Formatting

Every message Sortr sends is written in the same editor, so the same rules apply on all three screens that have one: Panel message, Opening message and Ticket Messages. This page covers what you can put in a message and the limits Discord sets.

Dashboard › your server › a panel › Panel message, Opening message or Ticket Messages

#Text and embeds

A message has two parts. The Message box is plain text shown above everything else. Below it you can add up to 10 embeds, the boxed cards with a coloured bar down the left. You can use either or both, but a message needs something in one of them. The parts of an embed are described on Panel message.

Placeholders like {user} are filled in when Sortr sends the message. See Variables.

#Markdown

Discord's markdown works in the message text, in embed descriptions and in field values.

The dashboard's preview draws headings, bold, italic, underline, code, code blocks, links and mentions. Strikethrough, spoilers, quotes, lists and [text](link) links show as you typed them in the preview, but Discord formats them in the real message.

#Mentions

In the Message box, a description or a field value, type @ to pick a role, @everyone or @here, or # to pick a channel. The list narrows as you type, and only offers roles and channels Sortr can see. Picking one writes Discord's own code, such as <@&123…> for a role or <#123…> for a channel, which the preview and Discord show as @Support or #general.

Once you have typed two letters after the @, the list also offers up to six of the server's members whose name starts with those letters, under Members below the roles. Bots are left out. Picking one writes a mention of that member, which the preview shows with their name, such as @Ren Oakley. After the page is reloaded the preview shows it as @member, and Discord still shows the right person. Sortr keeps nothing about the search.

To mention whoever a message is about, use variables: {user} for the member and {staff} for the staff member who acted. {staff.roles} mentions the panel's support roles.

#When a mention pings

Mentions inside an embed never ping anyone. They only show as names. In the message text, each message allows its own pings, listed below. A member you picked by name from the @ list does not add to them: they are pinged only if they are someone the message may ping anyway, such as the ticket owner in the opening message.

Text members write themselves, such as their name, a close reason or a form answer, is shown as typed. An @everyone or role mention in it is plain text and never pings, a name that looks like a variable is not filled in, and a [text](address) link in it shows as text instead of becoming a link.

#Emoji

• Standard emoji: paste the emoji itself. Shortcodes such as :smile: stay as text in Sortr's messages.
• Custom emoji: write <:name:id>, or <a:name:id> for an animated one. To get the code, type a backslash before the emoji in Discord, like \:partyblob:, and send it. It only shows if Sortr is in the server the emoji comes from. The dashboard preview shows the code rather than the picture.

Buttons and ticket options have their own emoji picker. See Buttons.

#Links

• A web address starting with https:// becomes a link on its own.
• Write [text](address) to link some words. If the address comes from a variable that turns out empty, such as {transcript.link} when no transcript was kept, Sortr leaves the whole link out rather than showing a broken one.
• A link to a Discord channel or message shows as that channel's name.
• The Title link and Author link boxes make an embed's title or author clickable. They take a whole web address starting with http:// or https://, and variables are not filled in there. Anything else stops the save, with a message such as "The panel message: the title link has to be a whole web address, starting with https://."

#Link previews

For each link in the message text, Discord adds a preview card under the message when the site offers one, with the site's name, a title and often a picture. Links inside embeds never get a card.

To keep the links but drop the cards, turn off Show link previews under the Message box. Each message has its own switch, and it starts on. With it off, Sortr writes every link in the text as <https://…> when it sends the message, which is Discord's own way of asking for no card. The links still work. Links that a variable or a form answer brings in lose their card too, and links in code stay as typed. A panel that is already posted changes when you press Update.

The preview shows a grey card where Discord would add one. To drop the card for a single link by hand, write <https://example.com>, or [our rules](<https://example.com/rules>) for a link with words.

#Embeds and their limits

These are Discord's limits. Each box in the editor counts as you type and stops at its limit.

• The Embed text counter under the embeds shows the 6,000 total for the whole message.
• A field needs both a name and a value. Sortr leaves out a field that is missing either.
• An embed with nothing but a colour or a footer is left out, and text that is only spaces counts as nothing. Give it a title, description, author, image, thumbnail or a complete field. The dashboard counts such an embed as empty too, so a message that would be sent blank cannot be saved: the save bar says, for example, "The panel message is empty. Discord refuses a message with no text and no embed."
• Inline fields sit side by side, up to three in a row.

#Variables and length

Variables count as the text they become, which Sortr only knows when it sends. A long member name or a 4,000-character form answer can push a message past a limit you were within when you saved. Sortr then shortens the text rather than letting Discord refuse the message: it cuts from the last embed backwards, longest parts first, and marks each cut with "…". Message text over 2,000 characters is cut at 2,000.

#Images

Each embed has four image slots: Author icon, Thumbnail, Image and Footer icon. Press one to upload a picture, or drop one on it. You cannot paste an image address.

• PNG, JPEG, GIF or WebP, under 8 MB each.
• A big picture, over 1 MB or more than 2560 pixels on its longer side, is made smaller in your browser before it is uploaded: at most 2560 pixels, usually saved as WebP. It looks the same in Discord, and posts with it send faster. The 8 MB counts after that, so a photo of up to 40 MB can still fit. GIFs and other animated images go as they are.
• Each server can store up to 100 images or 200 MB, and each Discord account up to 300 MB across every server it uploads to, or 40 MB for an account less than 30 days old. Past that, the upload says "You have used up your image storage across your servers (300 MB)." (or 40 MB for a new account). Sortr's storage for all servers together has a limit too: "Sortr's image storage is full right now. Try again later or remove unused images." When it is nearly full, an account or a server that already keeps a lot of images can't add more for now: "Sortr's image storage is nearly full, so accounts and servers that already keep a lot of images can't add more for now. Take images you no longer need out of your panels, or try again later."
• An image removed after a report can't be uploaded again, in any server: "This image was removed from Sortr after a report, so it can't be used again."
• One message can carry up to 10 uploaded images, 25 MB together. A save past either is refused, for example "Panel message: its uploaded images add up to 31 MB, and one message can carry 25 MB."
• A refusal reply, such as "You can't open this kind of ticket", and the close confirmation attach no files, so they answer at once. Their uploaded images still show, loaded from their link on Sortr's site.
• An image no panel in its own server uses any more is deleted automatically, at the earliest three days after it was uploaded, which frees the space. A panel in another server that names it does not keep it.
• Copy to other servers copies a panel's images into the server it lands in, so the copy keeps its pictures. They count towards your 300 MB.
• Sortr attaches the file to the message itself, so the picture keeps working without depending on a link.

An image slot only ever holds one of your uploads, a variable such as {user.avatar}, or an address starting with https://. The preview shows uploads and pictures from Discord straight away. An image from any other site, which can only be there if it was saved some other way, shows as "External image:" and the site's name, with a Load button. Nothing is fetched from that site until you press it, and then only until you close the page.

#What the dashboard blocks before you save

Save changes is blocked while the panel holds something Discord would refuse, or something Sortr would have to swap or drop. The save bar names the first problem and the section it is in, such as "Opening message · The opening message is empty. Discord refuses a message with no text and no embed.", with "and 2 more" when there are others. It shows on every screen of the panel, not only the one with the problem. Save & update, Save & send and Save and open refuse for the same reasons.

The other limits in the table of embed limits cannot be broken in the first place, since each box stops at its own limit and Add embed stops at the last embed. See Limits reference for every limit in one place.