Polls - Admin Setup

This guide covers how to enable, configure, create, and manage polls in Khoros Aurora communities. It is intended for community administrators and community managers.

Figure 1. Poll Settings icon in the Admin panel.

1. Overview

What if your community members could vote on ideas, compare options, and share preferences - all inside a discussion thread? Polls make this possible. They give community managers a lightweight way to gather member insights and give members a way to hear from like-minded people on topics they care about.

Capability	Description
Text & Image Polls	Text options or image-based choices (JPG/PNG, ≤5 MB each, up to 8 per poll)
Configurable Duration	1 hour to 365 days, with admin-configurable min/max
Voting Controls	Anonymous voting, multi-vote, vote change, randomized option order
Results Visibility	Who sees results (Everyone / Voters & Creator / Creator Only) and when (After Vote / Live / After Close)
Admin Governance	Board-level enable/disable, rank requirements, account age minimums
Analytics & Export	Per-poll and community-wide CSV exports
Notifications	Poll-close emails to creators and voters; templates customizable via Email Template Designer
Image Polls	2–3 column grids, lightbox preview, alt-text, vote percentage overlays

Note: Polls are available on Forum, Blog, and Group boards. They are not available on Ideas boards.

2. Accessing poll settings

In the admin settings, navigate to: Admin Panel → Settings → Features → Poll Settings.

Figure 2. Accessing Poll Settings in the Admin panel.

The Poll Settings dashboard is a centralized admin page - not accessed from individual board settings. It displays your community structure as a tree view, and every board can be individually configured from this single page.

Enabling polls on a board

Polls use a hierarchical enable/disable model. Enabling polls on a category applies to all boards within it. You can override individual boards.

Step	What to do	Notes
1	Find the board in the tree view	Categories and boards shown in a collapsible tree
2	Switch the toggle to ON (blue)	Inherits from parent category if already enabled
3	Click “Configure” next to the board	Opens board-specific poll limits and defaults

Figure 3. ON/OFF Toggle for Poll in different boards.

Note: Start by enabling polls on 2–3 high-traffic boards only. Use the board-level toggles to expand gradually after validating the experience.

3. Configuring poll settings

Click “Configure” next to any enabled board to access its settings. Configuration is organized into Poll Limits, Creator Requirements, and Default Settings.

Figure 4. Configure Button

Poll limits

Figure 5. Poll Limits in Poll Settings.

Setting	Description	Allowed range
Maximum poll duration (days)	Longest a poll can remain open	1–365 days
Minimum poll duration (hours)	Shortest a poll can run	1–24 hours
Maximum options per poll	Text/image choices allowed	2–8
Question character limit	Max characters for the question	1–500
Option character limit	Max characters per answer option	1–200

Creator requirements

Figure 6. Creator Requirements in Poll Settings.

Setting	Description	Allowed range
Minimum rank to create polls	Only members at this rank or higher can create polls. Set to “No minimum” to allow all.	Any rank or a specific rank
Minimum account age (days)	Account must be at least this many days old. Set to 0 for no minimum.	0 to any number of days

Default settings

Setting	Description
Default results visibility	Who can see results. Options: Everyone, Participants and creator, Creator only.
Allow creators to override visibility	When ON, creators can change visibility per poll.
Allow vote change by default	When ON, voters can change or remove their vote.
Default results exposure timing	When results appear. Options: After vote, Live, After close.
Sign-in required to vote	Always enforced. Only authenticated members can vote. Not configurable.

Note: Set results visibility to “After vote” for maximum engagement. Members must vote to see results, creating a curiosity-driven participation loop. This is the single most impactful setting for poll participation.

Updated 1 month ago

Version 6.0

Knowledge Base Article