Module · Citizen consultations
Consultations that capture more than yes / no.
A debate format takes a position. A consultation collects ideas. Open submission, reader-contributed propositions, themed buckets, editorial synthesis. The format newsrooms use during elections, year-end specials, and any moment they want readers to bring substance, not just reactions.
- Open-ended readers contribute their own propositions, not just vote on yours Product format
- Theme-bucketed organise contributions by topic, party, region, or any editorial cut Consultation builder
- Editorial synthesis export ranked contributions for follow-up coverage Workflow
Why this module
Polls and yes/no questions cap the reader at the lowest contribution.
Most reader-engagement tools stop at a binary, a multiple-choice, or a star rating. They tell you what your audience prefers among options you wrote, never what they would propose on their own. A consultation flips that, the question is open, and the value is in the answers your readers contribute. The newsroom moves from 'how do you feel about this' to 'what would you do about this'. The difference matters during elections, public-budget moments, or any coverage where the editorial value is collective intelligence, not a click count.
What you get
Built for newsroom workflows.
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Long-running consultations
A format for multi-month consultations. Readers submit propositions, other readers vote, themed-bucket organisation per topic. A configurable vote target appears as a progress bar (ex 0 / 495 votes), with countdown showing how long the consultation stays open.
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Reader-proposed debate questions
Readers can submit up to 5 proposed debate questions per cycle (max 140 chars, yes / no format). Other readers signal interest. Editors pick the proposals worth running and they become official debates with one click. The reader-to-newsroom loop, fully tooled.
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Themed buckets per consultation
Organise contributions by topic, by political family, by region, or by any editorial cut you decide. Useful during elections, where you can split contributions per party or per policy area, or for year-end specials grouped by societal theme.
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Editorial synthesis with statistics
A built-in synthesis view shows the top propositions per theme alongside interaction statistics over time (number of propositions, number of votes, per-theme breakdown). Editors export the synthesis as structured JSON or a CMS-ready feed for follow-up coverage.
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Embeddable as an iframe
Consultation boxes can be implemented as a widget at any position via iframe or embed code, without requiring the surrounding article. Drop the question into your homepage, a dedicated landing, or a newsletter, the same backend handles all entry points.
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Moderation aligned with public-service standards
Same three-stage pipeline as comments and debates (blacklist + algorithmic + human queue). Pre-moderation toggle available for sensitive consultations (elections, public-safety topics). Six DSA-compliant rejection labels, transparent feedback in the reader profile.
In production
Used by RTS.
Switzerland's public broadcaster runs both debates and consultations on the same «dialogue» deployment: one reader identity, one moderation pipeline, one SSO, across five languages. A newsroom can ship a structured debate on flagship articles and an open consultation on the next election cycle without setting up a separate stack for either.
Debates + consultations
on a single Logora backend, same SSO and moderation, across five languages
Read the RTS caseWhat changes
Before, and after.
Before · Yes/no polls and star ratings
- Readers vote on options the newsroom wrote
- No way to surface a reader idea the newsroom did not anticipate
- Engagement is one click, no return loop
- No usable output for a follow-up article
- The audience cannot contribute, only react
After · Logora Consultations
- Readers submit their own propositions
- Themed buckets organise contributions for editorial review
- Reader-on-reader voting ranks the best ideas
- Ranked synthesis exports back into your CMS
- Election cycles get a multi-week format, not a one-shot poll
Common questions
What publishers actually ask.
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What is a long-running consultation, and how is it different from a debate?
A debate takes a position (for / against) and lets readers rank arguments on each side, typically running for a few days. A long-running consultation is a longer format, often running for several months, where readers submit their own propositions instead of choosing a side. Other readers vote, themed-buckets organise the contributions, and a configurable vote target makes the participation goal visible. Both formats live in the same Logora widget.
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How do reader-proposed debate questions work?
Readers see a field "Suggest a debate question". They submit a yes / no question (up to 5 propositions per reader, 140 characters max). Other readers signal interest by upvoting. The editorial team gets a curation queue : the propositions that gather interest can be picked up and turned into official debates with the same one-click action that creates a debate from scratch. The reader becomes a source of editorial-question ideas, with the newsroom keeping final editorial authority.
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Can we run a consultation specifically for an election cycle?
Yes. The election-mode format is built for multi-week consultations. You can split contributions per party, per policy area, or per reader-submitted question to candidates. Editors get a curation queue throughout, and the ranked output feeds into election-coverage articles, daily summaries, and the eventual editorial synthesis.
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What stops a consultation from turning into spam or polarised noise?
Same moderation pipeline as comments and debates. The AI filters spam, slurs and obvious bad-faith contributions before they reach the queue. Configurable per-consultation rules tighten the threshold further (require sources, require a minimum length, etc.). The human moderator only sees the genuinely ambiguous calls.
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Can we keep the reader contributions for follow-up coverage in the printed paper?
Yes. The ranked synthesis exports as structured JSON or as a CMS-ready feed. Regional dailies running a Courrier des lecteurs section pipe the top contributions back into Saturday's print page, with reader attribution and the "Published in the paper" status flag visible on the digital widget.
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Do consultations need their own SSO, or do they reuse the comment-and-debate identity?
Reuse. The Logora SSO covers one reader identity across comments, debates and consultations. A reader contributing to an election consultation is the same identity that commented on the article that prompted the consultation. No double login, no fragmented graph.
A reader contribution your newsroom can actually use.
A 60-min call with Pierre or Henry. We walk through the consultation builder live, and propose a one-topic pilot you can run on your next major editorial moment, an election week, a budget debate, a year-end edition.