📌 Note: Memberships are available as add-ons. For more information on adding new features please see the add-ons page in your nation.
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Create a suggestion box page
From the Website tab click + New page.
1. Enter the page name and slug.
📌 Note: We display the eight most used page types for your nation based on your settings and add-ons. To see all available pages simply click on 'Show all page types'.
2. Select the Suggestion box page type.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and decide whether to include the page in the top nav or supporter nav of your site.
4. Click Create Page.
Suggestion box settings
Your suggestion box page is very similar to a user-submitted blog. It will hold a number of suggestions that your community can respond to or comment on. As a control panel user, you can also add an official response.
Set up your suggestion box settings under Box settings > Basics.
1. Enter the number of suggestions to show per page.
2. Ask your supporter to upload a picture by checking the “Ask for picture” checkbox. Make this a required field by checking the “Require picture” checkbox. Please note that photos will not be visible on the suggestion box page. All viewers will have to click into individual suggestion page to see the picture.
3. As with any action page, you can add a person to a path and add tags to any person who makes a suggestion. You may also assign a point person to the supporter, if a point person does not already exist for that person’s profile. You can also assign a membership type to any person who makes a suggestion. These tools will allow you to keep track of your supporters and promote engagement down the line.
4. Click Save settings.
Your suggestions
When visitors go to your Suggestion box page, they will be prompted to leave a response.
When a visitor clicks the Add your suggestion prompt, a text box will appear. If you chose to ask for a picture, they will also see an uploader.
If the suggestion-maker is not logged in to your website, they will see an option to log in. Any content in the suggestion text box will not be saved if the suggestion-maker is not already logged in.
To review all your incoming suggestions go to Suggestion settings > Recent suggestions.
Hover over/click Edit to edit any suggestion or leave an official response. Click on the arrow to delete a suggestion.
You may also leave a suggestion from the control panel by visiting Suggestion settings > New suggestion.
Leave an official response
Suggestion boxes allow control panel users to leave official responses. This is an excellent way to acknowledge and respond to the pressing questions in your community. It allows a transparent dialogue between your community and your organization.
Suggestion boxes are populated with suggestion pages. You can leave an official response on any suggestion page:
Go to Suggestion settings > Recent suggestions. Hover over/click Edit next to the suggestion you want to respond to.
In the Suggestion page go to Suggestion settings > Content.
1. Select a response from the Official response dropdown.
2. Add more detail to your response by entering text in the content editor.
3. Click Save Content.
The control panel user who saved the response will be listed as author. If you want to change the author enter in the name, email, or twitter handle in the dropdown. Change the publication date of the response in the text box and click Save content.
You will be able to see the headline, content, and official response on the website.
Voting on suggestions
As you crowd source community issues or questions, you will want a way to organize and prioritize the incoming responses. You can use labels to sort and crowdsource useful answers by asking your supporters to vote.
📌 Note: Comments will need to be enabled under "Website settings" in order for this feature to be visible on a given site.
These labels are completely separate from page tags. Page tags are added within the control panel on any page of your website, whereas suggestion labels are available publicly for the public to add to a suggestion. A maximum of nine labels can be created.
The five default labels your supporters can use to vote include:
Good
Bad
Important
Easy
Impractical
To change these default labels go to your Suggestion box page > Box settings > Content. Enter a new label into the “Ask people to tag suggestions in this box with” text box.
Separate multiple labels with commas. Click Save content.
When a supporter views an individual suggestion on your website, she can tag it by selecting checkboxes on the suggestion page and clicking Post Your Reaction.
Sort your suggestions
All labels will be available at the top of your Suggestion box page.
Use the labels to sort your responses. Click on the label to pull up all suggestions that have been tagged with that label.
Suggestions are sorted by the number of times they have been tagged with a label, and then by the most recently tagged.
You can also view suggestions using the “Alphabetical” or “Most recent” sorting options.
📌 Note: Page tags will not be included in the list of suggestion labels. When you add page tags to a suggestion, they appear at the bottom of the page and can be used as a way to sort all pages on your website, not just the suggestions within a suggestion box.