Can we ensure Community resources/tutorials are of a good quality

Forum Help
#1

Two of my favourite categories on the forum is #resources:community-resources and #resources:community-tutorials since there are so many great resources and tips from some amazing developers .

However

From time to time I see some resources/tutorials that in my opinion are either way to small/short or too low quality to really be worth posting in the category. The ones im referencing I won’t name and I respect everyone who takes the time to make something and release it for free to the world, however I would rather these categories were only for high quality tutorials / resources.

For example, one recent community tutorial only had 185 words and was pretty much just giving code of Humanoid:MoveTo() Something already documented on the developer hub and arguably way to specific to be a tutorial.

My second point is about ‘Link’ resources / tutorials. This is where the entire post just consists of a link to an external resource. Now in terms of detail, if you follow the ling you normally do tend to lean a lot, however I feel it should be a requirement to at least add some sort of basic text / description before linking the external resource for extra info. That way we can see what the post is about without having to read an entire blog post.

Finally, Another thing which isn’t a negative thing, but just a bit of a nitpick. is all resources should include a gif/image/video where applicable of the assets being shown, just for the convenience of anyone browsing over the post. I know post approval already goes through this, but this should also apply for regulars.

Overall as stated these are some of my favourite parts of the forum, and I respect everyone who takes the time to make a topic there, however I do feel there should be an obligation for the post to be of a high quality.

Side note - I tried to make this post not show anyone in a negative light, however if you feel like some of my points are unfair / badly worded do let me know and I will happily modify :slight_smile:

14 Likes
Make the Resources category for regulars only
[PSA] Common Practices that Shouldn't be Done on the Forums
Community Resources and Community Tutorials should require PA
#2

I’ve been noticing the same, however, I honestly don’t know how that can be permanently fixed soon. Post approval’s been removed from it to reduce their workload (good step, I do not go against that) and the chances of a moderator reaching every topic (help and feedback, tutorial, discussion, everything) is very low considering that there are only a few of them, but thousands of different topics.

What we can do is DM the original poster and tell them how they should configure the tutorial to make it the best it can be. Normal users like us cannot post this publicly as this would count as mini-modding. So, DM is the way to go, currently.

Reporting is not the best thing to do as the topic did not violate any rules or anything along those lines, and they usually put quite a lot of hard work into making them. Just image: splitting down your code and explaining it in a way that is understandable to everyone. Therefore, I believe that it would be kind to DM them so that the tutorial gets fixed, there is no mini-modding, and that they would hopefully carry that practice later on.

2 Likes
#3

I think the main solution I could see solving the problem in this tutorial is the ability to flag them if they are of a poor quality. This then provides them a chance to bring it up to scratch and be re-listed.

However at the same time this post wasn’t really asking for moderation action, since I feel I ask for that a lot and I do understand that PA and community sages are voluntary and busy as it is. I just was saying more of what I wanted to see from the people making tutorials / resources in these categories.

@RBX_Lua I feel this reply is partially relevant to you as well so this is my response to your answer :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#4

I think that it would be difficult and controversial to have somebody deciding which are of “good” quality. Ultimately, I think that (like many other things on this forum) the bar would eventually be dropped so low that it would be irrelevant anyway.

What would be useful for some of these sections would be some sort of voting or rating system, on both topics and replies. In addition to the problem that you have described here, there are presently way too many low-quality, poor, or straight up wrong replies in the support sections.

2 Likes
#5

There used to be a bar, decided by staff about what resources were good quality and which weren’t. It didn’t work out because, at the end of the day, it’ll always be opinionated.

If you don’t think one meets the quality criteria you’re looking for, DM them or post a reply about it politely about what changes / improvements you’d suggest. If you don’t think it meets the quality threshold for the DevForum or Category, you should flag it as spam.

1 Like
#6

Make sure to give people (polite) feedback in replies on their posts whenever you think they can be improved (and how) / are not fit for the category, that way them / other people can see that those things should not be posted going forward.

