Suggestions¶
Ideas that get a status, votes that count, and a reply.
Module: suggestions (off unless switched on)
Why this exists¶
A suggestions channel gets you a few thumbs-up and then silence. Nobody can find out what happened to their idea, nobody can tell what people actually want, and four posts of the same idea stay four posts.
This fixes those three things, and the third one — telling the person what happened — is the one that decides whether people keep using it.
Posting a suggestion¶
A box opens for the detail. Fill it in, submit.
You get a forum post with your own words in it, and the bot adds a card underneath with the number, the status, and the vote buttons.
The bot never overwrites your post
The card is a separate message. What you wrote stays exactly as you wrote it.
If your server has more than one board, add board: and pick one. With only one
board you can leave it out.
You can also just make a post in the forum yourself. The bot picks it up and adds a card the same way.
Voting¶
Two buttons on the card.
- Press ⬆️ to support it.
- Press ⬇️ if the board allows downvotes.
- Press the same one again to take your vote back. Handy if you misclicked.
- Changing your mind replaces your vote. You never get counted twice.
Your current vote shows green, so you can see how you voted without clicking to find out.
Seeing what's popular¶
The ten highest-scoring open suggestions.
Finished and declined ones don't appear. A list topped by something built six months ago has stopped answering the question.
Statuses¶
Every suggestion has one, from the moment it's posted:
| Status | Means |
|---|---|
| Open | Nobody's looked yet |
| Under review | Being considered |
| Planned | Going to happen |
| Done | Happened |
| Declined | Not happening |
Staff move it with /suggestadmin status. The person who suggested it gets a
DM when it moves. That's the whole point.
Names are editable — call it "Shipped" instead of "Done" if you like. The bot tracks what it means separately from what it's called.
Categories¶
Separate from statuses, and they're a different kind of thing:
- A status is where it is in its life. One at a time.
- A category is what it's about. As many as you like.
They're kept apart on purpose. If they were the same thing, marking a bug report "Declined" would erase the fact it was a bug.
For staff¶
/suggestadmin board create key: ideas name: Product ideas forum: #suggestions
/suggestadmin board list
/suggestadmin status board: ideas number: 14 status: planned
/suggestadmin tag add board: ideas kind: category key: ui label: UI
/suggestadmin tag sync board: ideas
/suggestadmin board repair board: ideas
tag sync copies your statuses and categories onto the forum as real Discord
tags, so people can filter by them.
board repair recounts every vote from scratch and redraws every card. Safe to
run any time — it can only correct numbers, never lose votes.
Bringing an old channel in¶
If you already have a suggestions channel, you don't start empty:
That's a dry run. It reads the channel, tells you what it would create, and changes nothing.
Happy with it? Run it again with apply: True.
- The old channel is never touched.
- Running it twice doesn't duplicate anything — it skips what it already did.
- 👍 and 👎 style reactions become the starting vote counts. Other reactions are ignored, because a 🎉 is applause, not a vote.
It's not working¶
"No suggestion board is set up here."
: A staff member needs to run /suggestadmin board create.
"This server has several boards — pick one with board:."
: Exactly what it says. The bot won't guess which board your idea belongs on.
"That board has no forum channel attached yet."
: /suggestadmin board forum to point it at one.
The vote number on the card didn't change
: It updates a second or two after you vote. Your vote was counted the moment you
pressed the button — the ephemeral reply confirms the new total straight away.
If a card is still wrong later, /suggestadmin board repair.
"Downvotes are off on this board."
: A staff choice. /suggestadmin board downvotes changes it.
"This suggestion has been decided — voting is closed." : It's marked Done or Declined. Nothing to vote on.
Moderated boards don't actually stop posts
: Correct, and the bot warns you when you make one. Discord gives a bot no way
to hold back a post somebody has permission to make. To really gate posts,
remove "Create Posts" from members on the forum and let them use /suggest.
"Could not DM the author" : Their DMs are closed. The status still changed — a failed message never undoes a decision.