Spam
The most-impactful single rule on most servers. Catches three patterns of spam in one rule, using rolling time-windows.
What it catches
| Trigger | What it detects |
|---|---|
| Rate | Too many messages from one user in a short window. |
| Duplicate | Same content posted multiple times (independent of channel). |
| Cross-channel | One user posting in too many different channels in a short window — classic raid behaviour. |
A single rule can use any combination of the three; tripping any one of them counts as one hit.
Settings
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Window (seconds) | Rolling window for rate + duplicate detection. Default 10. |
| Rate threshold | Max messages-per-window. Default 5. Set 0 to disable rate detection. |
| Duplicate threshold | Max repeated copies of the same content. Default 3. Set 0 to disable. |
| Cross-channel threshold | Max distinct channels. Default 3. Set 0 to disable. |
| Cross-channel window | Optional wider window for cross-channel only. Defaults to the main window. |
Tips
- Start at the defaults, then tune as you see false positives.
5 in 10sis wide enough that legitimate fast typers don't get caught. - Cross-channel detection is the raid-stopper. A real spammer pastes the same message in
#general,#chat,#off-topic,#metaover 30 seconds — exactly what this catches. - The cross-channel window can be wider than the rate window (e.g. rate=10s, cross=30s) so a slow drip spammer who waits 8 seconds between channels still trips.
- Combine with delete + timeout 5m. Most spammers don't come back after one timeout.
Common patterns
| Use case | Setup |
|---|---|
| Standard | window=10, rate=5, duplicate=3, cross=3, cross_window=30, actions: delete + 5min timeout |
| Strict (high-traffic server) | window=5, rate=4, duplicate=2, cross=3, actions: delete + 30min timeout |
| Just raid protection | window=10, rate=0, duplicate=0, cross=3, cross_window=30, actions: delete + kick |
Limits
- 6 actions per rule
Channel-spam (the 8th category)
The dashboard has a separate Channel spam category that's the per-channel-only variant: max-N-messages-in-W-seconds for one user inside one channel. Useful when one channel needs tighter rate limiting than the rest (a quiet channel where 3-messages-in-5-seconds is unusual, even if 10-messages-in-10-seconds elsewhere is fine).
Related pages
- Automod overview
- Mention flood — for one-message-with-many-mentions
- Security → Anti-Raid — for join-based raid detection (not message-based)