Ability to Archive Clothing Assets

[xyrafrost]

Update:

If you own an “archived” clothing item, you can still see it in your inventory/avatar editor, and view the item details page without it redirecting to the Catalog home.

If you don’t own the item, it won’t show up in anyone’s inventory or “Currently Wearing” on your end, and if you have the link, it redirects to the Catalog home.

I didn’t realize this at first because I had deleted all of the items from my main account’s inventory, but I still own a couple of the items on a different account.

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

That sounds like a fair compromise. The links are exclusive to accounts that own the items.

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

What is going on with this currently?

Ever since Roblox did that out of the blue archival of stuff for various people on April 9, nothing has happened since.

Now people are having trouble even emailing the ip_content_removal and/or the Copyright_agent to have anything archived.

[xyrafrost]

Unless something changed, ipcontent_removal_request@roblox.com hasn’t been in use since 2021

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

This is the email I got way back in March, almost a month to the day they actually achieved anything.
I posted about this back then. I actually used the ip_removal_removal request email only a few weeks ago to see if it actually works, and so far no reply

[xyrafrost]

Felt like this would be relevant here. Earlier today Roblox staff hosted an AMA and they answered some questions related to archiving clothing.

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Q:

@xyrafrost

We are able to archive certain asset types. Archiving is an important feature as it is the only way to effectively “remove” an asset from the platform, and helps with inventory organization.

Currently, we can only archive Decals, MeshParts, Audio, and Video.
Are there any plans to let us archive more asset types, most importantly avatar items (classic clothing, 3D accessories/clothing, bodies/heads)?

The fact that there is no easy way for creators to remove avatar items is currently a big problem, especially with moderation. You could’ve uploaded something years ago which is now:

• Against the rules due to TOS changes
• Copyright-infringing, but you didn’t know at the time
• Just not something you’d want public anymore

and you have no easy way to remove the item from Roblox, all you can do is wait for moderation to impact you.

A:

@Tone

We recognized this pain point earlier this year and have made progress on some options. In the coming days, we’ll be setting up a support flow to request archiving an avatar item you no longer want available. Stay tuned.

We’re also actively working to design a Marketplace self-serve archive option. The timeline for this is still in flux, but we’re aiming for something by the end of 2024.

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Q:

@idelww

Right now all avatar items are permanently uploaded into the catalog. Are there any plans on letting us refund people in the future & having these permanently deleted off the catalog? Or, another option, would be allowing us to permanently take these items off sale, make them hidden in the catalog, and only have a visible page to users who purchased them prior to the removal & also make sure this won’t have any bad impact upon those trying to get rid of Copyrighted Material they uploaded years ago.

A:

@rester951

The current plan is to give creators tools to essentially archive and disable sales for such items. However, we are not planning to have the functionality that revokes those assets from users inventories and issues refunds.

Removing items and issuing refunds are only for fully moderated items which is executed solely by Roblox moderation. We will still fully moderate infringing content when notified by rights holders who submit a valid DMCA report.

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So yes, they are aware of this issue and are actively making progress towards a solution. From what I can understand, it seems like their plans are:

1. Soon, adding an easier way to request to archive avatar items without having to email the copyright agent. I assume this will just be through the standard support form.
2. Hopefully later this year, a way to easily archive avatar items through the Creator Dashboard whenever you want.

Unfortunately, there will be no way to completely delete an avatar item from the platform, as full deletion seems to only be reserved for moderation/DMCA reports. Refunds also apply here.

The way they have recently gone about with handling archival requests (just taking the items offsale and hiding them from the Catalog) is probably going to stay as this feature develops further.

[MileHighMainEvent]

I wish someone asked what will be done for the people who got punished in the past due to the lack of this feature. Lot of innocent people have lost their accounts due to this, and I’m not just talking about myself.

[SergeantHippyZombie]

Yeah basically I had hundreds of items I wanted to be purged. Support (i guess their software on their terminals) can only accept individual links. So I had to copy and paste them by hand. I didn’t send all of them to Roblox Support. I sent batches in different tickets. Only one batch was removed, which took a few months to do. I didn’t want to have too many open tickets in case they blocked me.

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

That’s crazy. I also requested items to be removed in batches.
Eventually all of them were processed.

I too was concerned that they would block me but I just kept asking questions on why the process was taking so long and sharing my experience here on the Dev Forum because the fact that it took longer than the 30 days they promised was unacceptable.

They promised something, and they didn’t follow through, so I went out of my way to be as annoying as possible so they would clearly understand their behavior was completely unacceptable.

[xyrafrost]

@xyrafrost

• Soon, adding an easier way to request to archive avatar items without having to email the copyright agent. I assume this will just be through the standard support form.

This is now available!

[J9wk]

Unfortunately, I cannot attach every link to the assets I want removed in the text box, should we send them links individually in portions or by linking them everything in the automated reply they send us?

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

Hopefully Asset removal requests can be expanded beyond just Copyright stuff and also we can remove stuff we just don’t want on the site anymore

[xyrafrost]

Didn’t realize how short the character limit was, wow.

Maybe you could either send multiple requests (filling out the form multiple times) or just put the asset links on pastebin or something? I don’t know if replying to the automated confirmation message would do anything.

[notborboss (borboss)]

Has this been successful for anyone yet? Hesitant to use it, given Roblox’s track record.

[TheFreeThinker (Solon)]

So far nothing. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Was this the same support request you emailed out through the Support page?

[MileHighMainEvent]

I remember seeing a post about how we would be getting more information in the coming days but, that was a number of days ago. So I’m not sure what to make of this extra option in their support forum that has already shown a lack of response.

[notborboss (borboss)]

I just got the standard “your request has been recieved, will be removed in 30 days” email! All hope is not lost! (This is in response to the first email I sent, nearly 3 months ago now).

[cpguy5089]

This section has been around for years, except emailing that simply gets the normal support team to tell you to file a proper takedown request through the correct contact - ie, email copyright_agent/ipcontent_removal with a proper legalese DMCA form

[cpguy5089]

Don’t get your hopes up though, I was told that and the assets were never removed for 8 months straight, when questioned again over 7 months in I was told the exact same thing.

[xyrafrost]

It has not, it was added to the support form on May 23.

Here is a Wayback Machine capture from May 22 where it is not there.