Pls allow members to view off-topic category. I know that when they can post there, there will be lots of spam, but I can’t see any reason for restricting read permission for new members.
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Please be advised of the new trust level naming scheme:
New Member → Member
Member → Regular
Reference: Changes to Developer Forum trust level names - #3
As for your concern, only Sages, Forum moderators and administrators can see the off topic category. There’s no point in allowing the average user to see this category as it’s full of duplicate, low quality and basically inappropriate posts. This is for safety and privacy reasons, but mostly to make the forum a decent place.
If you want to see posts in the off topic category, you’re looking in the wrong place, hence the name.
Edit: If you are referring to the “Off Topic and Bump Posts” thread where bad posts are moved to, the information above is what you’re looking for.
However if you are referring to the Off Topic in the Lounge, that’s actually accessible to Regular Members and above. That category is meant for sensitive topics which Members aren’t ready to get involved in yet.
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If you see off topic posts in the scripting category, or any category, then you must flag them. These posts are usually moved to their respective category once a Sage or moderator reviews that post, or it will be locked and hidden from public, or moved to the off topic category.
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Along with what @wevetments said it is worth mentioning if what you are posting doesn’t belong in any category you have access to don’t post it. More than likely if what you are posting doesn’t belong anywhere you aren’t meant to be posting it in the first place.
This forum is meant for discussion about development and not general off-topic discussion. Letting members use this category will promote more unwanted discussion for this forum taking away from the forums original intention. It is best to keep this category behind closed doors.
The off-topic category has lots of sensitive information and a bit of profanity in some of the topics. Lots of the people that post this sort of stuff there only want regulars viewing it and if this category is open to everyone there could be a possibility that an under 13 users could view this content.
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I think there’s some confusion about what we’re talking about, there’s basically two different things:
- Lounge > Off-Topic category
- Some hidden topics DET/Sages use to move off-topic posts to
That latter won’t ever be visible because it’s just a workaround for not having a way to quickly delete a lot of posts. (in fact Sages cannot delete posts so that’s the only way we have to clean up messes)
That former one is debatable and I think that’s what OP is asking for?
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I am talking about this and I completely forgot the second off-topic category.
You don’t need to view the lounge off topic. Members wouldn’t even be able to reply to it so what is the point. You could use that reasoning on platform feedback and discussion however, those generally have useful information and thus don’t need to be hidden to members. If you want read (and write!) access to lounge, get regular. That easy.
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But it will be best way to prevent spam in #help-and-feedback:scripting-support, bec at most of the spam, i am almost sure, that these questions are in off-topic.
Yeah I wouldn’t do this, there’s just no point. Like who wants to see some gif not jif because that’s illegal /meme which has been cloned in the hundreds in one big thread?
I guess it could be useful for a users suspension evidence?
I don’t see how letting members view the lounge/moderation dump category would prevent spam?
Why do you want to view off topic categories? Nosy much? The “Off-topic and bump posts” megathread from what I have seen (in the replies it shows if someone separated a topic), is just a dump for off-topic posts for moderation purposes. Regular “Off Topic” in lounge is accessible to regular+. So just earn that. It’s really not that difficult.
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If a user’s Roblox account has its birthday set to under 13, are they even allowed to log into the Dev Forum? I’m not under 13 so I’m not familiar with how that thing works here on the Dev Forum.
Anywho, for those still confused, OP is not talking about the “Off-topic and bump posts” megathread; rather, they are talking about the Lounge category.
I don’t think OP is trying to be “nosy.” I think they are saying that letting non-regular members post in Lounge would prevent spam because instead of users posting off-topic posts in development-related categories, they would instead just post their off-topic discussions and memes in the Lounge category, and that would keep the development-related categories cleaner.
I would support OP’s idea if it weren’t for the following:
- Non-regular members already can’t post in the Discussion category without messaging Post Approval
- The Lounge category is already used for posting random memes, sensitive information, and profanity, and those Regulars who currently use the category mostly do not want non-regular members to see that stuff.
- Roblox seems to want this forum to be as focused on development as possible, and probably doesn’t want more chances for off-topic discussion to happen on a forum called the “Dev Forum.”
But maybe there could be a special new version of the Lounge for non-regular members, perhaps with post approval in place similar to the platform feedback category. It would further help to make Roblox live up to what they said when the original public forums shut down: “we’ll be investigating options to re-build forums that better serve you, our community, and our goals in providing a safe and constructive environment.” It could also prevent users from posting non-Roblox-related posts on development-related categories since they would know to just go to the non-regular members’ Lounge.
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You need to be 13+ to use the forum. If you believe a user is <13, send a PM to DET about it so they can investigate.
As for the rest of your post, this is called DevForum for a reason. It was not meant to be the general public forum (RIP 2006 – 2017 
) . Plus how often do you need to talk about something not about roblox? Just do it in roblox group on the main site at that point. Or maybe open a DM with some friends to discuss.
