Are Join Tasks Against Discord's Terms of Service?
No. Requiring users to join a Discord server to enter a giveaway is not against Discord's Terms of Service. Real users voluntarily joining a server is authentic engagement, not a policy violation. The confusion comes from outdated information, misread policies, and conflating join tasks with invite rewards.
What is a join task? In giveaways, a join task requires participants to join a specific Discord server before they can enter. Hosts use this to grow their own server, cross-promote with partners, or fulfill sponsor requirements.
This guide breaks down what Discord's policies actually say, addresses every concern you might have, and explains why join tasks remain compliant in 2026.
The Source of the Confusion
In 2020, Discord staff posted on a community forum that requiring server joins for giveaways was considered advertising. Some verified bots were asked to remove the feature. This created lasting confusion.
But Discord's policies have been updated multiple times since then. The current Developer Policy, Community Guidelines, and Platform Manipulation Policy don't explicitly prohibit join tasks. More importantly, verified bots like ScopliDrop passed Discord's verification process with this feature enabled, meaning Discord reviewed and approved it.
If join tasks violated policy, verification would have been denied.
What Discord's Policies Actually Target
Discord's rules focus on preventing spam, fake engagement, and manipulation. Let's look at each relevant policy and what it actually prohibits.
Artificial Inflation of Server Membership
The Developer Policy states:
"Do not misrepresent or fraudulently manipulate engagement. This includes participating in, enabling, or promoting the inflation of server membership with bot or user accounts."
This targets fake accounts and bots, not real users. A person deciding to join a server for a giveaway is authentic human behavior. They're interested in the prize and choose to participate. That's not artificial or fraudulent.
Invite Rewards
The Tips Against Spam page says:
"Invite reward servers are servers that promise some form of perk, often financial, for inviting and getting other users to join said server. We strongly discourage this activity, as it often results in spamming users with unsolicited messages."
This is where most confusion happens. Join tasks and invite rewards are completely different things.
| Type | What Happens | Spam Involved? |
|---|---|---|
| Invite rewards | User spams others with invite links to earn rewards | Yes |
| Join task | User joins a server themselves | No |
With invite rewards, users are incentivized to contact and spam third parties. With join tasks, the user simply joins themselves. No one else is contacted or spammed. The entire concern that drove the invite rewards policy doesn't apply.
Spam Concerns
The same Tips Against Spam page notes:
"If it leads to spam or another form of abuse, we may take action including removing the users and server."
Discord says they "may take action" only IF it leads to spam. Join tasks don't cause spam. The user clicks a link and joins voluntarily. No DMs are sent, no mass invites happen, no unsolicited messages are involved. The condition for action simply doesn't exist.
Advertising and Marketing
The Developer Policy includes:
"Do not target users with advertisements or marketing. Messaging to Discord users from any Application or developer team should be relevant to the function of the Application."
This rule is about unsolicited messages and DMs from bots. A giveaway entry requirement isn't "targeting users with ads." The user came to the giveaway willingly, sees the requirements upfront, and chooses whether to participate. No one is being messaged or targeted. The user initiates the interaction.
Inauthentic Engagement
The Platform Manipulation Policy states:
"We will consider engagement to be inauthentic if it is purchased, induced (like promises of financial reward), or fraudulent (for example, it involves fake accounts)."
Discord's example of "induced" is "promises of financial reward." That means a guaranteed transaction where you do X and get $Y every time.
Giveaways are fundamentally different:
| Type | Example | Guaranteed Reward? | Policy Issue? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Induced (financial) | "Invite 5 people = Get $10" | Yes, every time | Violation |
| Giveaway entry | "Join server to enter raffle" | No, chance-based | Compliant |
A giveaway entry is a chance to win, not a payment. It's probabilistic, not transactional. If Discord's logic applied to giveaways, every giveaway would be "induced engagement," but Discord explicitly allows giveaways and has their own Master Sweepstakes Rules.
Inauthentic Service Engagement
The Community Guidelines say:
"Do not engage with our service in an inauthentic way. This includes artificially inflating server membership, manipulating engagement metrics, and selling artificial engagement services."
A real user voluntarily joining a server as part of a giveaway entry is authentic engagement. They see the requirements upfront, choose to participate, and join willingly. This rule targets fake followers, purchased members, bot accounts, and engagement farms. None of these apply when real humans opt in with full knowledge of the requirements.
Why Verified Bots Can Offer This Feature
ScopliDrop and other verified giveaway bots passed Discord's verification process with join tasks enabled. Discord's verification team reviews bot functionality before approval. If this feature violated policy, it would have been flagged for removal or verification would have been denied.
Verification implies compliance. Platforms like Gleam have also offered this functionality openly for years and operate within Discord's ecosystem.
The Key Distinction
The difference between compliant join tasks and problematic invite rewards comes down to one question: Who is being contacted?
- Join tasks: Only the participant takes action. They see a giveaway, decide to enter, and join a server as part of entry. No third parties are involved.
- Invite rewards: The participant contacts other people to earn rewards. This creates spam because users message friends, post links everywhere, and flood channels with invites.
Join tasks are a single user making a voluntary choice. Invite rewards create a chain of unwanted contact. Discord's policies exist to prevent the second scenario, not the first.
Summary
| Concern | Policy Source | Why It Doesn't Apply |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial inflation | Developer Policy | Real users joining ≠ fake accounts |
| Invite rewards confusion | Tips Against Spam | Join task ≠ inviting others to earn rewards |
| Spam concerns | Tips Against Spam | Join tasks don't cause spam |
| Advertising rules | Developer Policy | No unsolicited messages are sent |
| Induced engagement | Platform Manipulation Policy | Giveaway = chance to win, not guaranteed payment |
| Inauthentic engagement | Community Guidelines | Real users opting in = authentic behavior |
| Old forum statement | 2020 Community Post | Outdated; verified bots now offer this feature |
Frequently Asked Questions
Run Compliant Giveaways with ScopliDrop
ScopliDrop is a verified Discord giveaway bot that includes join tasks as part of its 55+ task library. Every feature has been reviewed by Discord's verification team.
Beyond join tasks, you get cross-platform growth tasks, viral referral systems, anti-fraud detection, and activity tracking. All designed to help you run giveaways that grow your community with real, engaged members. See how it all comes together →
