A Plug-In to convert Discourse Forum Discussions into Clear Proposal Revisions with Community-Sourced Justifications

Dev
1

Our team is proposing a plug-in for this organization. We intend to write a plug-in that Discourse users (not self served) could use. The details of the plug-in and it’s development are below. Is this kind of project possible for our prospect. They understand that they can only use plug-in that Discourse offers…is this true? Can a plug-in be developed for all users? Here is our proposal to prospect:

A Plug-In to convert Discourse Forum Discussions into Clear Proposal Revisions with Community-Sourced Justifications.

Abstract

This proposal introduces SimScore, an AI-assisted governance tool that integrates with ArbitrumDAO’s proposal workflow to analyze community feedback and generate structured proposal edits with comprehensive justifications. The system will operate at two key stages: prior to Temperature Check and after Temperature Check completion, with token-weighted analysis in the second stage.

Motivation

ArbitrumDAO faces challenges in efficiently processing diverse community feedback during proposal development. Currently, proposers must manually synthesize numerous comments across forum discussions and Snapshot temperature checks, which is time-consuming and may lead to valuable insights being overlooked. SimScore addresses this by providing automated, statistical analysis of community consensus with transparent justification for all suggested changes.

Rationale

A challenge that DAOs have identified is a need for governance experimentation particularly related to AI assisted governance. The SimScore Solution involves analyzing Discourse Forum Replies with the SimScore API in order to both edit proposals and post comprehensive justifications.

Key Benefits of Automated Proposal Editing with SimScore.

Quality Improvement

By systematically analyzing diverse community perspectives, SimScore helps refine proposals beyond what any individual contributor might achieve. The statistical approach ensures that valuable insights aren’t lost in the noise of numerous comments, while also providing clarity on genuine consensus patterns across different viewpoints.

Throughput Acceleration

Instead of waiting weeks for proposers to manually process dozens or hundreds of comments, SimScore automates the analysis of community feedback. This can reduce proposal refinement cycles from weeks to days or even hours, dramatically increasing governance throughput.

Enhanced Transparency

Each suggested change includes a clear justification linked to specific community input. This creates an auditable trail showing exactly how community feedback influenced the proposal, reinforcing trust in the governance process.

The SimScore Solution

We (SimScore) propose a system that provides a sophisticated, data-driven approach to analyzing community feedback that operates through multiple integrated components:

1. SimScore / Constrained AI Analysis

  1. Data Collection: A Discourse plugin collects all forum replies and discussions related to a specific proposal.

  2. SimScore API processes this data through three distinct analytical dimensions:

    1. Priority Rankings: Calculates a mathematical “Consensus Point” from all written ideas, then measures each individual response’s similarity to this consensus (expressed as SimScore %)

      Priority Analysis Output #1. (Example Layout)

    Priority# Idea Author SimScore %
    1 Bias amplification through selective patterns Emma 53%
    2 Contextual misalignment in nuanced reasoning Liam 47%
    3 Temporal flattening of evolving opinions Sophia 32%
    4 Cross-source contamination of unique perspectives Gabrial 15%

    Similarity Score

    Similarity Score determines the similarity of a pair of ideas.

    Similarity Score Relative Similarity
    0.0 The pair of ideas have no similarity
    >0.2 The pair of ideas are considered plagiarized
    0.65 - 1.0 The pair of ideas are essentially duplicates

    Consensus Point

    Simscore API calculates the Consensus Point from all the written ideas as a mathematical expression.

    SimScore %

    The similarity of each idea vs the consensus point, expressed as SimScore %.

    ii. Conceptual Space Mapping: Positions each response in a two-dimensional space to visualize clusters and relationships between ideas

    Relationship Graph - Output #2

    Priority # X Y SimScore%
    1 0.515 -0.287 54%
    2 0.515 -0.586 51%
    3 0.104 0.334 49%
    4 -0.580 0.044 42%
    5 0.586 0.367 33%
    6 -0.260 0.615 32%
    7 -0.506 -0.406 31%

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRbK31Zbther54K6vzp96LYYT5ETFNDalc-uSM_acVyq4GhEz4K1v9jkmg0tuYSM0FucUyvGi8p4Jv3/pubchart?oid=471457277&format=interactive

    iii. Pairwise Relationships: Creates a complete similarity matrix showing how strongly each response relates to every other response

    Pairwise Similarity Score Matrix

    SimScore ranks the replies in “most similar” order,

    Reply 1 Reply 2 Reply 3 Reply 4
    Reply 1 1.000 0.469 0.264 0.254
    Reply 2 0.469 1.000 0.235 0.234
    Reply 3 0.264 0.235 1.000 0.161
    Reply 4 0.254 0.234 0.161 1.000

    Note: The SimScore API is complete and ready for deployment. Description Github

  3. Validated Consensus Identification: The system requires evidence across multiple dimensions before confirming community consensus:

    • High-priority feedback with nearby supporting responses in conceptual space
    • Multiple moderate-priority responses that cluster together
    • Strong pairwise relationships (above 20% similarity) between responses from different authors

d. Constrained AI Implementation: AI serves as an interpreter of consensus patterns rather than a primary synthesizer. It is strictly constrained by SimScore’s statistical baseline to prevent misrepresentation of community views.

2. Discourse Plugin

  1. Side-by-Side Proposal Editing: The system integrates directly into Discourse’s edit section, showing original and revised proposals with color-coded differences.
  2. Comprehensive Justification: For each revision, the system generates a detailed justification citing specific community feedback that supported the change, including:
    • Priority rankings with similarity scores
    • Relevant pairwise relationships
    • Analysis of conceptual positioning
    • Direct quotes from community members

3. Human Final Control

  1. Human Final Control: The original proposer reviews all suggested changes and maintains final editorial control before advancing to voting.

