Suggestions App

Collect ideas and feedback on boards, let people vote, and see what your community wants most.

note

You can install and manage Root's own Apps on desktop or mobile. Apps from other developers, and Bots, are installed from Root on desktop. Once installed into a community, Apps and Bots can be used on Root desktop and mobile.

What is Suggestions?

Suggestions is a community app for collecting and prioritizing feedback. Suggestions are organized into boards, so communities can separate feedback by topic or area. Members submit ideas, upvote the ones they care about, and discuss them in comment threads. Suggestion managers review submissions, track their progress through statuses, and can merge duplicates so votes stay consolidated. The result is a clear, ranked list of what the community wants most.

Suggestions uses your language if it is English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Indonesian, or Dutch. Otherwise it uses English. Your notifications use the same language.

How it works

A suggestion is an idea submitted by a community member. Each suggestion has a title, an optional description, and moves through a series of statuses as managers review and act on it. Members vote on suggestions to signal interest, and the list can be sorted to surface the most popular or newest ideas.

Boards

A board is a container that groups suggestions by topic or area. When you open Suggestions, the landing page shows all boards in the community. Select a board to view and interact with its suggestions.

Search all boards

To find a suggestion without opening each board, type in the Search all boards box on the landing page. Search matches titles and descriptions on every board. Each result shows the board it's on, and you can vote right from the results. Select a result to open it on its board. When you go back, your search is still there.

If nothing matches, try other words. If no one has suggested it yet, open a board to post your idea.

Managers can create as many boards as needed and drag them to reorder them on the landing page. Each board has a title, an optional image, and an optional description. Managers can also set a boards description: a piece of text shown above the board cards on the landing page, which supports Markdown formatting. A manager can freeze a board to pause new suggestions while its existing ones stay open for voting and comments.

Suggestion statuses

Every suggestion has a status that tracks where it is in its lifecycle. Managers change statuses manually; there are no automatic transitions.

Status	Meaning
Pending Review	Just submitted. Only visible to the creator and managers.
Under Consideration	Being evaluated by the team.
Planned	Approved for implementation.
In Progress	Currently being worked on.
Completed	Successfully implemented.
Declined	Not moving forward. Only visible to the creator and managers.

New suggestions start as Pending Review. Managers move them to Under Consideration (or any other status) after reviewing.

Voting

Each member can cast one vote per suggestion. Voting is a toggle: select the vote button to upvote, select it again to remove your vote. You can't vote on suggestions that are still in Pending Review.

Sorting and filtering

The suggestions list can be sorted four ways:

Sort	Description
Top	Most votes first
New	Most recent first
Oldest	Least recent first
Trending	Combines vote count with recency

You can also search and filter the list. Use the search box to find suggestions by title or description. In the status filter you can tick one or more statuses (select All Statuses to clear them), and it includes an Only mine option that shows just the suggestions you created. Managers also see a Show merged toggle to include suggestions that have been merged into others.

Pinning

Managers can pin a suggestion to keep it at the top of the list regardless of sort order. This is useful for highlighting important ideas or announcements.

Merging

When two suggestions cover the same idea, a manager can merge one into the other. All votes, comments and images from the source suggestion move to the target. Each moved comment shows From merged suggestion: and the title of the suggestion it came from. The source suggestion is marked as merged. On a suggestion's page, you can't merge a suggestion that is already Completed or Declined, but Triage can. Merging cannot be undone. To merge several suggestions into one at once, use Triage.

Comments

Every suggestion has a comment section where members can discuss the idea, shown oldest first. You can reply to a comment, but you can't reply to a reply. Members can like comments, and edit or delete their own. Comments left by suggestion managers show an Admin badge, and managers can edit or delete any comment. An edited comment is marked (edited), or (edited by a moderator) when a manager edits someone else's.

Roles and permissions

Suggestions uses three permission groups configured by community owners. Each tier includes the permissions of the tiers below it.

Role	Description
Suggestion Managers	Users and roles with full access: change statuses, merge, pin, delete, and manage all suggestions. Also includes Creator and Voter permissions.
Suggestion Creators	Users and roles who can create new suggestions. Also includes Voter permissions.
Suggestion Voters	Users and roles who can upvote suggestions and comment.

What managers can do

• Create, edit, and delete boards
• Review pending suggestions and change their status
• Accept pending suggestions (moves to Under Consideration) or decline them
• Merge duplicate suggestions
• Move suggestions to another board
• Triage suggestions from every board at once: change the status of, move, merge, or decline up to 50 together
• Freeze and unfreeze boards
• Pin and unpin suggestions
• Edit and delete any suggestion
• Create suggestions, vote, comment, and like comments

What creators can do

• Create new suggestions
• Edit and delete their own suggestions
• Vote on suggestions, comment, and like comments

What voters can do

• Upvote and remove votes on suggestions
• Comment on and reply to suggestions
• Like comments

Create a suggestion

Creators and managers can submit new suggestions.

tip

Not sure if your idea is new? Search all boards from the landing page first, and vote for it if it's already there.

