Add 'Beta' category to #announcements

Roblox has rapidly increased the rate at which it has been pushing out beta features this year, particularly with regards to studio. As a developer I prioritize stability, and I prefer only to make use of features that are known to be fully stable and not likely to change in functionality, reducing my maintenance burden.

The increasing rate of beta feature announcements makes it harder to stay informed through official channels due to the inability to filter between announcements regarding fully-released features, and features that are marked as a work in progress.

It’s reasonable for developers to expect clear communication for which feature is safe to use in production or not, as the only current metric regarding beta features is if the relevant topic has been locked from inactivity signifying work on the feature has been stopped, which is far from intuitive.

While studio beta features already have a dedicated drop-down menu in studio itself, this clear separation is not present in the DevForum itself - I propose adding a ā€˜Beta’ category to Announcements, enabling developers to pursue the use of the platforms latest features under their own tolerances for stability.

This would also help foster positive engagement by acknowledging growing developer concerns and providing them with a clear method for evaluating a feature’s stability, and how deeply it could be integrated into their workflow.

21 Likes

Hey, thanks for the request, this is a great idea

3 Likes

We’ll see if we can find some way to differentiate

2 Likes

i believe this should be in Forum Features, unless you just want to flex your ability to post in feature requests

10 Likes

For the time being, it’s mostly disclosed in weekly-recap if a beta feature releases. Sometimes they also make a completely separate announcement for the feature when it fully releases. You could also precise search ā€œbetaā€ or ā€œ[Beta]ā€ in announcements and sort by recent for news relating to beta features.

1 Like

Unintentional! I don’t derive my self-value from making mistakes or posting where other people consider to be worth flexing - I wasn’t even aware of this category being desirable since I don’t regularly engage in the DevForum like I used to back when it initially launched in 2013 (12* years ago, yikes).

I scrolled as far as Feature Requests and assumed Website Features also included DevForum with it being a website.

You’re right, Forum Features would have been more appropriate to post - but I’m gonna hold on making any changes to the post itself since Roblox staff have already engaged with this suggestion - this is something I’ll keep in mind for any future DevForum-related suggestions!