Appeals

Give punished members a fair way to ask for a second look: a branded appeal page, your own questions, a review queue in Discord and on the dashboard, and one-click unbans when you approve.

Intermediate
15 min read
9 steps
Updated 13 November 2026

By the end, you'll have

A public appeal page for your server that punished members sign in to, with the questions you want answered
Appeals arriving in a staff channel and on the dashboard, with Approve, Deny and Needs info in one click
Approved appeals lifting the ban or timeout automatically, and the member told the outcome

Before you start

Infractions set up, since appeals are made against its cases. See the Infractions guide.
A private staff channel for appeals to arrive in.
Manage Server, so you can open the dashboard.

Mistakes happen, and people change. Appeals turns "DM a mod and hope" into a proper process: the member explains themselves on a clean page, your team reviews it together, and the decision (and the unban) happens in one place. Everything is free.

An appeal page

Banned members can still reach it: they sign in with Discord on the website, not in your server.

A review queue

Appeals post to your staff channel and the dashboard's View Appeals page.

Lift on approve

Approving can unban, remove a timeout or revoke the case straight away.

How an appeal works, start to finish

A member is punished with Infractions or Automod. Their DM includes an Appeal button. For kicks and bans, that DM is sent before they're removed, so it still reaches them.
The button opens your server's appeal page. They sign in with Discord, see the cases on file for them and pick one.
They answer your questions and submit. A status page lets them follow it, answer staff questions or withdraw it.
Your team reviews it in Discord or on the dashboard: Approve, Deny or ask a question with Needs info.
Dreamliner DMs them the decision, lifts the punishment if you approved, and can send an invite back if they were unbanned.

Step 1 · about 1 min

Turn Appeals on and open it

Enable the plugin and find its pages.

In the dashboard sidebar, open Moderation and click Appeals.
Switch on Enabled at the top and press Save.
Notice View Appeals under Appeals in the sidebar. That's your review queue (step 7).

The sidebar with Appeals and View Appeals, and the Enabled switch at the top of the Appeals page — Appeals is under Moderation (1). Switch it on at the top (2). View Appeals, your review queue, sits underneath (3).

Step 2 · about 2 min

Choose where appeals arrive

Pick a staff channel and who gets pinged.

In the Review section:

Setting	What it does	Default
Review channel	Each new appeal is posted here with Approve, Deny, Needs info and Note buttons.	None (dashboard only)
Ping roles	Roles mentioned when an appeal arrives (up to 10).	None
Discussion thread	Opens a thread on each appeal for your team to talk it through.	On
Require a reason to deny	Denying needs a reason, which is sent to the member.	On
Show their history	Adds the member's other cases to the review post.	On

The Review section with the review channel, ping roles, Discussion thread, Require a reason to deny and Show their history — The Review section on the Appeals page.

Step 3 · about 3 min

Choose what can be appealed

Decide which punishments are appealable, when and for how long.

Under What can be appealed there's a row per punishment type. Bans, tempbans, mutes, tempmutes and warnings are appealable by default; kicks and softbans aren't. Staff notes can never be appealed. For each type you can set:

What can be appealed: a card for each punishment type with its form, waiting time, appeal window and what approving does — One card per punishment type. Softbans and kicks are off by default.

Setting	What it does
Form	Which question form they fill in (step 5).
Can appeal after	A waiting period before they can appeal: straight away, or from 1 hour up to 30 days.
Appealable for	How long after the punishment they can appeal: forever, or from 1 week up to 1 year.
On approve	Whether approving lifts the punishment by default (unban, end the timeout, or revoke the case).
Allow once expired or lifted	Lets them appeal a punishment that has already ended, for example to clear their record.

Manual appealsOff by default

An extra "Something else" option for people with nothing on file, such as a ban from before Dreamliner. It can be limited to people who are banned.

Your own appeal optionsUp to 10

Custom options for anything else you review, like a blacklist from events. Each can be limited to banned people, and can unban when approved.

Step 4 · about 3 min

Write your appeal questions

Ask what you need to make a fair decision.

Under Appeal forms, the Default form already asks three good questions: "What happened?", "Why should we lift it?" and "Anything else we should know?". Adjust them or press New form for a different set, such as one for bans and a shorter one for warnings.

