Loomio

Vote Reason Settings Customization

Scott Laugenour (he/him) Tue 4 Aug 2026 2:15AMPublicSeen by 168

My organization requires that a voter who disagrees with a proposal articulate the reasons for the disagreement. We do not require a reason to be articulated when they agree with the proposal.

As such it would be nice to have settings that make a vote reason OPTIONAL when there is agreement and REQUIRED when there is a disagreement.

We are aware that this level of customization is not now possible, so I wanted to float this idea as a possible enhancement request.

Presently we set the poll to REQUIRE a vote reason and we explain in the description of the YES / AGREE choice that a user can type a simple message or post a thumbs up icon when they cast this ballot. But it would be great to have the ability to customize the setting as explained above.

Joriam Philipe
Agree
Thu 13 Aug 2026 9:03AM

I think 'disagree' as vibe check is fine, and asking why people are disagreeing is perfectly possible

That being said, I think very differently about blocks, it's when vague opinion move to statement

I won't be too challenged if this new decision passes, I'm happy to share my reasoning, but it doesn't feel necessary to me

Greg Cassel
Disagree
Thu 6 Aug 2026 11:08PM

I think it's almost universally important to provide reasons for a Block vote, but to normalize Disagree (and Abstain) by treating them the same way as Agree. I would strongly support this feature if it applied only to Block and not to Disagree.

JmPillot
Disagree
Thu 6 Aug 2026 11:08PM

The process of changing this feature seems to me strange.
To few voters. Mid august period is not the good time for any "big" decision.

Greg Cassel
Block
Thu 13 Aug 2026 5:16PM

I think it's important to normalize Disagree and Abstain by treating them the same way as Agree. I'd strongly support this feature if it applied only to Block.

Upon reflection, I've changed my vote to Block, because I think it'd be clearly harmful to make it harder to Disagree than to Agree. However, I don't think I really should have blocking authority for Loomio Cooperative decisions. You could override my Block via a subsequent poll which doesn't include general community members.

Scott Laugenour (he/him)Thu 6 Aug 2026 11:16PM

Thank you !

Robert GuthrieFri 7 Aug 2026 3:04AM

@Scott Laugenour (he/him) Are you seeing the direct thread messages regarding email from mailing list?

Scott Laugenour (he/him)Fri 7 Aug 2026 3:06AM

@Robert Guthrie I think so, I still need to circle with Lisa. I wish there were an "ignore this time" option rather than only have the two choices of "accept" or "block now and future"

david raynerSat 8 Aug 2026 2:38AM

@Scott Laugenour (he/him) people do just ignore...

Robert GuthrieThu 13 Aug 2026 8:53AM

It's just so wonderful to see members of the Loomio Community participating and sharing feedback about this new feature. Thank you for participating @Joriam Philipe @Rowena Skinner @Scott Laugenour (he/him) @benjamin melançon and @david rayner.

Hopefully you are all clear that this is an additional option - we already had "reason always required", "reason optional" and "reason disabled". This is just an additional setting to fine tune app behavior when someone disagrees or blocks.

And I trust you're all reasonably (or somewhat) familiar with poll templates in Loomio - so you can save the rules and language that your group uses into the template that shows up within your group when someone starts a proposal.

If you you're not familiar with poll templates or other poll settings, send me a direct message and we can have a call to go over how the features work - I'm happy help.

I believe this is clearly the correct default behaviour for the default "Consent" template. It's not clear this should be default for other types - so I'll leave the default for all other proposal tempates as "reason optional".

I'm happy to consider adding one more option "Required when blocking" if that is something someone can tell me they genuinely need.

Joriam PhilipeThu 13 Aug 2026 9:02AM

Aaaaah! I see now, so this is just about what setting is the default, right? Sorry, I had not clocked that, I thought it was a lock-in option

In that case, I have absolutely nothing against the "with reasoning" option being the default, I'll change my vote now

Robert GuthrieThu 13 Aug 2026 10:12AM

@Joriam Philipe yes - this is just a default setting for the "Consent" proposal template. Everything else stays as "optional" by default.

Scott Laugenour (he/him)Thu 13 Aug 2026 1:29PM

The new poll setting is much appreciated because my organization’s decision-making rules require explanations for disagreements and blocks, while explanations for agreements are optional. Thanks again, @Robert Guthrie

benjamin melançonThu 13 Aug 2026 2:59PM

Just want to reiterate that having Block require a reason by default is good, but that no default shipped with Loomio should have Agree and Disagree differ. And even when people customize to make Agree or Disagree differ in whether a message is required, they should be reminded that this will skew the sense of feelings in the group toward the easier (no reason) option.