@ben has a product to help with moderation!

I've created a Discord community, but I really don't like the platform so I shut it down and moved to Telegram. I'm in a few Discord servers, though, and I just turn off notifications because it's too feral otherwise. There's always that risk of people muting notifications to get peace, which means people might be less active if they forget the server exists.

To make sure it's active for launch:

• start inviting people sooner than the official launch
• start conversations so there's something in there already for people to do
• incentivize them to come back regularly
• reward them for growing the community
• plan an actual Launch Event to kick it off (after you've invited people to give them a time to get settled)
• plan to put in a lot of effort in the beginning til members take over

I can help with more general community growth & engagement since I help my own clients do this, but it wouldn't be Discord specific.