Up to 10 forms, each with up to 20 questions.
Question types: short text, paragraph, dropdown, radio buttons, checkboxes, a single checkbox, or a plain text block for instructions.
Set minimum and maximum lengths so answers are thoughtful, not "pls unban".
Give each form an intro, and the page some guidelines under "Before you start", written in Markdown.

Step 5 · about 2 min

Make the appeal page yours

Brand the page and decide what members see.

The Appeal page, Look and privacy and Result screens sections control what members see:

Setting	What it does	Default
Headline, intro and guidelines	The page's title and the text above the form.	"Appeal a punishment in {guild}"
Use the server accent color	Matches your server's colour, or pick your own accent.	On
Background	None, a solid colour, an image link, an uploaded image or your server banner.	None
Case reasons	Shows the reason on each case they can appeal.	On
Moderator names	Shows who punished them and who reviewed. Off shows "Staff team".	Off
Link from the server page	Adds "Appeal a punishment" to your public server page.	On
Result screens	The message after submitting, and the one shown when appeals are closed.	"Appeal sent"

Your page lives at dreamliner.site/server/your-server-id/appeals. The Setup checklist has a copy button and an Open button for it.

Step 6 · about 2 min

Set up decisions and DMs

Choose what members are told, and whether they're invited back.

In Decisions and DMs you can reword the Approved, Denied and Needs info messages, using placeholders like {guild}, {case} and {reason}. Each DM has a View appeal button back to their status page.

Invite them back when unbannedOn

An approved unban adds a "Rejoin" button: a single-use invite that lasts 24 hours. Pick which channel it invites to.

Appeal button on punishment DMsOn

Adds the Appeal button to Infractions and Automod DMs for appealable types. You can rename the button.

Step 7 · about 1 min

Set limits to prevent spam

Stop the same person appealing over and over.

Setting	What it does	Default
Appeals per case	How many times one case can be appealed.	2
Open at once	How many undecided appeals one person can have.	1
After a denial	How long they wait before appealing the same case again.	30 days
Minimum account age	Blocks brand-new accounts from appealing.	None
Blocked users and roles	People who can never appeal.	None

Step 8 · about 2 min

Review appeals

Approve, deny or ask a question, in Discord or on the dashboard.

In your review channel, each appeal shows the case, their answers, their history and its status, with these buttons:

Button	What happens
Approve	Add an optional note for them, and keep Lift the punishment ticked to unban, end the timeout or revoke the case.
Deny	Write a reason, which is sent to them.
Needs info	Ask them a question. Their reply comes back here and the appeal returns to the queue.
Note	A private note for your team. They never see it.

On the dashboard, AppealsView Appeals has the same actions, plus tabs for Pending, Needs info, Approved and Denied, search, and stats like approval rate and time to decision.

Step 9 · about 2 min

Check access and test it

Make sure your team can review, then run a test appeal.

Two permissions control appeals on the Roles page: Review (approve, deny, ask) and View (see appeals on the dashboard). Moderator has both by default; tick them on any other team that reviews appeals.

Press Test setup at the top of the Appeals page, or Run checks under Health check. It checks the review channel, threads, and whether Dreamliner can unban, remove timeouts and invite people back.
Warn a test account. Its DM has an Appeal button.
Appeal from the test account, then approve it in your review channel and watch the warning get revoked.

You're set up

What you just did

Turned Appeals on with a private review channel
Chose what can be appealed and wrote fair, specific questions
Branded the page, set the DMs and limits, and tested a full appeal

Want to know how your team is handling appeals and other work? Team Control tracks staff activity, shifts and more.

Common questions

Can someone who's banned actually reach the page?

Yes. The page is on the Dreamliner website, not in your server. They sign in with Discord there, so being banned doesn't stop them.

A member says they have nothing to appeal.

The page only lists cases of types you made appealable. Check What can be appealed, the Appealable for window, and whether the punishment already ended (turn on Allow once expired or lifted to allow those). For older bans, turn on Manual appeals.

Approving didn't unban them.

Check that Lift the punishment was ticked, that the reviewer can unban, and that Dreamliner has Ban Members. The review post says what was lifted.

Can they see our staff notes?

Never. Notes and the discussion thread are staff-only. They only see what you send them: questions, the decision and its reason.

Is Appeals free?

Yes, completely. There are no Dreamliner One limits on appeals.