Participants

Any visitor can access all of the website’s content directly. However, anyone who wishes to submit proposals or comments will have to register. Users may register directly on the platform or through gateways of other social networks (Facebook, Twitter or Google+). To register directly, users will need to associate a email account and a password to the user-account.

Decision-orientated features (endorsements, votes, etc.) require verification. The main verification method cross-checks against the municipal register or other databases of registered people with whom Decidim can communicate via API. Users may also be verified by text or using a special code sent by post or other means. A participant can also be manually verified from the administration dashboard.

Besides the verification process, participants can also ask to have their user name made official. Once made official, their user name will appear with a symbol that allows third parties to acknowledge that this user name corresponds to the person it claims to be.

Associations and organisations whose identity can be verified in some way can also be registered and verified. The official name status will be automatically verified.

The manual verification of participants, as well as other administrative actions can create vulnerability or may enable the administrators to use the platform in an abusive manner. To avoid it, Decidim includes a public register of administrative activities so these actions can be publicly and transparently audited.

There is a user-profile page where participants can make changes to their data (such as email account, password etc.), upload and enable an avatar image, set notifications or delete their account.

The user-profile page also allows participants to add additional information to include interests and skills, voluntarily and by selecting the level of visibility of that information. This allows personal notifications to be sent and participants can be matched with others for collaborations.

Participants receive automated notifications regarding the content they have created: responses to comments and comments on their proposals, as well as the results of their proposals (whether accepted or rejected).

Besides automated notifications, participants can decide to follow any element of the system (other proposals, results, processes, assemblies, initiatives, groups or users etc.), and receive notifications.

Instant messages can be sent to participants through the platform, who will receive an email notification.

Mentions can also be added (in the comments section) to any registered user and a notification will be automatically sent.

Decidim has a series of features geared to gamifying the platform, to attract and keep a growing number of participants interested, as well as to promote practices that boost democratic quality and collective intelligence in participation [the gamification system is expected for 2018Q2-3, AjB-Lote1].

The gamification system includes two modes, one centred on users and the other on proposals.

The combination of these and other indicators is used for generating gamification routes for each user and defining threads such as: most participatory person in the district, leadership in discussions and debates, etc.

Participants can register with the platform as members of one or several organisations/collectives. Once the organisation and membership status have been verified, participants can carry out actions (make proposals or submit comments, etc.), with their user or with the organisation name.

User groups can also manage user permissions and administration roles assigned to groups, as well as private debate spaces or share information among group users, for example, who attended an in-person meeting. [Feature currently missing]