You can also flag off-topic / very low effort topics.

4 Likes
What's Your Opinion On the Removal of Post Approval For the Resources Category?
#7

I feel we should have some sort of criteria tho, for what is classed as a ‘very low effort’ topic in this category, or some sort of basis that we can say that this post simply isn’t good enough.

#8

There are, in the Official Rules of the Roblox Developer Forums.

Anything additional for Community Resources is just superficial and will be heavily subjective. If a post isn’t good, you can contact the user about it - or alternatively, not read it.

2 Likes
#9

Post approval is removed from every category except #platform-feedback (If I remember). Causing that members start posting low quality threads, however, giving feedback and ideas for those users to create better quality posts would be a great idea. It’s good to see users trying to help the community, I feel that it’s not necessary to post something unique, it’s not necessary to avoid creating topics that are supposed to have the same content as a page of the developer hub, as I said, they are trying to help. The point of this reply is that we need to give feedback and ideas for posting in the #resources category instead of reporting.

#10

Update:

The change to allow Members to freely post in post approval (which im assuming based on what im seeing) is painful, Please can these two categories go back to Post Approval, some of the resources / tutorials being produced are obnoxiously low quality.

#11

I personally haven’t seen a terribly large number of bad posts. We’re doing our best to close out unsuited or inappropriate topics as they appear - you can just ignore locked topics.

Please flag obviously off-topic or inadequate threads in Resources.

2 Likes
#12

Its not like the posts in question actually break rules tho, its just that what they re teaching is so specific and low quality its basically spam.

For example a tutorial on how to make a part look like glass.

#13

Can Post Approval please be put back on #resources. I can’t find any good quality resources by other developers because they are flooded with tutorials on how to change the size or some other studio basics which I already know of.

Nine posts (no offense to the posters) had to be locked for not complying with the guidelines of the category. And that list is going to grow. The only response is “flag it”, which I have done, but why not prevent these posts in the first place.

Edit: people are misinterpreting my reply as a personal attack or as a callout or as an attempt to humiliate. This was never my goal. This would have been impossible if public moderation wasn’t being done, so take your pick.

3 Likes
#14

I was also going to suggest this, but I’m not sure what’s really suitable for our forum at the moment for me to suggest.

  • The PA team is currently dealing with backlog/a lot of requests
  • The PA team added new team members recently, so we’re not expecting new team members anytime soon(or are we :thinking:)
  • Any changes made recently was done to reduce the load on the PA team

So I guess this is what we’ll have to work with for now while the situation improves.

1 Like
#15

Post approval was removed on discussion. Post approval is removed for bugs in #platform-feedback. With the volume of low-quality tutorials I think putting #resources back on PA is worth it.

1 Like
#16

12 posts were moved out for being off-topic.

#25

As one of the authors of the posts you’ve listed I weirdly agree with you. My post isn’t a topic that complies with the guidelines of the category, nor would it comply with any guidelines to any category.

I even asked the individual who locked it where it should be posted, and they did not know.

I think the issue you are highlighting is a gap or grey area in the categories of the DevForum.

DevForum is the only place for Roblox related discussion yet it limits itself to development discussion.

To say that Protecting your Roblox account is a discussion not worthy of the community would be naive, but it is not a discussion that currently fits in with the forum.

#26

Not sure if that is correct, afaik there is also a subreddit for Roblox. You could put general discussion on Roblox there if you are not a Regular. It’s maybe not an official place managed by Roblox but it does let you discuss Roblox outside of the scope of development.

1 Like
#27

That is true that it could be used for more general discussion but I think it’s fair to say that a Roblox-managed platform should be able to encapsulate all Roblox discussion that is pertinent to the community. Maybe we have different ideas of what the forum should include.

#28

Why? This is the Developer Forum, it should mainly be used by developers and contain content for developers.

It’s true that the line between a user being a player or a developer is very vague (Roblox excels at converting players into developers naturally) but I don’t think this has to extend to the content here. Something is either about development or not.