiated votes. Other Archivian workflows may still be able to start a vote when they are configured to do so.

Vote Emoji

The emoji members use both to start and join a vote. It can be a normal Unicode emoji, such as 🗑️, or a custom emoji owned by the server.

Choose something whose meaning is unambiguous and explain it in your rules or channel topic. Avoid an emoji already used casually on many messages, because the first matching reaction can start a vote.

Alerts

Send Alerts notifies staff when a vote starts and when one passes. A vote that runs out of time without passing is not announced — nothing happened to the message, so there is nothing to report. Select a channel for those notifications. If no channel is selected, Archivian uses the server’s global default alerts channel when one is configured; without either channel, no alert can be sent.

When a vote starts, the alert identifies:

• the channel containing the message;
• the author of the message being voted on;
• who initiated the vote;
• how the vote was initiated, such as by reacting to the message;
• the message ID; and
• the number of points needed to delete the message.

When a vote passes and the message is deleted, the concluded alert also lists the members whose eligible reactions contributed to the result. Its footer shows the final points compared with the required points—for example, 11/9 points means the vote finished with 11 points when 9 were needed. The final total can be higher than the threshold when voters have different point values or several reactions are processed close together.

The channel and member mentions provide quick context for staff, while the message ID can help identify the affected message in other moderation records after the original is gone. The alerts identify the participants and outcome; they do not reproduce the deleted message’s content. To retain and review the content of deleted messages, configure Message Tracking Alerts.

For most servers, alerts should stay enabled while you tune the feature.

Vote points

Points per vote

Sets how many points an ordinary eligible reaction contributes. The dashboard allows 1–10 points per vote. The default is 1 point.

Points needed

Sets the total required to delete the message. The dashboard allows 1–150 points. The default is 10 points, so the default configuration needs about ten ordinary votes.

Think in terms of people, not only points. For example:

• 1 point per normal vote and 8 points needed means eight normal members.
• 2 points per normal vote and 10 points needed means five normal members.
• 1 point per normal vote, with trusted moderators worth 5 points, allows one moderator to have more influence without giving them an instant deletion.

Custom Point Overrides

A user or role override makes that person’s reaction worth more or less than a normal vote. Use role overrides for established trust groups and user overrides for exceptional cases.

If a member matches several overrides, Archivian uses the one worth the most points; overrides are not added together. A denied voter remains unable to vote even if they also have an override. The number of overrides available depends on the server’s plan, and the dashboard shows the current limit.

Avoid large multipliers for broad roles. A role worth the full threshold effectively gives every holder the power to delete a message alone.

Where voting is ignored

Ignored Channels

Members cannot start Vote-Delete in channels you list. Discord announcement/news channels and the server’s configured rules, public-updates, safety-alerts, and system channels are ignored automatically.

Threads beneath an ignored channel can still allow Vote-Delete, so add a thread explicitly when it also needs to be excluded.

Good candidates for manual exclusion include staff evidence channels, ticket transcripts, appeal channels, and channels where reactions have another established meaning.

Denied Voters

Selected users and members with selected roles cannot start or join votes. Use this for bots, unverified members, a restricted role, or accounts that have abused community voting. The dashboard shows the denied-voter limit.

Recommended starting setup

For a community trying Vote-Delete for the first time:

• use one clearly named emoji;
• keep ordinary votes at 1 point;
• require enough votes that a small friend group cannot act alone;
• give only a narrow, trusted role a modest override;
• exclude sensitive staff and record-keeping channels; and
• send alerts to a private moderation channel.

Review early votes for misuse and adjust one setting at a time. Raise Points needed when messages are deleted too easily; lower it when legitimate votes consistently expire without acting.

Limitations

Vote-Delete measures agreement, not whether the crowd is correct. Coordinated users can still target a legitimate message if they control enough eligible points. Keep ordinary moderation tools and reports available, monitor alerts, and use denied-voter controls when abuse occurs.