Change permissions to be based upon age-verification

Forum Help Forum Features
#1

EDIT:

I understand the concern, I’ve rewritten this to address those.

As a Roblox developer and DevForum user, it is difficult to have mature discussions on the forum or get useful and relevant information due to a portion of the users being -13, or common players, which can lead to off topic discussions. I’m not going to go into detail about this, you can read more about it here.

With the upcoming release of age-verification, I believe all users should have to verify their age before using the developer forum; this will deter -13 users, but also general players who may not have any other use in verifying.

This would resolve the following:

I would like to see this implemented and I see no real reason why this should not be a feature. Once this feature ships, it should be implemented as soon as possible.

If Roblox were to implement this feature request, it would resolve the following issues:

  • -13 users. (Cannot verify if they don’t have an ID with the right age).
  • Users with no real development interest.
  • Spam accounts/Alt accounts. (I assume you cannot verify multiple accounts with one ID.)

My suggestion is to remove what’s currently called “Regular”, (TL2), with “Verified”. These users can post in most categories without needed approval for their posts. They also gain access to create topics in #development-discussion, #bug-reports, and #feature-requests. #lounge will be deprecated.

For those unverified, they get TL1, which gives them permissions to post in only basic categories, such as #help-and-feedback, and meta. This should allow for new, unverified developers to have a small amount of permissions.

Please note I am not in favor in giving verified people what is considered today as “Regular”, I’m suggesting completely removing that role and replacing it with a verified role.

In response to the obligatory "regular is required, I need regular, I want #lounge", etc.

The current regular role has little to no use and should not remain a part of the forum. By replacing the role with a Verified role, it allows developers with a vested interest in developing to gain access to more categories to post on. Developers who are unwilling to put in the time and effort to verify themselves only have access to basic categories and permissions.

#lounge is legacy and should not remain a part of the forum. I’m not suggesting making the new TL2 an elitist level, just a level for developers who have enough vested interest to put in the effort to verify themselves.

26 Likes
Reopen Member To Regular Promotions Please!
#2

Totally agree with this one but some of the downsides that are to this is that 13+ developers that don’t have an ID to give or their parents aren’t comfortable with verifying their child will get locked out of potential resources that they can grasp from the fact that they’re part of this forum and able to have a conversation with other people.

30 Likes
#3

This would be incredibly detrimental to the entire devfourm community. I’m 18 and I don’t yet have a state ID or drivers license. If anything, they should give verified users access to the possibility of regular rank promotion. Also, not everyone wants to give their id to a site for verification. Even when I do get a state ID, I probably won’t verify it on here. In the growing age of digital privacy concerns, keeping all users locked at TL0 would be detrimental to so many people and would extremely hurt the developer community even ones that have the ability to verify, they might not want to.

29 Likes
#6

This feature has already been announced.

https://blog.roblox.com/2021/09/introducing-age-verification/

4 Likes
#7

Not necessarily lol.

My 12 year old sister has her own school ID and uses it for her own stuff but we still monitor what she says and does online. Its not because we don’t trust her, it’s that we don’t trust others online.

2 Likes
#8

Pretty sure they’ve specifically asked for government related ID. TBH, it feels awkward handing over a government ID to Roblox. My government ID has certain personal information, like the ID number, which if ends up in wrong hands can result in voter fraud.

I don’t have any other government IDs, I mean what am I supposed to do? To go to school or to collect government IDs lol. If roblox were to accept private IDs like school ID card, or a marksheet, it would be 100x times better.

Instead of asking to upload one government ID, they can also give option of uploading two private IDs or documents like school marksheets or school ID, etc. They are pretty much harmless, but a really good way to verify, since a school doesn’t lie about birthdate.

And school IDs are given by private schools? Idk how you classified it as government.

4 Likes
#9

This is possibly the single quickest way to kill a community. Just because someone is able to provide ID doesn’t also mean that they want to do so. As someone over 18 if I saw such a requirement to join a forum I was on the fence about I’d quickly run the other way. An invasion of privacy this big shouldn’t be on a forum dedicated to being an open resource.

The <13 problem is a real one which greatly affects post quality, but it’s not one that requires an authoritarian solution.