Demonstration Screens.

Side by Side Proposal Editing - History Screen in Scroll forum

image.png

Demo of Edit Screen

Comprehensive Justification of each revision

image.png

Discourse / SimScore Integration Plug-in Specification

:page_facing_up: Technical Specification: SimScore-Powered DAO Proposal Editor

Discourse Plug in for SimScore API

About the Author:

With 30 years of leadership experience, the author served as CEO of an industrial water treatment company that achieved remarkable 100x value growth over 12 years. Under his leadership, the company bootstrapped and self-financed through organic growth before a successful private equity exit. His blank boarding methodology was instrumental in this success, identifying strategic priorities and driving organizational alignment. He is now the founder of SimScore, creating technology to make his proven methodologies accessible to organizations of all sizes.

Reference Material

SimScore API - Github - GitHub - Sim-Score/simscore-api

SimScore API - What is it?

SimScore API - Youtube Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifi9PNs41G4

SimScore Analysis - Arbitrum Renaissance Incentive Program - Google Sheets

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Are you referring to the plugins available on hosted plans?

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Yes, i am referring to plug-in in hosted plans. I am proposing the solution to 4 discourse users at this time. Which is to integrate SimScore API into discourse to auto edit topics based on community feedback, display side by side in edit screen. Also enter a reply in forum with clear justification. justification looks like this.

The image shows a document excerpt discussing the requirement for explicitly defined evaluation criteria for each season in a DRIP program, ensuring performance against its goals. (Captioned by AI)
The image shows a document excerpt discussing the requirement for explicitly defined evaluation criteria for each season in a DRIP program, ensuring performance against its goals. (Captioned by AI)947×480 21 KB

1 Like
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You’d need to be on an enterprise plan, then. Your plugin is useful only to you, not all users of business or standard plans.

Maybe you haven’t seen how discourse shows differences between edits?

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@NateDhaliwal Thanks to both of you for your replies. Based on your input, discourse plug-in for standard plans will not work for our prospects. Is there a way to customize a standard plan discourse client? The main features we are interested in is the side by side edit screen: like this DeFi Renaissance Incentive Program (DRIP) - Proposals - Arbitrum The edit on the right, is edited by SimScore based on community feedback. The other feature is justification replies as shown above being created automatically. Is this possible using a different method than plug-ins? We have 4 prospects, would each prospect need a different customization?

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Do you understand that the standard edit feature shows a diff?

You can look at my post above to see the diff. Here’s how it looks on mobile.

A Discord notification shows a user named pfaffman responding to a message they posted 8 hours ago, discussing the benefit of a plug-in for hosted plans. (Captioned by AI)
A Discord notification shows a user named pfaffman responding to a message they posted 8 hours ago, discussing the benefit of a plug-in for hosted plans. (Captioned by AI)1080×2340 187 KB

If you want discourse.org to host you, you’d need to open a conversation with them about whether you’d need one or multiple enterprise plans.

1 Like
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Hi Jay, Our intent is to integrate SimScore API into several discourse applications that are already live. Arbitrum, Scroll ZkNation and Celo. These organizations want to improve their governance processes. The project we are proposing for these discourse clients is designed to edit topics based on community replies, and provide justification. We are interested in determining the best way to meet their needs.

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Jumping in here as one of the developers of SimScore.

So as we understand, those clients use a hosted version of Discourse, on a plan which does not allow them to install custom plugins beyond what is already available from the Discourse service.

Assuming that is correct and hosted versions can indeed not install custom plugins (and please do let us know if there’s a way to enable custom plugins) - the alternative that we could likely do, if the API for this exists (please confirm):

  • (Once off, possibly not necessarily) manually create a SimScore user that has permissions to edit other users posts (i.e. post new versions that can be viewed with the diff viewer)

then, whenever the analysis should be run, from a 3rd party interface/trigger:

  • Use the Discourse API to authenticate as the SimScore user or if possible as the original poster
  • Use the Discourse API to get posts from a specified topic and some metadata (order, user, date, …)
  • Forward that to the SimScore API and process it & create a new updated post text
  • Use the Discourse API to edit the original post with the new one

Instead of using a 3rd party trigger, would it be possible to trigger an analysis manually from within Discourse? (I assume not, because that would again need a custom plugin?)

1 Like
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Yes, it sounds like this is the case.

As Jay mentioned above, we do not allow custom plugins to be installed on any plan other our Enterprise plans.

Yes, on our Standard and Business plans, customers can use the API as well as install themes, and theme components (which in many ways can be thought of as “front end plugins”, but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for here).

API documentation is here: https://docs.discourse.org/, and more general developer docs start here: Introduction to Discourse Development

The outline of your plan for doing this via an API integration sounds reasonable to me – that said…

…this may be worth exploring.

The Discourse Automation plugin is available on our Business plan and is worth taking a look at: Discourse Automation

There are built-in “triggers” and “scripts” – it may have exactly what you need, or if you find it’s missing something, it may be relatively straightforward to contribute that missing piece to the plugin.

I think that’s where I’d start looking…

That said, another thing worth looking at if you’re exploring this territory is Discourse AI, which Automation can also integrate with. An example of that is AI triage.

AI features are backed by Personas, which can implement custom tools. So you could implement a tool that calls your API, for example. The persona could then be called by automation. Or you could associate a user with the persona and allow community members within a certain group to call it directly.

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That is not entirely correct - the ZkNation community is hosted by Communiteq, and Communiteq hosting does allow installing custom plugins.

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