An art contest or a photo challenge is one of the easiest ways to get a Discord server talking. Running one by hand is not: entries get lost in the channel, reactions are easy to game, and someone has to count the votes at the end. This guide shows how to run the whole contest with the Image Rating leaderboard in Scoreboards, from the theme to the podium.
What you get
- One button to enter. Members press Submit image on the board, type a title and attach the picture.
- A 1–10 star vote. Every member, or only the judges you pick, rates each entry. One vote per person per entry, and it can be changed.
- A live gallery. The board in your channel shows every entry with its picture, rank, sender, average rating and vote count, eight to a page.
- A podium at the end. End the season and the board freezes with its averages final and posts the top three.
Step 1: Create the contest board
- Add Scoreboards to your server and run
/leaderboard create. - Name the board after the theme, for example "Golden hour" or "Draw your OC as a villain", and pick Image Rating.
- Choose a log channel if you want every entry posted there with its own star menu, and the option to approve entries before they go live.
The board is posted in the channel you created it in. Members use its buttons from then on, and the board's web page lists the same contest.
Step 2: Set the rules in the dashboard
Open the board in the dashboard and set up the contest:
- Max Submissions. One to three entries per member works well. Entries waiting for approval count towards the limit, and a rejected one frees its slot.
- Auto Approve. New boards publish instantly. Set it to Off and every entry waits in the log channel for a moderator to press Approve or Reject, or pick a delay from 1 hour to 7 days to approve whatever nobody has reviewed by then.
- Allow Self-Voting. Turn it off and nobody can rate their own entry.
- Hide Ratings (Blind Voting). Averages, ranks and who sent each entry stay hidden in Discord and on the website until you reveal them, so votes go to the work and not to the name.
- Voting and submitting roles. Pick a judges role and only those members can rate, while everyone can still submit. Submitting can be limited to one role the same way. Admins need the role too.
- Season end. Schedule when the contest ends, so the board closes itself.
Then post the rules in your server: the theme, the deadline, how many entries each member may send, and whether judges or the whole server decide.
Step 3: Collect entries
Members press Submit image on the board. One form takes the title and the picture together. They can also submit from the board's web page. With approval on, a moderator sees each entry in the log channel first, so off-theme or unsuitable pictures never reach the gallery.
Step 4: Let the server vote
There are three ways to rate:
- The star menu under each entry's own message in the log channel.
- Rate entries on the board, which shows a member, privately, one entry they have not rated yet, starting at a random one so no entry is always seen first. They pick the stars or skip, and the next one appears.
- The board's web page, where signed-in members of your server open every entry full size and click the stars. Visitors from outside the server see the ranking but never the pictures.
Votes show in the board's activity without the voter's name by default ("Someone rated Sunset 8/10"). Admins always see every vote in the dashboard's Vote Log, can remove any vote and can export the log to CSV.
Step 5: Close the contest and announce the winners
- Turn off Accepting Submissions when the entry deadline passes. No new entries come in and voting stays open.
- End the season from the dashboard, or let the scheduled end time do it. The board freezes with its averages final, a blind vote is revealed, and the podium with the top three is posted.
- Start the next round. A new season starts on a fresh board, and the finished round stays frozen with its winners.
While a contest runs, the weekly recap on Mondays shows the leading entry's picture, which is a good reminder for anyone who has not voted yet.
How the winner is decided
Entries are ranked by their average rating, highest first, with the number of votes beside each. A strong entry with fewer votes can beat a weaker one with many. There is no minimum number of votes, so give everyone time to rate before you call a winner, or ask every judge to rate every entry.
Ideas for contests
- Art contests: a drawing or painting theme a week, fan art of your game or stream, pixel art jams, character design. See the art contest page.
- Photo contests: weekly photo challenges ("reflections", "macro", "black and white"), pets, desk setups, food, travel. See the photo contest page.
- Everything else visual: Minecraft builds, game screenshots, memes, server icon and banner designs, or a short story with a cover image.
Tips from servers that run them
- Keep rounds short. A week to submit and a few days to vote keeps people coming back. Long rounds lose momentum.
- Use blind voting for prize contests. It stops popular members from winning on their name.
- Use judges when there is a prize. For casual weekly challenges, let the whole server vote.
- Cap entries. One best piece per member gets better entries than five quick ones, and everyone actually looks at every entry.
- Approve entries in a busy server. A log channel with Auto Approve off keeps the gallery on theme.
When to choose something else
Image Rating is for visual work judged by people. If your competition has a measurable score, use Classic or High Score. For 1v1 or team matches, go with ELO. Every setting of the type is on the Image Rating page.