Salvaged and rebuilt the official Discord community for Kane Pixels, A24's breakout creator and director of The Backrooms — stabilizing a 34,000-member community in crisis through structural rebuilds, moderation reform, and staff training.
Kane Pixels is the creator and director of The Backrooms, the viral found-footage horror series acquired by A24. His official Discord had grown to over 34,000 members but had fallen into disarray — rampant drama, out-of-hand conversations, and a moderation structure that wasn't keeping pace with the community's scale.
I was brought in around 2023 to work alongside his community manager to stabilize the server. The engagement was equal parts crisis management and infrastructure rebuild: calming active community fires while simultaneously designing the systems that would prevent them from reigniting.
The Challenge
The community had grown faster than the infrastructure and culture could support. Drama was endemic, conversations were consistently going off the rails, and the moderation team lacked the policies and confidence to intervene effectively.
The Approach
Crisis stabilization first — addressing the most acute community tensions before rebuilding. Then infrastructure: restructuring the Discord to create natural guardrails. Finally, staff enablement: giving the team frameworks to operate without constant intervention.
The Solution
Full Discord rebuild paired with a moderation policy framework and hands-on staff training. The structural changes reduced friction and the policy layer gave the team clarity on how to handle situations consistently.
The Results
34,000-member community stabilized. Discord infrastructure rebuilt. Staff equipped with formal moderation guidelines and procedures.