Beacon Events

Events (called Beacon Events on the dashboard) posts an event card with sign-up buttons, keeps the roster up to date, reminds the people who signed up, and records who turned up. This is the shortest path from an empty server to a finished event.

1. Switch Events on. Open the dashboard, pick the server, then Services, and flip the switch next to Beacon Events. Changing services needs the manager access level. Until Events is on, its commands reply "Beacon is not enabled for this server."

2. Run the setup wizard. Open Beacon Events from the service list. Until an announcement channel exists it opens the Setup Wizard. Press Run Auto-Setup (Manage Server needed). The wizard creates #beacon-events, a channel everyone can read but only the bot can post in, creates a private #event-logs channel, saves both, and posts a "Beacon Events is Live!" message in #beacon-events. If a channel with one of those names already exists and the bot can see it, the wizard reuses it. Nothing is written to #event-logs today; the announcement channel is the one that matters.

3. Check the settings. Back on the Beacon Events page, open the Settings card. Announcement Channel ID is where every event card, reminder, waitlist notice and completion recap goes; paste a different channel's ID to move them. Reminder (minutes before event) sets the default reminder for new events, 30 minutes unless you change it. Timezone is "Follow server timezone" by default, which means the Server Timezone card on the Bot page decides how a time typed without a zone is read; pick a zone here only if Events should differ from the rest of the bot. The Default Roles field is saved but is not applied to new events, so skip it: roles are set on each event in the next step.

4. Create the event. Two ways:

   • In Discord, run /beacon create. The form asks for a name, an optional description, the start time as YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM (add a zone such as PST or America/New_York if it is not the server timezone), an optional participant cap, and optional roles as Tank:2, Healer:4, DPS:14, Flex. Submitting needs the Create/Edit Events feature and a free slot under the server's active-event limit.
   • On the dashboard, open Beacon Events and press + New Event. The Create Event editor takes the same basics (times are in the server timezone) plus a category, roles with class and spec choices, several reminders (channel or DM), recurrence, a sign-up deadline, a minimum head count and an automatic voice room. Saving posts the card at once and confirms "Event created and posted to Discord!", or tells you to set an announcement channel first.

   Either way the card lands in the announcement channel with the buttons ✅ Sign Up, 🚪 Leave and ⚙️ Options, and Discord shows the start time to each member in their own local time.

5. Members sign up. Pressing Sign Up signs a member up straight away, or opens a "Choose your role..." dropdown when the event has roles (with a second dropdown for class or spec when those exist). The card updates within a couple of seconds and lists names under each role with the count against its cap. When the event or a role is full, new sign-ups go on a waitlist ("⏳ This event is full! You've been added to the waitlist"). Leave removes a sign-up and moves the longest-waiting member up, with a DM to them and a notice in the channel. Options lets a member mark themselves 🤔 Tentative, 🕐 Late, 💺 Bench or ❌ Absent.

6. Reminders go out on their own. The bot checks once a minute. At the reminder time it posts in the announcement channel: "⏰ Title starts in 30 minutes!" followed by "Heads up:" and a mention of every member signed up as attending, tentative or late. Reminders added as DM in the dashboard editor are sent to each of those members privately; a member whose DMs are closed is skipped. No reminder is sent when nobody has signed up, and none while the event is closed or cancelled.

7. Change course if you need to. /beacon close freezes the roster and removes the buttons; the event stays closed after its start time, so reopen it with /beacon open before then if you still want reminders and attendance tracking. /beacon cancel, or Cancel Event on the event's dashboard page, marks the card "🔴 [CANCELLED]" and removes the buttons. Only the organizer or a member with Manage Server can do any of these. /beacon clone copies an event to a new date, roles and reminders included.

8. The event runs and closes itself. A few minutes after the start time the bot marks an open event complete: the card's title becomes "✅ [COMPLETED]", the buttons go, and the announcement channel gets "✅ Title is complete! N attended. Thanks for joining!" Attendance is credited at the same time: attending members count as attended, late ones as half, and for an event with an automatic voice room anyone who never joined it counts as a no-show. A recurring event posts its next occurrence right then.

9. Export or review attendance. Run /beacon export event_id for a private CSV of every sign-up (Discord user ID, role, spec, status, waitlisted, sign-up time), or use Export CSV on the event's dashboard page. /beacon rep shows one member's score, streak and badges, and the Reputation page on the dashboard shows the leaderboard.