Best practices of keeping track of feature requests

Community
1

I’m including the response from my questions to ChatGPT. Basically, I’m trying to do a better job on tracking the feature requests while they are still fresh and not volumous. I already have some of the tags. Do moderators vote on the tags or are they voted on by the community? Are only high-priority requests mirrored onto internal tools (like Jira, Linear, Notion, or even Google Sheets)? I would love to hear ideas on seamlessly keeping track of the requests. I would implement a template shortly.

:white_check_mark: Recommended Setup: Lightweight, Scalable Feature Request Workflow in Discourse

1. Create a Template for Feature Request Posts
Use Discourse’s Post Templates for the Feature Requests category. Prompt users to give structured feedback.

Example Template:

**Summary:**  
[Short one-liner summary]

**Problem / Use Case:**  
[What problem are you solving? Who is this for? Why is this important?]

**Proposed Solution:**  
[If you have an idea for how this could work, describe it.]

**Priority / Impact:**  
[Low / Medium / High — optional but helps triage]

This keeps things clean from the beginning, avoids vague requests, and makes it easier to scan later.

2. Use Tags + Topic Voting Plugin

  • Enable tags like under-consideration, in-progress, released, duplicate, rejected, etc.
  • Use the Discourse Voting Plugin — it’s purpose-built for this kind of use case.

Users can upvote the most important features without needing third-party tools. You can then sort topics by vote count to get a clear, auto-prioritized backlog.

3. Weekly or Bi-Weekly Review Process
You don’t have to monitor this daily — just establish a cadence. For example:

  • Every Friday: One PM or engineer spends 15–30 minutes:
    • Tagging top requests
    • Updating statuses
    • Merging duplicates
    • Writing quick replies like “Under review – thank you!” or “Merged with XYZ topic”

That’s all you need to maintain a high signal-to-noise ratio and keep things organized.

4. Mirror High-Priority Requests to Internal Tool
Whenever a request becomes a “real feature,” copy it into your internal tracking system (JIRA, Linear, Notion, etc.) — don’t try to integrate everything. Just link back to the Discourse thread so engineers/designers can read the original discussion.

This makes the Feature Request channel your external idea garden, while your internal system remains clean and focused only on validated features.

5. Pin a “Feature Request Process” Post
Have a pinned topic explaining:

  • What kind of requests you’re looking for
  • How votes are used
  • How often the team reviews requests
  • What the tags mean
  • What happens after something gets tagged “Under Consideration”

This sets expectations and keeps user engagement high.

:white_check_mark: Summary of the Stack

Layer Tool Purpose
Input Discourse w/ Template + Tags Structured community feedback
Prioritization Discourse Voting Plugin Crowd-based priority
Review Weekly 15–30 min pass Low-overhead triage
Execution Internal tool (JIRA/Linear/etc.) For actual development
Sync Manual linkbacks No need for deep integrations
2

The topic voting plugin I feel is very relevant - it gives a good gauge on how many people support the idea. I do see sometimes see that more people tend to like the topic requesting the feature than clicking ‘Vote’, though [1], so you may also want to check the topic post’s likes.

  1. perhaps out of the lack of votes left? ↩︎

3

I probably should watch the relevant Youtube videos on how to use or implement this.

4

Plugin topic:

Here’s how to install the plugin:

If you’re hosted with Discourse, the plugin is available on the Business plan and up.

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