All forum users should have a path forward to be able to post in feature requests

[pyxfluff (Pyx)]

As a Roblox developer, it’s currently too hard to post Feature Requests, or Bug Reports.

The title was a bit confusing.
A little explanation is that right now, members cant post in sections such as #bug-reports , #feature-requests , or #updates:release-notes . Now, people could say “oh it’s to prevent spam, shut up.” That’s reasonable, but right now, for normal members it’s way too hard to get a bug heard about, or get a suggestion considered.
Right now, this is the newest update on it.

October.
In general, it’s better to let us post in these sections.
With that out of the way, there’s really not much left.
For example, when there’s a very rare roblox bug that seems to break the engine in a way that’s discovered by a member, there is;t much other than messaging @Bug-Support .
For feedback, we are out of luck. There si right now no way for members to get feedback heard of, other than having regular friends to post it.
That’s really beyond stupid in my opinion.
For example, I want to suggest a way that you can change the studio ribbon bar icons.
I cant really get that out, because I’m not a regular, so I cant post in #feature-requests:studio-features , and get it out to Roblox engineers.

That’s really all I need to say on this topic. I wouldn’t have a problem if it goes back to regular only once they find a way to make promotions fair again.

If Roblox were to address this issue, it would improve my experience by being able to suggest things to the platform without Regular status, because they are still closed.

Thanks for reading, and what do you think?

[ItsKoiske (Koiske)]

No and it’s been said why many times. It’s not just to prevent spam. Engineers actively look through those categories. Having people trash it with unrelated posts or “Me tooo!!!” responses only slows down the engineers. Roblox barely trusts Regulars with posting bug reports (since some don’t follow templates or them outright posting them in the wrong category) let alone anyone who just got access to it and doesn’t grasp the gravity of importance that those categories have.

If you have a bug that absolutely needs to be solved, members can message @Bug-Support and submit them through that mmedium.

[pyxfluff (Pyx)]

Yes, and that’s fair, but flagging exists. I don’t really think anybody will comment something like “Me too!!!” or “Omg same!!”, that would say they are probably underage.
Something like “ROBLOX FIX THIS NOW PLEASE HELP MY RBLXO ACCOUNT GOT HAKED AND I LOSRT ROBXU HLP!!!” would be obvious and the user would probably be banned.
And, back to the idea of feedback/ideas. There is no way to get it out right now, or to give feedback on release notes.

[ItsKoiske (Koiske)]

@pyxfluff

ideas

You can give feature requests through Roblox Support. As for feedback I got no idea how you can do it and even then 99.99% of the time it is covered by another developer. Likes exist, use those.

[pyxfluff (Pyx)]

The only responses I go to “roblox support” is automated, copy and paste ones that get ignored.

This one I asked if I needed to filter a dev only message system.
I got an unrelated response, probably automated.

[ItsKoiske (Koiske)]

Well then all you can do is wait? They announced that the regular promotions will be coming back very soon and to not derail the conversation too much, the 2nd email was the right response to your email. You asked a filter related question (that you could’ve asked here instead) and they pointed you to the right resources. At this point you’re just stretching it too far.

[pyxfluff (Pyx)]

@ItsKoiske

You asked a filter related question (that you could’ve asked here instead) and they pointed you to the right resources. At this point you’re just stretching it too far.

I don’t think I phrased it very well.
At the time, I was only a visitor, and I asked if it was needed to have a filter in place.
He gave me a link to the safety article on the chat filter, and how to clock + report users.

[cpguy5089]

@ItsKoiske

Roblox Support

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but support is literally just an automated robot that looks for keywords and, for all intents and purposes, tosses your submission in the trash. Doesn’t matter what section it’s in, since they all get read and responded to by the same set of responses.
Source: trying to get legal issues sorted and met by a robot repeatedly assuming I’m either in the wrong category (I’m not) or asking about a completely different issue entirely (once it even assumed I was trying to completely delete my account under gdpr, and proceeded to do so for two replies straight)

@pyxfluff

flagging exists

But that doesn’t mean people will actually use it, and even then if people do use it that doesn’t mean staff will take action on it. Look at #development-discussion for a very good example of what we’re told vs what is actually put into practice in terms of users using the flag button (they don’t, I’m often seeing users even hearting outright spam and troll posts that don’t even get hidden) and moderation taking action on rule breaking posts (again, doesn’t happen, and they more often than not manually approve those posts. The other day they even approved a straight up advertisement.)

