Proposing a Decision
Ask the community to decide something binding.
Before you start
- A Decision is for something your community's server can carry out: suspending a member or reinstating one, freezing or unfreezing someone's credit, choosing who may vouch, or paying beans from the Commons. For anything else, start a Poll instead.
- Nobody proposes removing a member. That vote opens only when an admin suspends someone, and the community then decides. To ask for it, report them (see "Reporting a problem").
- A Decision cannot remove or suspend an owner or admin of your community's server. See "Rules and how decisions work".
- You can propose once you have completed a trade. Your community's admins can always propose. A trust badge or a vouch is not enough.
- In a community with Beans switched off, nobody can complete a new trade, so its admins can propose, and so can members who completed a trade before Beans were switched off.
- You can have one open Decision at a time.
- The global community has no Decisions, so there is nothing to propose there. See "Voting on a Decision".
Proposing
- Tap Commons, then Decide, then + Propose a Decision.
- Choose what it is about: Member or Commons Pool.
- Title: one line, like "Grant 200 beans to the Tool Library".
- Description & Case: explain why, in at least 10 characters. Say it plainly. People vote on what they read here.
- From the list below that, choose exactly what should happen. For example, for a member: Suspend Member or Freeze Credit. For the Commons: Give Beans to a project or enterprise, Hardship Grant, or Pay off a project's or enterprise's debt.
- Fill in who it is for, and how many beans if there are any. For a grant to a project or enterprise you type in its key, a long code: neither app has a list to pick it from. To pay off a debt or replace a lead, tap the project or enterprise in the list, or type its key.
- Tap Submit Community Decision.
In the web app the buttons read + Propose Decision (or ＋ Start something at the top of Commons, then Decision) and Submit Decision, and the box is Description & Rationale.
Voting opens at once and runs for 7 days.
How big a grant can be
A grant to an enterprise or a hardship grant can't be bigger than the Commons could pay. The most you can ask for is:
- what the Commons holds now,
- plus every bean that came into it over the last 30 days: the market fee, the circulation fee, and any other beans paid in.
Beans paid out of the Commons in those 30 days are not taken off. If you ask for more, the app says no before anyone votes, and tells you the most you can ask for now. That amount goes up as beans come into the Commons.
This keeps the queue free. If a grant passes when the Commons is short, it waits for the beans, and only one grant can wait at a time. See "Rules and how decisions work".
If the app says no
- Complete a Trade First (on the phone): you cannot propose yet. In the web app the + Propose Decision button is greyed out, and a line above it says why.
- No Trades Here (on the phone): your community has Beans switched off, so you can't complete the trade you need. Its admins can propose.
- Limit Reached (on the phone): you already have an open Decision. Wait for it to close. In the web app the button is greyed out here too, with a line saying why.
- A community vote can't remove or suspend an owner or admin of this community's server: the person you chose runs the server. An owner can take their role away first.
- A vote on removing a member opens only when an admin pauses them: nobody proposes one. Report the member instead.
- This grant is bigger than the Commons could pay: ask for no more than the amount it names, or wait for more beans to come in.
- Invalid Amount (in the web app, "Please enter a valid positive grant amount in Beans"): fill in how many beans.
- Error: check your description is at least 10 characters long.
Related
- Voting on a DecisionFind open Decisions, vote, change your vote, and see results.
- Rules and how decisions workVoting, turnout, secret ballots, who may vote, suspension, removing a member, keepers, and convenors and lead convenors.
- PollsAsk the community a quick question. Polls show opinion; they change nothing by themselves.
- Projects and enterprisesShared ventures with their own beans: find one, back one, or start one.
The same guide is in the BeanPool app, and works there without a connection: open Settings, then "Help & how it works" under BeanPool. Every other rule, guide and manual is in the Help Centre. Guide version 162.