Discussion templates

Discussion templates let you save a reusable starting point for discussions your group runs regularly. A template can include a process name, subtitle, description, default title, tags, and recommended poll templates -- so people can start a well-structured discussion in a few clicks.

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What are discussion templates

When someone starts a new discussion in a group, they see a list of the group's discussion templates. Clicking a template pre-fills the new discussion with the template's content, making it easy to follow a consistent process.

Every group comes with a set of default templates. Group admins can edit, hide, rearrange, or create new templates to suit the group's needs.

Creating a template

  1. Go to your group and click Start a new discussion.
  2. Click the New template button at the top right of the template list.
  3. Fill in the template form:
    • Process name -- a short name for the template (e.g. "Weekly standup").
    • Process subtitle -- a brief description shown in the template list (e.g. "A short check-in with the team each week").
    • Process introduction -- detailed instructions shown at the top of the discussion when people use this template.
    • Default title -- optionally pre-fill the discussion title (e.g. "Standup - January 15").
    • Example title -- placeholder text shown in the title field as a hint.
    • Tags -- category tags to apply to discussions created from this template.
    • Example description -- sample text for the discussion description that people can edit.
    • Poll templates -- add any poll templates that are part of this process. These will appear as recommended polls when someone uses the template.
  4. Click Save.

Using templates to start discussions

  1. Go to your group and click Start a new discussion.
  2. You'll see the list of discussion templates for your group.
  3. Click a template to start a new discussion pre-filled with the template's content.
  4. Edit the title, description, and other fields as needed, then start the discussion.

Hiding and showing templates

Group admins can control which templates appear in the template list:

  • Click the ... menu on any template to Hide it. Hidden templates won't appear when starting a new discussion.
  • Click More templates at the bottom of the template list to see hidden templates.
  • Click the ... menu on a hidden template to Unhide it.
  • Admins can also Rearrange templates to change their order in the list.
  • Default templates that came with the group can be hidden or customized by clicking Edit in the ... menu, which creates a copy you can modify.

Members can create templates

By default, only group admins can create and manage templates. If you'd like to allow regular members to contribute templates too, enable the Members can create templates setting:

  1. Go to your group settings (click the gear icon or Edit group settings).
  2. Open the Permissions tab.
  3. Check Members can create templates.
  4. Save.

When this setting is enabled:

  • Members can create new discussion and poll templates.
  • Templates created by members are hidden by default so they don't immediately appear in the template list.
  • An admin can review member-created templates and unhide them to make them available to the group.
  • Members can edit and delete their own templates, but cannot modify templates created by others.

Browse example templates

Loomio provides a gallery of example templates created by other groups. To browse them:

  1. Go to your group's discussion template list.
  2. Click More templates to expand the list.
  3. Click Browse example templates to see the public template gallery.
  4. Click a template to preview it, then copy or adapt it for your group.