---

Currently the staff team is 100% unfit to handle the devforum as it is, and unless they almost triple the staff teams size as well as getting them to do their job once in a while, there’s literally zero reason to open anything even further (heck, I seriously want #development-discussion to be closed back simply to cut down on visible rule breakers, which would likely also make their job significantly easier)

[colbert2677 (ImagineerColbert)]

@cpguy5089

Sorry to burst your bubble here, but support is literally just an automated robot that looks for keywords and, for all intents and purposes, tosses your submission in the trash.

Canned responses =/= automated replies

Don’t spread baseless rumours please. Roblox uses Zendesk for support ticketing and it has a customer service team to go through and respond to all tickets that come in. A few misses with support does not mean a blanket incorrect statement should be thrown on them.

Support is the proper way to file different requests and without Platform Feedback access it is also an alternate venue. Feature requests and bug reports submitted through the form will still reach the same people responsible so it can be triaged.

[blitzahon (NowYouSeeMeToo)]

@colbert2677

Roblox uses Zendesk for support ticketing and it has a customer service team to go through and respond to all tickets that come in.

Do you have any source for this? I’m unable to find where roblox has mentioned this in my time here.

[regexman (reg)]

Oh please, I just saw billions of posts flag that are using topics incorrectly, they might be fine

[colbert2677 (ImagineerColbert)]

The burden of proof isn’t really on me since I’m not the one spreading misinformation, but yes there are more than enough sources that explicitly state automation is for prescreening or helping sort through the queue and automation cannot, on its own, decisively resolve anything.

First: Roblox Jobs has an opening for a Zendesk Administrator (at the time of writing - checked December 9th, 2021 @ 4:24 AM EST) who will work with various Trust and Safety teams to improve the Zendesk experience to better support users filing tickets.

Next: Roblox’s SEC Filing (November 2020) states that they have over 1700 employees on Trusty and Safety, which includes customer support. Excerpt from Page 97, Infrastructure and trust & safety:

As of September 30, 2020, we have a global customer service team with over 1,700 trust & safety agents supporting users.

And then finally, Roblox’s own knowledgebase, Safety & Civility at Roblox. You can read the section on Our Team & Tools to better understand how Roblox handles moderation on the site. In fact, coming back to the first thing I mentioned, the whole knowledgebase is built with Zendesk.

People who keep saying that support is automated don’t know what they’re talking about and don’t bother to check, find or ask for available information and instead to believe something ridiculous. There’s no basis for this rumour other than receiving a canned response and receiving a canned response does not imply automated ignorance of tickets.

PM me if you have any further questions on this line, since it’s starting to leer away from the topic.

[buildthomas]

@cpguy5089

Source: trying to get legal issues sorted and met by a robot repeatedly assuming I’m either in the wrong category (I’m not) or asking about a completely different issue entirely (once it even assumed I was trying to completely delete my account under gdpr, and proceeded to do so for two replies straight)

That’s not a source, that’s an experience and you’re deriving from that that support is automated, which you have no idea of whether it is actually accurate. Don’t present opinions as sources for facts.

[cpguy5089]

I doubt a human would read “I am not trying to delete my account” and think it would be reasonable to respond with instructions on how to do that exact thing.

[buildthomas]

It’s not constructive feedback to make up facts about how Roblox works internally. Focus on what you see and what needs to be improved, these are the problems feature requests should be about.

[TehPineapplePanda]

I think the issue is that since promotions have ended, there is no way for people to gain that access. I understand wanting to keep it to regulars to keep spam down, but if that is the case their should be some way to gain that rank.

(It seems like people have not been able to rank up since September 2020, more than a year, according to this: PSA: Here's what you need to get promoted to Regular)

It is a bit unfair that you can be an active user on the forum for more than a year and still be unable to use these features.

(Unless someone has a bit more updated information on promotions, I seem to be unable to find any good information)

[ItsKoiske (Koiske)]

As mentioned beforehand, it is coming soon.

[TehPineapplePanda]

Just wondering, is there any sort of confirmed time or date? (ex: any mention recently about updates? Or something saying they expect it to roll out like march 2022 [Just a random date I picked]).

It has been a good 1+ year and I have not really been able to find any info about it besides that forum post.

[santokioS]

Ohh that’s fantastic! Could you maybe link the post/place where it got announced though? I can’t find it anywhere, and probably so do a lot of other people, which is making them still create posts like this.

[buildthomas]

It is referring to: Forum Maintenance: Upcoming Features + Improvements - #6 by Kairomatic

However there is no timeline given.