Honestly, completely closing Discussion is something that’ll never happen.
This suggestion has been discussed since last year and Roblox has said nothing about it this entire time, so whatever solutions they’re planning to fix the off-topic issue with… It won’t involve heavy restrictions by rank.
So it’s better to give up on this idea since it’s getting nowhere and it’s getting to the point where even the replies repeat the same points dozens of times.
A better realistic solution would be to prevent Members from making topics there while letting them keep the ability to reply there.
This would still give Members a chance to participate in Discussions while also solving the off-topic problem.
If you ask me, it’s better to stop discussing this idea since it’s clearly not getting anywhere and move on to other suggestions like mine.
( Actually the suggestion came from someone else, but still. )
I think that is the point of the topic. To not allow members to create topics freely, at least not without some sort of approval system, since any sense of professionalism has clearly been lost in that category. Not to prevent them from replying as well.
Well, the problem basically started around the time this thread was created which was when many people wanted Members to be completely banned from the category.
So I’m guessing the point of this thread also involved not letting Members reply on Discussion, though after reading the OP’s paragraph however…it looks like he wanted the Post Approval team to return as a second option. Which is a good idea ngl.
Though, I kinda doubt PA will return since we havent heard anything about it this entire time.
I don’t really check the category, but after reviewing PLENTY (like throwing pitchforks in San Mateo) of threads like this, I think it should be closed.
Yeah I’m supporting this again. Now people are all of a sudden trying to give legal advice, personally attacking exploiting software developers and users of these softwares, accusing them of breaking the law, which is simply not okay. Cheating isn’t okay either, but claiming that someone is breaking the law is not warranted either. When exploiting is mentioned in that category everyone goes toxic.
We want to professionally discuss development, but it’s pretty hard to do so at the moment. If it’s really necessary for the category to stay open, at least open a new category where only tl2+ is able to create topics, and even make it public since the original one needs to stay how it is right now due to legacy content. Still allow tl1 to reply though, the category was fine with them replying
I personally didn’t even like devforums going public, but times change, new developers need a place to go.
You want to know how to fix the problem? Flag low quality posts that don’t comply with forum rules, or take it upon yourself to message the user and urge them to fix it. I don’t want the low quality posts either, but I’ll at least understand that Roblox wants this to be open and that if we want to retain that high quality, we regulars need to set the bar high and help raise the new people up rather than pointing at them and going “ew gross, low quality poster”.
People do flag, but there is the underlying issue of people not thinking before posting that isn’t solved still, and some cases people do flag correctly but for some reason dev engagement disagrees and prevents the posts from being flagged even though they are correctly being flagged, this was the case for some people with the topic i mentioned.
When you flag, there’s an option that says “message this user”. Use it to tell them what’s wrong with their post and what they can do to make it better.
As you know, you are now unable to become a regular. Therefore, there are many responsible people who do not have regular. It would be unfair to them to make this change, although it isn’t a problem for you, you are a regular. It is important to keep other people in mind. Simply punish the people who misuse the forum. No need to punish the people who are responsible.
I believe the reason why people are making lower quality topics/posts is due to the closure of the regular rank and the fact that people are just giving up on becoming a regular.
I can say the same for myself. I don’t see the point anymore.
This is inevitable, and I believe it was the right decision to open the forum for all. It wouldn’t be fair for users who are wanting to use this resource for development-related objectives to be locked out and have to learn the hardest way, I would consider that really unfair.
The thing that the devforum lacked when the discussion was opened to all was the idea to have an approval system or some sort of way to prevent spam topics. By adding this, it would help reduce the number of ridiculous posts that are seen today.
Currently, people are only joining to get the regular role, which isn’t how development works or even the usage of the devforum. We can see this just based on the help topics. I believe that the pause for regular is the right decision currently, people are just going to grind out for that regular role which defeats the whole purpose of the forums in the first place.
Until there’s a solution to all of this, people should think about the following when posting a topic in the discussion category:
Is this topic related to development?
Is there another topic that’s very similar to another one? If it is, consider replying to that post rather than creating a new one
Are you asking for help? If you are, post in one of the help sections that are related to your need
These are a few questions to think about, there are probably more but I can’t think of anymore.
