--- url: https://docs.lfghub.gg/features/network.md description: >- Connect your Discord server to the LFG Network to share one matchmaking pool with other servers playing the same game, without their posts in your channel. --- # LFG Network ::: warning Alpha The cross-server LFG Network is an evolving feature. Behavior and availability may change. ::: The **LFG Network** lets connected servers share one matchmaking pool. Instead of only matching players within your server, a connected server can draw on — and contribute to — the activity of every other connected server running the same game. ::: tip Nothing from other servers is posted in your channel Connecting does **not** put other servers' groups into your LFG channel. Your channel only ever shows your own server's posts. Network matches reach players as **direct messages**, and only when a player has shown they are looking: * they pressed 🙋‍♂️ **Open to Join**, or * they launched the game, if you have **DM Recommendations** switched on. So the Network adds players to your groups without adding noise to your channel. ::: ## How it works When your server is connected: * Your searching groups are offered to relevant players on other connected servers, by DM. * Players from your server are offered relevant groups from those servers, the same way. * Every recommendation names the **source server**, so nobody is surprised by where a group lives. * A compatibility filter means a player only hears about groups their server and filters can actually serve (matching game and options). ## Why connect * **Smaller servers fill groups faster** by tapping the whole network's player pool. * **Connected servers gain exposure** and can attract new members who discover them through network recommendations. ## Getting your server recommended Whether your server gets surfaced to players on the network — and whether the *right* players find you — comes down to **how specifically you configure your games**. The network matches on the options you set: platforms, regions, modes, languages, and group sizes. * A **precise** setup ("Ranked, EU, Trio, mic required") gets matched to players looking for exactly that, and your server is recommended to people who'll actually stick around. * A **vague** setup matches loosely, brings in mismatched players, and surfaces your server less usefully. So the best thing you can do to grow through the network is to fill in as many relevant filters as possible when you run [`/setup-lfg-channel`](/guide/configuration). ## How players arrive Players who are not in your server reach your groups two ways, and both are the LFG Network: * **On [lfghub.gg](https://lfghub.gg/network)**, browsing live groups and pressing Join. * **In Discord**, from a recommendation the bot sent them directly — on game launch, or after they marked themselves 🙋‍♂️ Open to Join. Either way, the bot brings them to you rather than handing them a link and hoping. What that takes depends on your server. ### Servers anyone can join The bot creates an invite to your LFG channel and the player uses it. Nothing else happens. ### Servers that ask new members to apply If your server uses Discord's membership screening or manual approval, a player **who is not in your server yet** can press Join on one of your groups and be let in **without that approval**. Nobody reviews them. **Your onboarding questions are still asked.** Discord's server onboarding — the questions that let a new member pick channels and roles — runs for them exactly as it does for anyone else. Only the approval gate is bypassed, so anything you assign through onboarding still applies. The rest, in short: * It only applies to groups on the LFG Network. Turn the Network off and every arrival goes through your approval as usual. * It only applies to players who have **signed in with Discord and approved it**. We cannot add anyone who has not. * Mechanically, the bot grants a `Joined via LFG Hub` role that carries **no permissions**, which is what clears Discord's pending flag, and then **removes it again**. The role stays in your role list, empty, so the next arrival reuses it instead of creating a second one. The trade is deliberate: an application form is a wall a player hits at 9pm when they want to play, and most of them leave rather than fill it in. If you would rather review everyone, disconnect from the Network in [`/setup-lfg-channel`'s Server Settings step](/guide/configuration#step-4-server-settings). ### What the bot does not do **It does not give arrivals any of your own roles.** The bot grants nothing beyond the temporary role above. Usually that is fine, because Discord's onboarding still runs and is where most servers hand out the roles that open their channels. Where it is *not* fine is a server that gates its channels behind something onboarding does not cover — a verification bot, a reaction-role message, a manual grant by a moderator. A player brought in by the Network will land in your server and not be able to see the group they came for. The bot tells them what is in the way; it will not hand out your roles to fix it. ## Seeing who arrived Every arrival is posted to your reports channel, naming how they got there — from another server, from a recommendation, or from the website. Nobody is pinged. ## Turning it on or off The LFG Network has three levels, set in [`/setup-lfg-channel`'s Server Settings step](/guide/configuration#step-4-server-settings): | Level | Your server in the lfghub.gg server list | Your groups on the network | |---|---|---| | **Server and groups** | Listed | Every group, unless its owner hides it | | **Groups can opt in** (default) | Not listed | Only groups whose owner turns on **Show in LFG Network** | | **Off** | Not listed | None | * New servers start at **Groups can opt in**, except servers that make people apply to join, which start **Off**: a group on the network lets outside players in without your approval, so that is yours to turn on. * At **Groups can opt in**, nothing about the network shows on a group until its owner turns it on, and your LFG guide says "Groups can opt in to LFG Network". * A group owner turns it on with **Show in LFG Network** in the control panel's Group Moderation menu, and off again with **Hide Group from LFG Network**. * At **Groups can opt in**, a member who is 🙋‍♂️ Open to Join hears only about your own server's groups, until they press **Find groups in LFG Network** on the DM that starts their Open to Join, or show a group of their own on the network. It is one choice per player: finding groups there also shows the groups they start. **Hide from LFG Network** on the same DM undoes both, and so does muting every server they're not in from a recommendation. * An owner's choice carries to their next groups: someone who showed a group starts the next one shown, and someone who hid one starts it hidden, at either level. * At **Server and groups**, a group is on the network from the start, and a hidden one shows a **Hidden from LFG Network** line on its panel. ## Related * [LFG & groups →](/features/lfg) * [Configuration →](/guide/configuration)