A Discord message that auto-updates itself — member count, boosts, date and time

A pinned welcome post that says "We just passed 4,000 members!" is wrong the day after you write it. So is a hardcoded boost goal, a date, or a "last updated" line. Editing it by hand is the kind of chore that gets skipped, and skipped numbers make a server look abandoned.

Billboard Bot fixes this with variables. A billboard is one bot-owned message that the bot edits in place on a set interval. Inside that message you drop placeholders like {server.membercount}, and on every rotation the bot replaces them with the live value pulled fresh from Discord. The message updates itself. You never touch it again.

Write your frame text the way you'd write any message, but type a variable where a number should go. Each rotation the bot renders the frame and substitutes the current value, then edits the existing message — it does not post a new one.

Because rendering happens every cycle, the displayed value is never older than your interval. Set a 10-minute interval and your member count is at most 10 minutes behind reality. Variables also work inside rich embeds and across multiple frames, so a single billboard can rotate through "members", "boost goal", and "server info" cards that each stay current on their own.

Free variables cover the basics: {server.name}, {date}, and {time}. Useful for "Welcome to {server.name}" headers and "Last refreshed {time}" lines that prove the post is alive.

The self-updating stats people actually come here for are Pro: {server.membercount} (live member total) and {server.boosts} (current boost count). A frame like the one below renders as "We just hit 4,217 members!" today and updates itself as the server grows — no edit from you.

The full, current list lives on the FAQ; these are the variables that exist today, not a roadmap.

Put a stats frame in your welcome or community-info channel and let it climb. The text reads "We just hit {server.membercount} members — thanks for being here!" and every rotation re-renders the real number. New arrivals see an accurate, current count instead of a figure from three months ago.

Pair it with {server.boosts} for a boost goal — "Boosts: {server.boosts} / next perk at the next tier" — and the same message doubles as a quiet nudge. Both numbers update without anyone in your staff team lifting a finger, and because it's one edited-in-place message, there's no notification spam each time the count changes.

First, write the message you want to auto-update — in any channel, as a normal post — using the variables above. Note its message ID (Developer Mode → right-click → Copy Message ID). Then create the billboard, snapshot that message as a frame, and activate it.

The frames add step copies the message content and embeds into the billboard as an ordered frame; the variables inside it are re-rendered live on every rotation, so you snapshot the template once and the values stay current forever. Prefer clicking to typing? The dashboard tutorial walks through the same flow with a visual editor and a live preview.

Updating a number does not mean posting a number. Each rotation the bot edits the same existing message, so the count ticking from 4,216 to 4,217 produces zero notifications — no @mentions, no unread badge, no new line in the channel. It's the same edited-in-place model that makes a Discord announcement bot that doesn't spam work.

If you want the stats message to stay visible under active chat, the create/edit commands take a pin:true option. That's sticky behaviour — the bot re-sends the billboard so it stays the last message in the channel. It is not Discord's native pinned-messages list; nothing lands in the pin header. It just keeps your live count at the bottom where people are looking.

The free plan is genuinely free and never adds forced branding: one active billboard per server, up to five saved, five frames each, a 60-second minimum interval, and the basic variables ({server.name}, {date}, {time}).

The two variables this page is about — {server.membercount} and {server.boosts} — are Pro, along with a 10-second minimum interval, more billboards and frames, and schedule windows. Pro is $4.99/mo or $49/yr per server (€4.99 / €49). You don't have to pay to try it: a top.gg vote grants 12 hours of Pro for a server you choose (24h on weekends, stackable up to 72h), and discordbotlist votes grant Pro too — enough to set up a live member-count message and watch it work before deciding. Full limits are in pricing.

Billboard Bot runs least-privilege — no Administrator, no privileged intents for normal use — and the permissions it does need (View Channel, Send Messages, Embed Links, Attach Files, Read Message History, Manage Messages, Pin Messages) can be scoped to a single channel.

Add Billboard Bot to your server, drop {server.membercount} into a welcome message, and run the three commands above. Every variable the bot supports today is listed on the FAQ.