How to use the Talk Green To Us forum
Thank you for taking the time to talk green to us by participating in the Greenest City 2020 Conversation. The City of Vancouver has set a monumental challenge: to become the greenest city in the world by 2020. To get there, we have defined a set of ambitious long term goals and 2020 targets in ten key areas that will guide the creation of an implementation plan.
City of Vancouver staff working groups have been tasked with developing an implementation plan, but need your input to determine the best ways to achieve the 2020 targets. You can help by participating in the online dialogue: comment on the posted ideas, vote for your favourites, or suggest a new idea. This forum will be open from June 23, 2010 to October 7, 2010.
The ideas submitted will help inform a draft implementation plan which we will be seeking your input on later in the fall and winter. Stay informed of the process by following us on Twitter, being our fan on Facebook, or joining our list by emailing greenestcity@vancouver.ca.
How your input will be used
Ideas and comments posted on this forum will be reviewed by staff working groups. In developing the implementation plans, we have to prioritize and focus on strategies that will best achieve our goals, evaluate the resources required and the City’s jurisdiction. Not all ideas on the forum can or will be implemented, but we will consider the ones we are able to pursue. Where possible, we aim to comment on ideas proposed, and demonstrate in the plan how your input was incorporated.
Remember, the targets we set are ambitious. As such, we need ambitious actions to reach them.
Navigating the Site
You can view ideas in several different ways. The green navigation bar underneath the idea input box lets you see ideas in five different ways:
- Hot ideas are those with votes and comments in the last 15 days.
- Top ideas are ideas with the highest number of votes.
- New are ideas that have been submitted in the past 15 days.
- Accepted ideas are those with status (i.e. under review, planned, started)
- Completed ideas are those with the status "completed" (i.e. the City has already taken this action)
You can also navigate ideas based on the categories located on the side.
At any time, clicking on the green talk bubble will bring you back to the main page of the dialogue.
Log in, sign up, and personal setting links are located underneath the green "Talk Green to Us" talk bubble.
The footer includes links to the privacy policy, disclaimer, and contact information for the Greenest City staff.
Signing up
To take full advantage of the Greenest City 2020 online dialogue, please create an account by clicking the "Sign up" link. You can sign up by providing your name, email address, and creating a password. Alternatively, you can sign in through your google, yahoo, facebook, twitter, myspace, wordpress or other social media accounts. Next time you visit, log in to the website using your account.
The City of Vancouver is using an online dialogue platform provided by UserVoice. Personal information collected is subjected to the privacy policy of both UserVoice and the City of Vancouver. Email addresses will be used to contact users about activity on an idea they proposed, voted or commented on. The Greenest City Planning Team may also contact you to let you know of upcoming events or progress in the plan. We promise not to spam you or share your email addresses.
By participating in this forum, you are agreeing to follow the Greenest City 2020 "Talk Green to Us" Discussion Rules. Users who do not adhere to these rules may have privileges removed.
You can change your password, notification settings, get an avatar, or delete your account through the settings tab located under the green "Talk Green to Us" talk bubble.
Adding a new idea
Before posting a new idea, please check the forum to see if there is an idea that is similar to the one you are proposing. If you do see a similar idea, please consider commenting or voting on the existing idea. This will avoid the problem of vote splitting and avoids the moderator having to later merge similar ideas. When adding a new idea, the program will automatically suggest ideas that may be similar to the one you are proposing.
To post an idea, you will need a title (100 character maximum), a description and to choose a category. Please use simple and intuitive titles. Idea categories are structured around the targets (see next section). The last thing asked for is how many votes you wish to include on that idea. Each user has 20 votes. You can use up to three votes per idea.
Please only add one idea per submission!
Multiple ideas are welcome but please only include one idea per submission in order to keep a focused discussion around each idea.
Idea categories
Categories for this forum are structured around the Greenest City 2020 targets. When inputting a new idea, please select the category that best matches the target you think that idea addresses.
We recognize that sustainability requires an integrated lens, and solutions do not always fall into neat and disparate categories. Certain ideas will achieve multiple targets. For example, creating more greenways could fall under "improve air quality," "improve access to nature", "reduce greenhouse gas emissions" and "travel predominately by foot, bike and transit." Please select the area you think is best. In cases where an idea falls under different categories, the moderator may move the idea the category where the dominate conversation is occurring, or to the target that best reflects the working group tasked to look at that item.
Categories are listed on the side panel. Clicking on these categories will display all of the ideas in that category.
Voting for ideas
Voting for ideas is a way to prioritize which ideas you feel the City should pursue. It is also a way to agree with an idea without adding a new idea. The City is in no way obligated to act on an idea posted on the forum.
Each user will start with 20 votes. You can vote for an idea by clicking the green "Vote" arrow underneath the vote tally. You will then be prompted for how many votes you would like to add, one, two or three. Votes are required when you submit a new idea. Users are limited to 20 votes as we have to prioritize what actions to pursue and want to facilitate careful consideration in the options being put forth.
After you vote for an idea, the green "VOTE" arrow will be replaced with the number of votes you put to that idea.
You can vote up to three times for an idea you feel is important. But remember, you only have 20 votes. Use them wisely.
The number of votes you have left is always displayed in the big green circle at the top of the page.
Share your ideas
Social media buttons enable you to easily share ideas and activity on the Greenest City 2020 Talk Green To Us online conversation. Please take advantage of these tools. Add the hashtag #GC2020 to posts, tweets and updates to enable easy searching.
Flag as inappropriate
If there is an idea or comment you think is inappropriate, please help us moderate by reporting the idea. You can click on the [report] link beside the comment and mark the idea as inappropriate. You can also report duplicate ideas in this fashion.
Ideas and comments flagged as inappropriate will be reviewed by the moderator and may be removed.
Moving & merging ideas
In instances where more than one idea shares the same intent as another idea, the Moderator may merge the two. This centralizes the conversation around a particular idea and avoids the issue of vote splitting.
In certain instances an idea may achieve multiple targets – and therefore would fit into multiple categories – the moderator may move the idea to the category that best reflects the working group tasked to look at that issue. This may make our online dialogue look like ideas aren’t being considered in a particular area, but please be assured that having to choose a single category is a limitation of the online platform and we are applying an integrated lens when developing our implementation plan
If you have signed in for a Greenest City 2020 User Voice account, you will be emailed if a change occurs on an idea you submitted or commented on.