1. Open a board from the boards list.
2. Select the New Suggestion icon .
3. Enter a Title for your idea. As you type, any existing suggestions that look like the same idea show under Already suggested? (up to five). Suggestions from every board are checked. If one covers your idea, select Upvote this instead, or select View to open it. If you've only typed a title, Upvote this instead also opens that suggestion; if you've added a description or images, it keeps your draft. Completed and Declined suggestions only have View.
4. Optionally add a Description with more details.
5. Optionally attach up to 5 images.
6. Select Submit Suggestion.

The suggestion starts in Pending Review status. It is only visible to you and suggestion managers until a manager changes its status.

Vote on a suggestion

Voters, creators, and managers can upvote suggestions that are past the Pending Review stage.

1. Open the suggestions list or a suggestion's detail page.
2. Select the vote button (△) to upvote. It fills in (▲) once you've voted.

To remove your vote, select the vote button again. Each member can cast one vote per suggestion.

Edit a suggestion

Creators can edit their own suggestions. Managers can edit any suggestion.

1. Open the suggestion, select the More options menu , then select Edit.
2. Update the Title, Description, or Attachments.
3. Select Save Changes.

Change a suggestion's status

Managers can update the status of any suggestion to track its progress.

1. Open the suggestion, select the More options menu , then select Change Status.
2. Select the new status from the available options.
3. Select Update Status.

From the suggestions list, managers can also use quick actions on pending suggestions:

• Select the Accept icon to move a suggestion to Under Consideration.
• Select the Decline icon to mark it as Declined.

Merge suggestions

Managers can merge duplicate suggestions to consolidate votes.

1. Open the suggestion, select the More options menu , then select Merge.
2. Search for the target suggestion you want to merge into.
3. Select the target suggestion from the results.
4. Select Merge Suggestions.

All votes, comments and images move from the source to the target suggestion. The source is marked as merged. This action cannot be undone.

Move a suggestion to another board

Managers can move a suggestion to a different board, for example when it was posted in the wrong place.

1. On the suggestion card, select the Move to another board icon.
2. Under Choose a board, select the board you want to move it to.
3. Select Move Suggestion.

The suggestion's votes, comments, and status all move with it.

Triage suggestions in bulk

Managers can work through suggestions from every board on one screen and act on up to 50 at a time.

1. On the Suggestion Boards page, select Triage.
2. Use the search box, the status filter, and the sort to find the suggestions you want.
3. Select the checkbox next to each suggestion, or select Select all shown.
4. Choose an action:
   • Status: pick the new status, then select Update Status.
   • Move: under Choose a board, select a board, then select Move Suggestions.
   • Merge (needs two or more): choose the Suggestion to keep, then select the merge button (for example Merge 3 into 1).
   • Decline: select Decline again to confirm. Declined suggestions are hidden from everyone except their authors and managers, and each author is notified.

When you merge, the other suggestions are marked as merged into the one you keep, and their votes, comments and images move to it. A merge cannot be undone. A merge can take a suggestion over the limit of 100 comments; after that, no new comments can be added to it.

Find likely duplicates

1. In Triage, select Group by likely duplicate. Suggestions with similar titles that haven't been merged are shown in groups, including Completed and Declined ones.
2. In each group, the one marked Suggested to keep comes first. That's a suggestion in Under Consideration (shown as Reviewing in Triage) if there is one, otherwise the one with the most votes (or the oldest, if votes are equal).
3. Every suggestion in a group is ticked to start. Untick any that don't belong.
4. Select Merge selected. You need at least two ticked. The merge opens with the suggested one already chosen, and you can pick a different one to keep.
5. Select the merge button (for example Merge 2 into 1).

To leave a group for now, select Skip. It comes back the next time you open Triage, or select Show again.

To go back to the full list, select Group by likely duplicate again.

tip

Triage lists every board in one place, so it's the quickest way to review a backlog of Pending Review suggestions.

Delete a suggestion

Managers can delete any suggestion. Creators can delete their own.

1. Open the suggestion, select the More options menu , then select Delete.
2. Confirm the deletion.

Deleting a suggestion removes it along with all its votes and comments. This action cannot be undone.

Manage boards

Managers can create, edit, and delete boards. Select the New Board icon from the boards list to create one, or use the More options menu on an existing board to edit, freeze or delete it. Each board has a title (up to 100 characters), an optional image, and an optional description (up to 200 characters). Drag a board to reorder it. To add text above the board cards, set the boards description (up to 500 characters), which supports Markdown formatting.

Deleting a board also deletes all suggestions, votes, and comments within it. This action cannot be undone.

Freeze a board

Managers can freeze a board to pause new suggestions while keeping the existing ones open.

1. Open the board's options menu (three dots).
2. Select Freeze board.
3. In Freeze this board?, select Freeze Board to confirm.

While a board is frozen, members can't post new suggestions to it, but existing suggestions stay visible and voting and comments carry on as normal. The board shows a Frozen badge, and anyone who opens it sees a notice that new suggestions are paused.

To reopen the board, select Unfreeze board from the same menu. Unfreezing takes effect right away.

Notifications

Suggestions sends you a notification when:

• Someone comments on your suggestion.
• Someone replies to your comment.
• A manager changes the status of your suggestion.

You don't get notified about your own actions.

Limits

Item	Limit
Board title length	100 characters
Board description length	200 characters
Boards page description length	500 characters
Suggestion title length	200 characters
Suggestion description length	5,000 characters
Images per suggestion	5
Comment length	2,000 characters
Comments per suggestion	100