35 Likes
#10

ID verification is a very controversial update, and even though most developers are able to verify their age, many choose not to because of the current state of account security. Until we get better security features such as the upcoming 2FA Authenticator, we can’t trust Roblox with personal information because it can get stolen so easily.

Also, I really don’t see the point in verifying an ID just to use an online development forum, but I do think your reasoning was very good. The DevForum has many problems, but ID verification is not the ideal way to fix them, even if it is the most effective.

7 Likes
#11

Keep in mind ID verification isn’t just exclusive to the forum, but also other aspects. Chances are it’ll be used for DevEx verification too.

Additionally, I’m in support of basic permissions for unverified users, such as the ability to read posts in most of the categories. I don’t think it’s unheard of to require verification of certain information to gain access to certain resources.

Let’s not make speculation here, this is absolutely ridiculous. It’s simply not that simple and I suggest doing a bit more research other than popular content creators only giving the negatives. :slightly_smiling_face:

4 Likes
#12

But still, Roblox is putting this forum in the direction of it being all-inclusive towards developers. Adding such a security measure will likely pull many developers away from the forum. New developers wanting to learn how to script will be severely limited in their options for learning, since they won’t be able to make a DevForum account to go to #help-and-feedback:scripting-support to ask a question unless they go through the ID verification process.

The age verification process described in that blog post seems like a massive invasion of privacy to anyone. You not only have to scan an ID but you then need to record a video of yourself so they can analyze it.

1 Like
#13

I cannot help but feel that this would only turn the forum into a ghost town - applying such a restriction will hurt the forum more than it will help it. Most people aren’t exactly comfortable with sharing such private and confidential information online. Additionally, I don’t think <13s are enough of a problem to justify this proposal.

5 Likes
#14

DevEx, out of all things, does not require ID. You provide Tipalti with your tax information and that’s verified with the government without the need of some intrusive verification process. Any job you take would require that information to pay you regardless, so it’s actually necessary.

Anyways, a lot of people just aren’t keen on giving ID when it’s completely unnecessary and this just alienates them.

5 Likes
#15

I like the idea, but it adds shade to the forum’s goal of being an open community.

Pretty much everything I’m going to say, Autterfly said better, but basically, not everyone has an ID or would like to present one just to use the forum. Me for instance, I’m 18 turning 19 soon and I don’t have a single valid ID. The pandemic has prevented me from going to the nearest office to register for at least a drivers license.

7 Likes
#16

Btw your talking about putting almost 100k+ TL1 people back to TL0. Just think about that. The reason why they have announced for the main website is cause users have an option to choose whether to verify or not.

Your stating users must verify, else no access.

Besides, roblox hasn’t even mentioned which third party site. What if confidential info gets leaked? I bet you Roblox cannot be held accountable as it’s stated third party.

1 Like
#17

Yeah, I can relate I’m currently 17 and I don’t have any form of identification except for my passport and birth thing which I’m not really sure I want to be sending that to a site even if it’s verified.

I’ve been doing all my years of high school online using pen foster so I don’t have any up-to-date school IDs or do I have any of my past school IDs.

I feel like people’s opinions change when it starts to benefit them instead.
And If they don’t accept any other sort of Identification other than government-issued IDs I see this practically useless as once again that blocks access to the forums for users who are under 16 (average age for driver permits) leaving a 3 year age gap from 13 - 16.

4 Likes
#19

Agreed!

I’m not about to give my information to Roblox, and I don’t even think my parents would allow me to do that. This would most likely make me quit development on Roblox and move somewhere else.

3 Likes
#20

This is one of the worst ideas I’ve heard in a while. Just think about all the new devforum users that will be killed off because they have to verify their ID, but can’t because of various reasons. Roblox is powering imagination, not stopping creativity. There shouldn’t be a border for creativity for developers. Maybe instead of having verification, make the devforum rules a bit more strict, so people don’t go around spamming stuff and actually read the rules.

7 Likes
#21

You can use a fishing license as a way to verify for other things, so hopefully you can just buy a $5 one.

2 Likes
#22

I won’t be verifying for devforum if I have to, it’s all really stupid.

2 Likes
#23

We don’t have a license for something trivial lol.

1 Like