VGAgora Guidelines

VGAgora is the campus idea board. Post what should change around school, back the ideas you agree with, and watch staff mark each one under review, planned, done, or declined in the open.

These rules are on top of the community guidelines, which apply everywhere on the platform. Read those first.

The board only works if staff keep reading it. That is the thing to keep in mind, and most of what follows comes back to it.

What makes a good idea post

An idea is a proposal to change something. It names what is wrong now, what should happen instead, and why the school would be better for it.

Post it in the category it belongs to: Campus, Classes, Food, Events, Tech, Clubs, Safety, or Other. There are eight and no more, on purpose, because a board with forty categories is a board nobody scrolls.

Some things that make an idea land:

• Be specific. “More microwaves in the cafeteria” gets a decision. “The cafeteria is bad” does not.
• Say what it would take. If you know it costs money or needs a room or needs a teacher to sponsor it, say so. Ideas that already account for the obvious objection get taken more seriously.
• One idea per post. A post with five requests in it gets one status, which is not useful for the other four.
• Search first. If your idea is already up, back that one instead. Ten copies of the same idea split the backing and make it look less popular than it is.

What does not belong

• Complaints with no proposal. If there is nothing anyone could do, it is not an idea.
• Anything about a specific staff member as a person. You can propose changing a policy, a rule, or how something is run. You cannot post about a teacher. “Late work should be accepted for partial credit” is an idea; naming a teacher and describing what you think of them is not, and it comes down.
• Anything about a specific student. Ever.
• Jokes. One funny idea is fine and forty are a reason for staff to stop reading the board.
• Things that are not the school’s to decide, including anything the district or the state sets. You can still post it, but expect it to be declined with that as the reason.

Backing

Backing is the only signal on this board. There is no downvote, and that was a deliberate choice: an idea you disagree with should get your silence, not a pile of negative numbers that discourages the next person from posting.

Back the ideas you would actually want. Backing everything is the same as backing nothing.

Do not organize a backing campaign. Asking your friends to go back your idea makes the number a measure of how many friends you have, which is not what staff are reading it for.

Comments

Comment to make an idea better. Add the detail the author missed, say why it will not work and what would, or say you have tried this before and here is what happened.

Disagree with the idea, not the person who posted it. Somebody who suggests something unworkable is not stupid, they just do not have information you have, so give them the information.

Do not argue with the status once it is set. If you think staff got it wrong, post a new idea that answers their reason.

How an idea moves

Every idea starts as open. Staff move it to under review, planned, done, or declined, and every move is written down with a note explaining it. That log is public and it is never edited or deleted, so you can always see who moved your idea, when, and why.

Declined is a real outcome and it is not an insult. Most declines are about money, space, or a rule the school does not control. The note tells you which.

Once staff move your idea off open, its text and photo are frozen. You can no longer edit or delete it. That is not a punishment. People backed and commented on specific words, and staff wrote a decision about those words, so letting the text change afterward would make the whole record meaningless. Get it right before you post, because after that it stands.

The Safety category

Use it for things like a broken lock, a dark walkway, a crosswalk nobody stops at, or a door that does not latch.

Do not use it for an emergency. This board is checked when someone gets to it, not continuously. If a person is in danger right now, call 911 and tell a teacher, a counselor, or an administrator in person. Post it here afterward if it is something that should be fixed permanently.

Do not post about a specific threat or a specific person here. That goes to an administrator directly, and to the platform through /report so it can be handled properly.