One proposal at a time?

Awesome. I'm interested to see how it will be designed, especially in terms of where in the lifecycle of a discussion and decision Ideas will be emphasised.

Reading what @alannakrause has described and looking at the mocks for the ideas feature it seems to me the difference between proposal and ideas may be too small for them to get separate names. It may add unnecessary complexity to call it something other than just proposals since its pretty much what they are. My two cents looking with a fresh pair of eyes at the previous discussions is that there seems to be a fundamental view that having a vote on only one proposal at a time is the only way to focus towards consensus, and I think it may be worth questioning that a bit. There may be other ways to focus the group, like for example by narrowing down options through a process of elimination. Perhaps worth testing something like that...

I am quite interested to see the ideas feature too. Happy to be a beta tester if possible?

My limited use of Loomio (only a few weeks now) has often come up against the problem of a proposal not being supported but the discussion lingers n and on. Being able to start an alternative proposal and run in parallel would really speed up the process of collaborating and inspiring quick new thinking without the long drawn out waiting game for a proposal to quietly die in the corner.

Maybe if the initiator of the discussion could decide if the discussion will be limited to single proposal or allow multiple proposals to be made, that way we have the best of both worlds.

Hi @gilesgibson thanks for the real world feedback! Good to hear how this is playing out in various groups.

In groups I am part of, if a proposal is clearly failing and it's a waste of time to see it through, we usually just close it early. This leaves it open for putting up an improved proposal.

@alanna in some way i agree BUT it is not going well to open another discussion just to put another proposal in the same time with the same subject....

what i mean is that in my group we had to open 4 same subject discussions and 4 proposals (for the same subject) because we had to finish these 4 proposals in 3 days and also had enough time so everyone can vote...

So if there wouldn't be that stupid limit to only one active proposal, sure the proposals would be more good and the discussion in one place...

My experience to date is that the one offer on the table at a time is slowing down the decision process. Trying to juggle multiple discussion groups on the same subject but with different proposals is a pain.

I bow to better experience from others who want to keep the "focus" on one thing but giving the option to the originator as to how they want to run the "meeting" would solve the problem.

I'm transitioning a comment from @davidjones1 on this topic over here...

I am considering using loomio for our Student Union, so that students can actively form policy.

While I see how often a discussion will lead to one proposal as the solution to the issue, I can imagine other discussions where multiple proposals could be usefully suggested and voted upon.

For example, if we had a debate about how we can improve the Student Union Constitution, there might be multiple policies that are viable. In this case, could there not be a method of allowing for multiple proposals to be voted upon? Or perhaps is there a workaround that allows one discussion to splinter off into multiple discussions about different policy options?

For what I've read this dilemma seems to be between voting on a proposal and amending/alternative proposals?

I can see how this could become a through duplicate threads over related subjects or it could lead to contradictions. Eg: one proposal that everyone must wear a blue hat on thursdays might contradict another proposal that people have a right to wear burkas. With a large enough group both could be passed because different people were active and voted in the two discussions, even though they're contradictory. At the same time, it could overly complex pretty quickly if everything becomes interlinked into a single forum.

Part of the solution to this would definitely be an archive system that somewhat could look like reddit, so that there are clear and easily findable topics with sub-topics with the previously passed proposals.

Another in part solution could be the option for people to put forward amendments, not just after the voting process for the proposal but during it too.

Just FYI, the word "fork" is complete jargon-ese to me, which makes this thread hard to engage with.