As someone that may use the Talent Hub to gather testers for upcoming projects, I will want to make the job post a volunteering job, no compensation. I believe having that option under that job type would be beneficial for those who would like people who are willing to act as volunteers.
Though I would like to add, as the talent hub expands, people may take advantage of this and create cluttered jobs that have no pay (things that aren’t really volunteering based ie scripting, building, etc.).
If you don’t have to select a job type, it’d be nice to know but I don’t believe you can as of now.
No, this would incentivize people to put up their valuable time for free because they believe they lack skill. This is already a big problem in the entertainment industry. We don’t need that as a category on Talent Hub.
If you are looking for work and think you aren’t good enough, I urge you to reconsider or find experience in a way that benefits you (e.g. by working on your own projects). If you are looking for volunteering testers, instead of taking away valuable time from other creators that they deserve to be paid for, maybe just ask your experience’s invested community for help, or make it easy for anyone to report issues in your game.
What I’ve proposed had the intention of just giving developers to use this new platform to their advantage - in a positive way. In no way would I want someone to not receive compensation, but for those who just want a few people to help test their game, to receive criticism, find glitches/bugs, etc. I believe the Talent hub could be a good area to find those types of people. Of course, there would need to be some sort of way to prevent low-quality posts, it’s inevitable.
I want to use the Talent Hub for finding testers, if I ask people personally, there will be bias in their answers, mostly the bias of positive reception because they are acquaintances with me. With the Talent Hub, I’m finding people who I probably won’t know - which helps grow my game, as well as others, grow.
This platform seems to be aimed at professional-style talent acquisition. You wouldn’t look at LinkedIn to get volunteer creators/testers/etc for your work projects, or to get free feedback on your project.
Developers can ask their player bases for help in dedicated spaces for experiences that they already maintain. If you are looking for free feedback on your work, you can use the Developer Forum for that.
I actually am in full support of this thread. We really need a way to make volunteer jobs such as beta tester. I am working in a new game, and I would defiantly use the Talent Hub for beta testers.
I second this. I’d understand that looking for voluntary beta testers would be ideal on a platform like the Talent Hub, but that would lead into a lot of clutter and the “voluntary” compensation option encourages low-quality posts.
Additionally, voluntary beta testers are often gathered by a community that’s excited to test, because they love being able to do something back for the community they love to participate in. Beta testing / Quality Assurance is a job on its own, requires time & dedication and good understanding of the most efficient way to test & experiment to quickly find the most issues a player may face.
Professional Quality Assurance is a job that I would encourage on the Talent Hub, but I am strongly against a “voluntary” option to avoid low-quality job listings.
While I like the idea of having a place for volunteer work, I semi-agree with BuildThomas. I think that their points regarding people devaluing themselves is a separate issue and I don’t think that it is a strong and relevant reason to dismiss the idea of a volunteering section, however, the Talent Hub currently serves a very specific need and solves a very specific issue.
Without the Talent Hub, there is currently no reasonable way to find talent without surfing through social media sites or looking through the crevices of Discord servers. It is important not to undervalue this need as having money to hire developers isn’t everything. If there are developers who have the money to hire developers but are having a hard time finding the right people due to the lack of a central talent acquisition service, that is a big problem. This means that the primary need of the Talent Hub has not been met yet. While I think that there is always room to expand the focus of the Talent Hub, maybe even to one day accommodate this specific request, currently, at such an early stage, I think it is important the Talent Hub is focused. If the Talent Hub tried to solve multiple related problems at every angle, it would just cause confusion and the main purpose of the Talent Hub would lose significance.
Volunteer work is great but without a well-planned approach, it will most likely just turn into an abused free work situation which would completely devalue the purpose of volunteer work. If Roblox were to ever do anything like this, I would much rather prefer that they attempt it with a clear focus rather than squeezing it into the Talent Hub. If anything, that would be ironic since the Talent Hub only exists because of Roblox’s previous actions of squeezing services into a place where it just doesn’t belong.
Looks like this feedback has elicited some interesting conversations - thanks to everyone for weighing in, and @WooleyWool for originally suggesting it!
Talent Hub is about finding other creators to collaborate with, which is why we do not currently have a ‘volunteer’ job type. I agree with the general sentiment that most volunteer jobs right now would be playtesters, which generally are sourced from the player community rather than the developer community.
However, as Roblox continues to grow and expand, and we continue to take steps towards a metaverse, it wouldn’t be outlandish to suggest that more charities may look at Roblox as a creative option to extend their reach. Specifically, they may look for volunteers who know Roblox to help with that.
tl;dr - as the community continues to grow, the need for a ‘volunteer’ job type also continues to grow, and whilst I don’t see us prioritizing it immediately, I expect it to be a thing in the future.