A UserVoice Glossary

Every UserVoice term in plain language, with the on-screen names and the guide that goes deeper.

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UserVoice has its own vocabulary: forums and categories, supporters and subscribers, public and internal statuses, the idea grid and the idea sheet. This glossary defines each term in a sentence or two, using the names you see on screen, and points to the guide that goes deeper. Keep it open while you read the other guides, or share it with a new teammate.

The portal and what customers see

Customers meet UserVoice on your portal, or through the widget inside your product.

Term	What it means
Portal	The customer-facing UserVoice site, where people search, post, vote on, and comment on ideas. You brand it and choose who can see it.
Forum	A space that holds ideas for one product, audience, or program. Every idea lives in one forum. A private forum is open only to people you let in by email domain, single sign-on, or invitation.
Category	A product area inside a forum. Customers can pick one when they post.
Idea	A request with a title and description. Ideas collect votes, comments, and feedback, and carry a status.
Vote	Support for an idea from someone on the portal or widget. A forum can limit each person's votes, which come back when an idea closes.
Importance	A rating under each idea that asks “How important is this to you?”, so you see how much an idea matters, not only how many want it.
Supporter	Anyone linked to an idea through a vote or captured feedback. Supporters measure demand, and their accounts add to the idea's accounts and revenue.
Subscriber	Someone who gets an email when an idea has a status update. People who post or vote on an idea are subscribed to it.
Widget	A panel in your product where customers post an idea or vote without leaving it.
Single sign-on (SSO)	Signs customers in to the portal and widget with their account in your product, so they never create a separate UserVoice password.

The admin console

The admin console is where your team manages ideas, feedback, users, accounts, reports, and settings.

Term	What it means
Idea grid	The main table of ideas, under All Ideas. Filter, sort, add columns such as revenue and accounts, and edit many ideas at once.
Grid view	A saved set of filters, sort, and columns for the idea grid. Keep one for yourself or share it with other admins.
Idea sheet	The panel that opens when you select an idea, with its status, owner, labels, custom fields, supporters, and activity.
Idea list	A hand-picked list of ideas, such as this quarter's candidates.
Idea Status Board	Your ideas as cards in columns, one per status. Move a card to post a status update, or filter to one account's ideas.
Owner	The admin responsible for an idea. Forums and categories can assign one to new ideas automatically.
Label	An internal tag on an idea. Customers never see labels, and they can be nested up to three levels.
Custom field and custom question	An extra field on ideas, users, or accounts that you can filter and report on. A custom question asks it on the idea form when someone posts.
Instance	A whole separate UserVoice site, with its own admins, portal, statuses, and integrations. Use forums to divide feedback within one instance.
Admin, view-only admin, and contributor	The roles for your team. Admins manage ideas and settings, view-only admins see ideas and reports without changing them, and contributors capture feedback.

Feedback and statuses

Feedback is the evidence behind ideas, in each customer's own words. Statuses tell customers and your team where each idea stands.

Term	What it means
Feedback	One customer's own words, captured by your team and linked to an idea. It is private to your team, and its customer counts as a supporter.
Captured feedback	Feedback a team member adds on a customer's behalf, from the browser extension, Slack, Salesforce, Zendesk, or the admin console.
Contributor	A team member, such as a sales or support rep, who captures feedback and hears back when those ideas change status.
Duplicate and merge	Duplicates are ideas that ask for the same thing. Merging moves supporters, comments, and feedback into the idea you keep.
Public status	Where an idea stands for customers, such as Planned or Completed. Closed statuses such as Completed and Declined close voting but keep comments open.
Internal status	A status for your team's own workflow, such as Needs info. Only your team sees it.
Status update	A status change with an optional message, shown on the idea as your team's response. Tick Email to send it to subscribers; contributors hear about it too.
Closing the loop	Telling the people behind an idea what happened to it, whether it shipped, moved forward, or was declined.

Accounts, integrations, and AI

Accounts show which customers want what. Integrations and AI connect ideas to the work and the questions around them.

Term	What it means
Account	A company your users belong to, usually synced nightly from Salesforce or HubSpot with its status, revenue, plan, and other fields.
Revenue	The combined revenue of the accounts behind an idea, from one field you choose, such as ARR or MRR.
Segment	A named group of users or accounts you define by their properties, such as plan. It adds that group's support to the idea grid.
Account Insights	A report under Insights that plots ideas by revenue and number of supporting accounts.
Linked issue	A Jira issue or Azure DevOps work item connected to an idea, so engineering sees the customer demand behind the work.
The UserVoice agent	An assistant in the admin console that answers questions about your ideas, feedback, accounts, and users, and shows you any change before it makes it.
The UserVoice MCP	Connects UserVoice to an AI assistant such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Codex, so it can work with your ideas, feedback, and accounts.
API	Lets your developers read and write UserVoice data from your own systems.

Where to go deeper

Each area of this glossary has a guide of its own.

For	See
The portal, the widget, and single sign-on	Collecting Feedback with Your Portal
Forums, categories, and labels	Strategies for Forums, Categories, and Labels
Additional instances	When to Add Another UserVoice Instance
Custom questions	Custom Questions That Make Ideas Actionable
The Idea Status Board	The Idea Status Board – Move Ideas, Tell Customers
Contributors and capturing feedback	Rolling Out UserVoice to Sales, Success, and Support
Duplicates and merging	Turn a Messy Backlog into a Clear Signal
Statuses and status updates	Closing the Loop with Statuses
Accounts, revenue, and the CRM sync	CRM Sync – Revenue on Every Idea
Jira and Azure DevOps	Linking Customer Feedback to Jira and DevOps
The UserVoice agent	The UserVoice Agent – Ask in Plain Language
The UserVoice MCP	The UserVoice MCP Playbook
Using feedback as a product manager	Customer Feedback for Product Managers

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