Literally, getting access to lounge is as easy as getting regular. TL;DR you don’t need lounge as a member to use the forum. Lounge doesn’t improve/worsen your experience on the devforums
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Getting regular is more difficult for those with busy lifestyles and those who don’t post in post approval-restricted categories that often. It was recently specified: “[Regular] is the rank that is given to active users who frequently make use of the Post-Approval-restricted categories of the forum and have a clean forum moderation record. Regulars are trusted enough to post in the restricted categories without needing approval first.” (source)
There may be people who make many high-quality contributions to the Dev Forum, but do not frequently post in post approval-restricted categories and/or have experienced some minor moderation. They will be unlikely to get regular, and thus unable to access the Lounge just because of that.
This forum was as much of a Dev Forum before it was opened to the public (i.e. before automatic promotion was added to replace the application system) as it is today. Almost nobody had the rank of “New Member” (now “Member”) until that automatic promotion system was added, so all people who submitted applications and got accepted into the forum were presumably given access to Lounge.
The original public forum had an Off Topic category, and when that category was removed due to the forum consolidation where “Roblox News & Discussion” was added, Roblox probably mainly did that because of raids and toxicity and spam and illegal content being posted, and Roblox completely deleted the entirety of the public forum shortly after the consolidation. If Roblox meant anything by “we’ll be investigating options to re-build forums that better serve you, our community, and our goals in providing a safe and constructive environment,” it must have been the Dev Forum, since they made the Dev Forum public shortly after. Thus, I can kind of see why a Lounge category for non-Regular members may be added.
Group walls are very limited and are difficult to work with, due to glitches, the filter, the captcha, the character limit, and lack of easy searching or organization or categorization. They are not a good alternative to forums. DMs are also not public if your aim is to have a public discussion and find new people to discuss the topic with.
Indeed, a Lounge category for non-Regular members probably isn’t totally necessary, but some people refuse to use other services for ethical reasons, and it would help the forum live up to potential expectations that newly-promoted (namely to what is currently the “Member” rank) individuals may have of being able to have discussions similar to how people used to on the original public forum. Plus, it could prevent people from making off-topic discussions on development-related categories, and it would allow discussion of even more Roblox-related topics than the Discussion category currently allows (based on its description).
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That is not the post approval+ team’s problem.
It’s in the name: Developer Forum. What is the point of a user who has never touched studio browsing devforums just for the sake of getting into lounge?
Duplicating lounge just because one user can’t get regular doesn’t seem like enough reasoning to get something added.
If people are posting off topic categories in help and feedback, that is their issue. We as the community can flag the posts, and staff can further handle the inappropriate post.
tl;dr Just get regular. I’m gonna repeat this because that is how you get lounge
I didn’t say it was. I’m not sure it really matters.
I’m not saying that non-developers should be able to join the Dev Forum just to access the lounge. I’m suggesting that it may be worth giving members of the Dev Forum who are not Regulars access to some version of the Lounge so that they can have other discussions in addition to their postings on development-related categories, with the members almost entirely being developers, creators, artists, etc. Basically, I’m saying that Lounge could be a side thing for other Roblox-related and off-topic discussion in a safe environment. I’m not trying to say that people should be able to join the Dev Forum just to have off-topic discussion.
It would be useful for more than just “one user,” and more than just the kinds of users and cases I have previously described. Even regulars could access it. As Roblox grows, so will the Dev Forum, and you can expect more users with busy lifestyles and who do not frequently use post approval-restricted categories. Besides, most of the active users on the Dev Forum nowadays (or at least those who post on categories accessible by non-regular members) are non-regular members, and it can take quite a while to get regular depending on the user. Please understand, I can’t be the person to give specific statistics, I’m just the person suggesting potential ideas.
But that won’t permanently stop off-topic posts. We will keep flagging them, but they will still keep posting them.
The whole point of this thing that me and OP are suggesting is that it’s a suggestion. If somebody suggests a new idea with potential benefits, you can’t just say “you can still do it the old way because the old way exists already” if there are potential benefits to the new idea, which I believe there are in the case of what me and OP are suggesting.
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I completely disagree with this because as other already said this forum is meant for discussion of development related activities and not off-topic conversations.
I 100% disagree with this idea. An off-topic category would just cause so much chaos. There already is enough horribly written posts out there as of right now. We don’t need a new location for wrong topic posts, quick posts, or TOS violating posts to be held. As @wevetments said just flag them if they’re off topic. I doubt I’d need to go in much detail if you can image just from looking around what would go on. Also it’d cause problems cause fights could brake out and be appealed claiming It’s for off-topic information.
Ok, so why the category is here. I dont see why Regular can view it an Members not. Also, Regular is also for frequent posting to post approval categorys. So it will be good idea to make Member+, that will be only for solutions, … and with it I can post in discusions, … but not make topics.
What?.. No offense but I don’t understand a thing you said. I think if you mean that why there shouldn’t be an off-topic category I think he means cause the Forums are about Development not a Social Media. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
EDIT: Also Regulars earn their right to post and know what to say and how to say it without creating drama or chaos.
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