> From the BotGhost docs: https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/community/ideas > Every page: https://botghost.com/docs/llms.txt # Ideas A public board on your website where people post ideas for your bot, vote for the ones they want, and see what you plan to build. The **Ideas** page on your website is a board where people post ideas for your bot and vote for the ones they want most. You give each idea a status, like **Planned** or **Done**, from **BotPanel > Inbox > Ideas**, and people see it on the board. Ideas comes with BotPanel Plus and needs sign in set up. See [Plans](https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/plans) and [Sign in](https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/server-dashboard/sign-in). Anyone can read the board. Posting, voting and commenting need a Discord sign in on your website. ## Before you start The Ideas page opens once your website is live on the full website layout, sign in is set up in **Website > Dashboard**, and **Ideas** is on in **Website > Pages**. Until then, the Ideas tab in your Inbox shows a yellow note with a button to fix what's missing. ## The board on your website ![The Ideas board on a bot's website, signed in, with Post an idea, the sort buttons, the status filters with Yours, and an idea with its vote button](https://botghost.com/docs/content/assets/workspace/botpanel-com-ideas-board.png) *The Ideas page, signed in* - **A** **Post an idea** opens the form. Visitors who aren't signed in see **Sign in to post an idea**. - **B** **Most votes** or **Newest**. With voting off, the board has no sort buttons. - **C** **All** and the statuses in use, like **Planned**, with a count each. **Yours** lists the ideas the visitor posted. - **D** The vote button with the idea's votes. Once they voted it's lit up, and pressing it again takes the vote back. When you have categories, the board also shows them as filters, starting with **Every category**. Pressing an idea opens its own page with what they wrote, the comments, and your status. When you add a note to the status, it shows there too. A **Done** idea you linked to an update shows **Shipped in** with the update's title, linking to its post on your [Updates](https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/community/updates) page. After posting, people land on their idea's page with "Posted. Share it so people can vote for it." Your team's comments show with a **Team** label. With comments off, the idea's page shows only your team's answers, under **From the team**. ### Rules on the board - One vote per person per idea, and they can take it back. - **Done** and **Declined** ideas keep their votes but take no new ones. - Discord accounts younger than 7 days can't post, vote or comment. This stops people making new accounts to stuff votes. - People you block can't post or comment. See [Blocking](https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/community/inbox#blocking). | | Limit | | --- | --- | | Ideas from one person | 3 an hour, 10 a day | | Comments from one person | 6 a minute, 30 an hour | | Votes from one person | 120 an hour | | Ideas on your board | 60 new an hour, 300 a day, and 5,000 in all | | A comment | Up to 500 characters | | Comments on one idea | 100 | ## Manage ideas Open **BotPanel > Inbox** and pick the **Ideas** tab. ![The Ideas tab in BotPanel Inbox with the status tabs, sort and search, and one idea opened with its status, note, comments and merge](https://botghost.com/docs/content/assets/workspace/botpanel-com-ideas-inbox.png) *BotPanel > Inbox > Ideas, with one idea open* - **A** **Show**: **All** and each status with its count. **Hidden and merged**, for ideas you took off the board, is at the end of the row, so scroll the row to reach it. - **B** **Sort** by **Most votes** or **Newest**, and search titles and names. - **C** An idea: its votes, title, status and author. **Open** shows it in place and reads **Hide** while it's open, so pressing it again folds the idea away. The **Hide** with the crossed out eye takes it off the board, and **Delete** asks you to press again. - **D** The status: pick one, add **A note people see with the status (optional)** of up to 300 characters, and press **Save status**. For a Done idea, **Shipped in (optional)** links one of your published updates. - **E** **Merge into another idea** and **Merge**. Press Merge again to confirm. The statuses are **Open**, **Planned**, **In progress**, **Done** and **Declined**. New ideas start as Open. You can rename them and change their colours in the page settings below. The Inbox uses your names too. Inside an open idea you can also: - Delete any comment. Each **Delete** asks you to press again. - Answer as your team in the box under the comments, then press **Post answer**. The answer shows on the idea's page. - Merge a duplicate into the idea it repeats. Its votes move there, and it leaves the board. - Press **On your site** to open the idea on your website. - **Block author** stops them posting ideas, commenting and sending you messages. Hidden ideas stay in **Hidden and merged**. Press **Show** to put one back on the board. ## Ideas page settings The board's settings are in **Website > Pages > Ideas**. They save with the rest of your website when you press **Save** on the bar at the bottom. ![The Ideas page settings with who can post, categories, voting and comments, and the status names and colours](https://botghost.com/docs/content/assets/workspace/botpanel-com-ideas-settings.png) *Website > Pages > Ideas* - **A** **Who can post, vote and comment**: **Anyone signed in**, or **Members of servers you pick**. - **B** **Categories**, with **Add a category**. - **C** The **Voting** and **Comments** switches, and **The board opens on**. - **D** **Statuses**: a new name and a colour for each one. | Setting | What it does | | --- | --- | | Words on the page | The page's title and intro. Leave them empty to keep the page's own words. | | Who can post, vote and comment | **Anyone signed in**, or members of up to 5 servers your bot is in. Your bot checks with Discord that someone is a member before they post, vote or comment. | | Categories | Up to 12, of up to 24 characters each. People pick one when they post, and the board filters by them. **A category must be picked** makes it required. | | Title | **Asked for** or **Optional**. Without a title, the first line of the idea becomes its title. | | Longest title, Shortest idea, Longest idea | Title 20 to 100 characters. An idea 3 to 200 characters at the shortest and 100 to 1,500 at the longest. | | The form for ideas | **Edit the form** opens the form builder. See [The form](https://botghost.com/docs/botpanel/community/inbox#the-form). Once you build your own form, the title and length settings above move into it. | | Voting | Off: no vote buttons, and ideas keep the votes they have. | | Comments | Off: only your team's answers show. | | The board opens on | **Most votes** or **Newest**. | | Statuses | A name of up to 20 characters and a colour for each status. Empty keeps the usual name. | ## The events Two events run for ideas. Press **Events and variables** on the **Tell your server about ideas** card at the bottom of the Ideas tab, then **Build** next to the one you want. An idea isn't in a server, so the builder asks which server each event runs in. - **When someone posts an idea** runs for each new idea. Use it to post ideas in an ideas channel. - **When an idea's status changes** runs when you save a new status. Use it to tell people what happened to their idea. | Variable | What it holds | Posted | Status changes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `{botpanel.idea_title}` | The idea's title | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_text}` | What they wrote, up to 1,000 characters | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_status}` | Its status: Open, Planned, In progress, Done or Declined | Yes | Yes (the new one) | | `{botpanel.idea_previous_status}` | Its status before | | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_note}` | Your note on it, or empty | | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_votes}` | How many votes it has | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_user}` | Who posted it, as a mention | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_user_id}` | Their Discord ID | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_user_name}` | Their Discord name | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_link}` | The idea on your website | Yes | Yes | | `{botpanel.idea_update_link}` | The update a Done idea shipped in, or empty | | Yes | | `{botpanel.answers}` | Every answer from the form, one per line | Yes | | | `{botpanel.answer.KEY}` | One answer, with the question's name from the form in place of KEY | Yes | | Try this in a Send or Edit a Message block in the status event: ``` **{botpanel.idea_title}** went from {botpanel.idea_previous_status} to {botpanel.idea_status}. {botpanel.idea_link} ``` When you move Jayce's idea for a `/birthday` command to Planned, your channel gets "**A /birthday command** went from Open to Planned." and a link to the idea.