I suppose this is just my old habit coming into the light, but back when the forums were private, they were considered a professional area (unless it was the lounge, hence its name, which was considerably more lax). The big thing that a lot of old members like myself have in terms of issues with new people is exactly this. The point isn’t for some personal care (or lack of care). The point is to contribute. This place is a resource, and when it gets cluttered with poor posts on the count of “meh, I can’t make regular, no point”, it taints the value of this place.
I suppose that “value” I mention has different meaning depending on when you came around. For an old hag like myself who has been here for almost 6 years, it means that everyone knew exactly what they were doing and you were going to get a good reply 90% of the time someone bothered to make a reply. Now, you get people giving terrible advice on support threads that makes me want to tear my hair out. That’s the issue I think most “vets” like myself have. We are used to a pretty high bar, and it’s painful to watch that bar plummet down into the abyss.
It’s a tough situation. I wish there were a simple solution but the only one is to embrace change, and at least make sure people care when they post.
First, we need to know about the types of off-topic posts. There are five types of off-topic posts in #development-discussion:
Type 1: Posts that are unintentionally off-topic
Usually created by the newest members who post in Development Discussion for the first time who post topics that they did not know were off-topic. Most of these are about updates.
Example: “Hey what did you guys think of the new clothing update?”
Type 2: Posting things in DD without knowing about other topics
Also created by newer members of the DevForum who post a topic in Development Discussion because they do not know of other sections.
Example: “Now hiring! Low-poly builder with two months of experience”
Type 3: Posting in DD to grab attention
Posted by users of the DevForum to try to share their opinion on recent updates or moderation actions and have typically nothing to do with development at all. They will usually point out that they know they are posting in the wrong topic.
Example: “I know this is the wrong topic, so please don’t flag me, but I really dislike the display names update”
Type 4: Posting topics in DD asking if it can be moved to Regular only categories
This type of off-topic post is done solely by members, and they post a bug report or feature request and ask for it to be moved to that specific category.
Example: “Please move this to bug reports: My studio isn’t working and it takes a long time to load”
Type 5: Spamming absolute trash in DD
This is pretty self explanatory. This type of off-topic post happens very rarely since moderators are very fast in taking these topics down. These type of topics can also happen in other categories, but they usually happen in DD
Example: “MY FRIEND JUST RICKROLLED ME AAAAAAAAAA”
What we can do about it:
Especially with post approval being deprecated, we currently cannot prevent members from posting in DD, we just have to make a few small changes to decrease the amount of off-topic posts.
I am pretty sure a lot of people will disagree with me about this opinion but I honestly think some off-topic posts can be prevented by moving the DD category further down, towards where the Forum Help section is. This will make Help and Feedback become more of the “general” category instead of DD. This will also make some users read the other sections before posting in DD, therefore stopping Type 2 off-topic posts.
I also recently saw this post in the forum help section about limiting the use of DD around updates.
Many off-topic posts are about updates (Types 1 and 3) and this could potentially decrease off-topic posts. I was also thinking of adding to the text that appears when you post in DD something like:
Posts about updates are not permitted on #development-discussion unless they are about development.
And to stop the posts that ask moderators to move a topic there should also be something that says:
Do not ask for topics to be moved, this will get your post deleted.
If we can make some small changes like these, DD will be a little bit better without having to lock it to regulars only.
People don’t know the meaning of sbp(Search before posting) anymore, a post is literally number 1# (trending?) and people create a new topic instead of replying. It’s such a weird mentality on the devforums
People are just gonna say “this is about development since I get all my dev money from trading” about an update where the trade button is added to profiles. We need to just forbid these.
My frustrations are getting and higher as the time goes on. Development Discussion officially has become the catch-all category of the forums, with topics that even are no longer related to development on Roblox at all.
DET is ignoring us on this point. They didn’t do anything except for telling us to keep flagging these topics. DET, I came here for a place to have a serious discussion about development related things and to use this forum as a resource. I didn’t come to flag things over and over again and nor for scrolling though a clutter of off-topic topics.
Fix this huge problem!
If you don't agree with me, please check these topics made recently.
