Collect Guest Feedback

One of the fastest ways to increase participation is to lower the barrier for interaction.

Boarbs supports guest interactions for public portal visitors, so people do not need a full account before they can contribute.

What Guest Interactions Do

When guest interactions are enabled, visitors on your public portal can:

• submit feedback
• vote on requests
• comment on posts
• subscribe to updates

They do this by providing an email address when needed, instead of going through a full signup flow first.

Where to Enable It

Open Settings → General and review the guest interactions setting.

If you turn it off, visitors can still browse public content, but they need to sign in before interacting.

When to Keep Guest Feedback Enabled

Guest access is usually the right choice when:

• you want the lowest possible friction
• you are collecting feedback from customers or prospects
• your community is broad and mostly external

This is a strong default for early-stage feedback collection.

When to Limit Interactions

Restrict interactions when:

• you only want feedback from signed-in users
• the portal is intended for a closed beta or private audience
• you need tighter control over who can participate

In that case, keep the boards public for visibility if you want, but require sign-in for actual actions.

That is usually a better fit than moving the whole workflow to a private board.

Important Requirements

Guest interactions only matter on surfaces that are public.

Make sure:

• the board is PUBLIC
• the portal is ready to share
• the roadmap and posts show only what you want external users to see

What Happens Later if a Guest Signs In

If someone first interacts as a guest and later creates or links an account, Boarbs can connect that earlier guest activity to the user.

That helps you keep the history of votes and participation intact.

A Good Rule of Thumb

Use this decision guide:

• want the widest participation possible → keep guest interactions on
• want public visibility but more controlled participation → keep the board public and require sign-in
• want the board itself hidden from the public portal → use a private board

Recommended Launch Pattern

For most teams:

1. enable guest interactions
2. share the portal with a small group first
3. watch what kind of requests come in
4. tighten access later only if needed

This gives you the most feedback with the least setup friction.

Next Steps

• Use Private Feedback Boards — Keep team-only work off the public portal
• Triage Feedback — Process the requests that start coming in
• Portal — Review how public boards and roadmaps appear to visitors