Since Post Approval was removed, I’ve seen a few compromised accounts spam the n-word or other offensive stuff all over the place like #development-discussion or the #help-and-feedback categories.
Since the DevForum already has a filter in place in terms of links and “forbidden words,” as well as a “moderation approved before posting” system for Discord invites. I feel like those filters should be expanded with offensive words that might break the rules.
This should be added as a countermeasure if one’s account gets compromised and the hacker decides to go ham on the user. This would also protect the compromised user from completely losing their reputation on the site since a lot of users actually look into this kind of thing as well as share on social media “for the lulz” or to criticize the new members and/or the state of the DevForum.
The filtering capabilities on the forum AFAIK are limited to a forum-wide word blacklist. Since users are allowed to swear in some private categories, there are few words realistically bannable, and even then this will not stop users from spamming at all. They’ll just modify the words the same way they do with the much more sophisticated filter on the Roblox client.
There is a filter for really strong words – not saying which, but it is not like discord server invites. It just replaces each character with these boxes: ■
Making them require approval like Discord server invites will allow DevEngagementTeam to look into the context.
Then let’s not filter out the less extreme swear words? Yes there will be bypasses but that is more reason to flag posts that do this.
Perhaps we can go to discourse meta to resolve
many are disgusted by the forum’s current state and we should make use of all the discourse tools considering many of them go unused, or requesting new ones if it isn’t worth making a plugin for it.
I run a separate Discourse forum and I know that the filtering capabilities that I suggest are available. Even the links one is just an approval blacklist.
To clarify, it’s a no-brainer to add slurs to the blacklist. I’m simply saying a word blacklist will not have the effect anyone is hoping for. People already committed to spamming these words will find a way around any sort of filter.
cc @Krunnie - I am not arguing a filter does not exist?
A solution may be to silence and flag accounts that attempt to use certain blacklisted words, but this likely requires a plugin.
I can see what you mean based on the bypasses that can happen. Surely there’s gotta be a plugin that can stop it rather than manually adding words, right?
I never said anything like that. I said that the current filters do have the capability to censor those. Plus, I will add, I don’t think that we can use the n-word freely even in #lounge, do we?
I totally think a “report user” feature should be added quickly. There is a plenty amout of users that just use the forum as a place to argue and create some bad-quality topics.
Generally when people break the rules it is through posting, so a reply/topic, which can be flagged. If it is something else like an inappropriate bio or being underage or something you can dm DevEngagementTeam about it.
Full support, some of the topics I’ve seen in discussion on Twitter litterally disgust me, people are discussing thing and saying things which would not be appropriate in any conversation between any two adults let alone a developer forum for users from the age of 13.
These recent posts have just been another nail in the coffin of what the forum has become in recent months.
Throughout the years, the community has displayed their dissatisfaction with the ROBLOX filter countless times. To my opinion, adding a filter to the Devforum seems like an awful idea.
Sure the quality of the forum continues to deteriorate but I would rather let that happen than having to deal with a stricter filter on this forum.
Since when has the forum deteriorated itself? Sure, #development-discussion isn’t too hot right now, but it doesn’t mean the whole forum is falling a part.
also if outright rejecting posts, requiring their approval, or blocking out swear words that might be acceptable or might not be; the system can automatically flag posts if they trigger a certain filter.
roblox’s filter is actually really good and uses powerful cutting-edge technology. it’s just people are upset that the filter… does its job.
I would also like to add on when certain media (such as images) are being uploaded to the CloudFront, such media should go through filtering like OCR to well, prevent this:
With the DevForum being increasingly more easy to gain access to, putting measures like these in place can ensure a professional and non-toxic environment, which I assume is Roblox’s primary goal for this.
The system actually relies on artificial intelligence, which will never be perfect. As it’s not perfect, it’s very easy to pick on it for minor issues, in the long run, they’ll probably be fixed but it’s a bit pointless to just throw comments like this at a system as dynamic as this one.
It’s deliberately strict so Roblox can keep compliant with certain child-related measures to prevent certain restrictions from being placed against Roblox.
Please keep in mind this user has been banned from the forums. It should have been common sense that, if he did that he would be banned. However for those wondering what happened to the user. Apologies it wasn’t caught faster.
There is measures to prevent this already, however it’s a computer program not perfect against a person trying to use all the possible loopholes as mentioned before by PeZsmistic
