diff --git a/backend/internal/web/discord.go b/backend/internal/web/discord.go
index 930c72c..f25ab4c 100644
--- a/backend/internal/web/discord.go
+++ b/backend/internal/web/discord.go
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ func (h *Handler) discordCallback(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {
 		return
 	}
 
-	member, isMember, err := h.discordMember(r.Context(), tok.AccessToken, userID)
+	member, isMember, err := h.discordMember(r.Context(), tok.AccessToken)
 	if err != nil {
 		h.limiter.Fail(ip, time.Now())
 		log.Printf("discord member check: %v", err)
@@ -272,13 +272,20 @@ type discordMember struct {
 	Roles []string `json:"roles"`
 }
 
-// discordMember fetches the user's membership in the configured guild — the
-// single-guild endpoint, not the list of every guild the user is in, so the
-// gate asks exactly the question it names. A 404 or 403 (not in the guild, or
-// the token lacks the scope) is a non-member, not an error.
-func (h *Handler) discordMember(ctx context.Context, accessToken, userID string) (discordMember, bool, error) {
-	u := h.discord.APIBase + "/guilds/" + url.PathEscape(h.discord.GuildID) +
-		"/members/" + url.PathEscape(userID)
+// discordMember fetches the current user's membership in the configured guild.
+//
+// This is the OAuth endpoint (Get Current User Guild Member), the one the
+// guilds.members.read scope grants. Its bot-side twin, GET /guilds/{id}/
+// members/{user}, reads almost identically and is the wrong one: it wants a
+// Bot token and the application present in the guild, and answers a user
+// Bearer token with 401 — which fails as an outage rather than a refusal, so
+// nobody could sign in at all.
+//
+// A 404 or 403 (not in the guild, or the token lacks the scope) is a
+// non-member, not an error.
+func (h *Handler) discordMember(ctx context.Context, accessToken string) (discordMember, bool, error) {
+	u := h.discord.APIBase + "/users/@me/guilds/" +
+		url.PathEscape(h.discord.GuildID) + "/member"
 	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, u, nil)
 	if err != nil {
 		return discordMember{}, false, err
diff --git a/backend/web_test.go b/backend/web_test.go
index 8240c48..336208b 100644
--- a/backend/web_test.go
+++ b/backend/web_test.go
@@ -103,7 +103,13 @@ func newDiscordStub(t *testing.T) (*discordStub, *httptest.Server) {
 			if status == http.StatusOK {
 				fmt.Fprintf(w, `{"id":%q,"username":"owner"}`, st.ownerID)
 			}
+		// Discord answers the bot endpoint with 401 for a user Bearer token.
+		// Standing in for that keeps a regression onto it loud: without this
+		// the request would fall through to 404 and read as "not a member",
+		// which is a refusal the caller treats as ordinary.
 		case strings.HasPrefix(r.URL.Path, "/guilds/"):
+			w.WriteHeader(http.StatusUnauthorized)
+		case strings.HasPrefix(r.URL.Path, "/users/@me/guilds/"):
 			st.memberPaths = append(st.memberPaths, r.URL.Path)
 			st.memberAuth = append(st.memberAuth, r.Header.Get("Authorization"))
 			status := st.memberStatus
@@ -299,12 +305,13 @@ func TestDiscordLoginFullFlow(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 
 	// Identity and membership were fetched with the exchanged token, and the
-	// membership check used the single-guild endpoint.
+	// membership check used the OAuth single-guild endpoint — the one
+	// guilds.members.read grants, not its bot-token twin.
 	if len(stub.userAuth) != 1 || stub.userAuth[0] != "Bearer tok-1" {
 		t.Fatalf("users/@me Authorization = %v, want [Bearer tok-1]", stub.userAuth)
 	}
-	if len(stub.memberPaths) != 1 || stub.memberPaths[0] != "/guilds/guild-1/members/owner-snowflake" {
-		t.Fatalf("member requests = %v, want the single-guild endpoint", stub.memberPaths)
+	if len(stub.memberPaths) != 1 || stub.memberPaths[0] != "/users/@me/guilds/guild-1/member" {
+		t.Fatalf("member requests = %v, want the OAuth single-guild endpoint", stub.memberPaths)
 	}
 	if len(stub.memberAuth) != 1 || stub.memberAuth[0] != "Bearer tok-1" {
 		t.Fatalf("member Authorization = %v, want [Bearer tok-1]", stub.memberAuth)