And look at that, I just saw another topic about the mouse cursor!
It’s important to add that the “What are your thoughts on the _____ update?” topics are also off-topic, as explained here:
It’s pretty irritating at this point that so many users don’t know how to use Development Discussion correctly. The last and only option we have is probably locking the category to Regulars only (but after they are able to get members to level up again).
but how are members able to get a chance to lvl up to regular since post approval is gone
btw i have a question
why do you think “what are your thoughts about this random update” topics are off topic
Most of these topics (like the cursor one) have little to nothing to do with development.
First of all it’s irrelevant, secondly, there’s already topics containing what your stating, for instance, “What are your thoughts in this [feature name]?” when there’s already a topic in #updates or #updates:announcements already covering this up, where you could just reply to the thread, not to mention that appears to be like posting for the sake of posting, and it’s really lowering the standard of good posts here in the Developer Forum.
I have to agree that there are issues with #development-discussion . I saw a topic which was off topic, OP didn’t realize it, but he agreed and flagged his topic for deletion. Now, the problem arises where people will continue to trash with replies, 'This isn’t related to #development-discussion" . Due to call outs not allowed I will just link the topic, where the issue is persistent. Really people should know they should take it to DMs if they feel something is wrong with the post.
ROLVe Community Warning - Development Discussion - DevForum | Roblox
If you read the replies, you’ll get an idea of what I mean.
I was the original poster of the thread above and I do agree that I clearly misunderstood the purpose of the category. I figured that due to the category being ‘development discussion’ that it was relevant to everything development on ROBLOX. Thank you for referencing my post.
Yeah, I wouldn’t recommend posting in #development-discussion until more clearer rules and guidelines comes, because right now, it’s unclear on which can be considered development or not, some topics which are related to development end up getting taken down, while other off topics managed to stay up.
Also I used your topic as a reference to show that the replies is what the main problem is. If a person sees one off topic posts, they continuously spam even though it’s not allowed by the forum rules. What should’ve been done is to just flag the post, or taken it to PMs.
And here we go again, another topic, where people knew he was a troll, but still are replying.
Clearly it’s given:
Edit : removed link due to it being rule breaking, DM me if you’d want
I must say though what doesn’t help is that when you flag it Moderators don’t come right to you it can sometimes be an hour or even 1 day before a moderator take action.
This is a problem which will probably remain on the developer forum unless we have more active Moderators.
Every large community has the problem. its not limited just to here. you just have to be patient. just because mods dont come doesnt mean a topic can be trashed.
It’s pretty ironic to see people replying to trash topics and it reaching 132 replies, while there are many other good topics which encourage discussion, but are hardly noticed.
I still believe you shouldn’t point out topics for examples, you maybe given feedback relating to “call-outs”.
For things like this, I actually encourage the Developer Engagement Team to give feedback and remind everyone who replied to the topic of the following…
It is a good idea to remind them about replying to non-relevant topics, however I highly doubt they would waste their time warning one person, in an argument that inflamed numerous people to reply.
The better suggestion for this is just, for the Developer Engagement Team is to strictly impose the rules, I know they’re doing their best, however limited manpower due to opening a category that many people would mistake as a “Category for Whatever Discussion” even though #development-discussion, is already in the name, not to mention more and more people are entering the forums. I highly suggest that they reform #development-discussion, with a new and better system that would replace Post Approval that may possibly be on the way. For now, let us stick to flagging, and I do believe ranting about #development-discussion would get us nowhere and pretty sure this topic dosen’t help with all the ranting.
Posts like this pop up, where they have outright, literal, by definition nothing to do with development other than the mere mention of it, yet even after specifically paging mods over it zero action gets taken.
If the only thing in #development-discussion thats required to be on topic is simply mentioning development, why bother trying to pretend like the devforum is a professional place? Is it really that hard to unlock lounge instead of forcing members to treat #development-discussion like a dumping ground for posts that would otherwise have zero relevance (implying there was any in the first place)?
This isn’t the first time that a post is deemed not off topic simply for mentioning development, and it won’t be the last unless some serious changes are made (which will never happen lol)
Opening lounge would be a backwards move! They should honestly remove it, not further encourage its use. This would also inevitably lead to exponential growth of non-developers joining the forum just for the lounge category. They should instead promote the use of other platforms meant for this stuff such as discord. They even promote unofficial community servers in their faq:
but it isn’t exactly easily discoverable.
I think they should introduce some kind of reputation system to the whole devforum, where reputation is simply a number given to users and posts; and there would be ways of getting reputation, like receiving upvotes on your post or getting your reply marked as a solution, and ways of getting your reputation decreased, like getting downvotes on your posts or getting your post flagged, etc. And reputation for posts would simply replace the current heart system that only shows how many people like the post, but not how many dislike it.
There’s already the feel of “elitism” between Members and Regulars and having a “Reputation System” wouldn’t really help our case and make things a lot more worst…
The better thing is a system that would replace Post Approval, would be similar to the past system and just restrict the categories all over again, yet the solution may come longer than we expect, and until then, there’s really not much of a solution to out problem.
If you think my topic was not related to development, I’d rather you PM me about it, saying why, than do a public callout such as this one. Maybe I could change and edit my topic using your feedback so it’s more related to development in your opinion and so it is more relevant.
All in all, I can see where you are coming from. However, I did more than just mentioning development on my topic; I asked a question which sparked a good and original conversation for users about what the scariest thing that has happened to them developing is. I don’t see any other category where this would fit than development discussion. It has the word discussion in it for a reason.
Opening lounge, as said above, would not be a good idea. People could come here only to use lounge and not get help or feedback on development and give help and feedback to others. There’s much better ways to do this. Discord exists and I had no idea a DevForum member discord existed, or else I would have asked there.
However, I do thank you for your input on my post. It allows me to learn more and improve how I use the Developer Forums and what posts should and should not be here. Feedback like this helps me out a lot.
If lounge was opened, the state of the forum would worsen. People would intentionally join just to spam some random questions in lounge.
As many regulars have said, lounge should just be deleted. The forum isn’t meant to be a casual chat room, it’s meant to be a professional environment for developers. A lounge has nothing to do with development, and does nothing to contribute to the forums environment.
I still support making off-topic posting have a harsher punishment, but we should punish off-topic posting, not encourage it by opening up the lounge.
I read your post and the original question was appropriate for #development-discussion since you sparked a great conversation.
However, the topic went downhill fast when people started making low-quality and off-topic remarks, such as when users started talking about the storm itself or other storms instead of development.
It’s also good practice to quote other users replies and then make a constructive comment to each one on the same reply instead of making separate replies. This can be done to prevent off-topic conversations from taking place.
It wasn’t your fault at all that the topic got taken down for being off-topic, it was other people making non-contributive replies which unfortunately happens way too often in Development Discussion.
Just because it sparks discussion doesn’t mean it’s on-topic or inherently useful. What do you expect to do with knowing that a storm happened to another developer? What is it that without that information, your games’ development would be halted? They really need to highlight the “topics should be contributive to developers” rule.