I have looked around the Devforums to see if there is a similar thread like mine, but there doesn’t seem to be one. So either this idea is unwanted by the community or … who knows ¯_(ツ)_/¯
My idea:
When it comes to hiring people, getting hired or generally partnering up with other people, there’s always the risk of the other party cheating on you in one way or another. To counter this, many people ask and seek other people to vouch for a person to make sure an agreement goes as arranged.
It is my opinion that a user shouldn’t have to ask on the Dev forums, heck even third-party website’s like Discord to make sure the other person he’s partnering upon is verifiable/has honest intentions.
There should be some sort of “Vouching” system here on the Dev forums. This would be useful for both parties since they could “Vouch” for each other and showcase their validity to other Devforumers, encouraging them to work together, commission and or partner up. A feature like this could also work vice versa when an agreement goes bad, a party would be able to voice their opinions and therefore warn other users about potential actors that are bad for one reason or another.
This to “vouch” or “denounce” system can be something simple as a new system where people can go to another user’s profile and either like or dislike said user.
or yet something more complex like being able to comment on an user’s profile.
Poll;
Yes, I would like a similar system as described in the thread.
No, I would not want a similar system as described in the thread.
0voters
To make sure this feature doesn’t get abused, Devforum Members should be the only people access to this feature. But in all honestly, If some sort of system like this does get created, it’s up to the team in charge of Devforum to make sure that said feature doesn’t get abused.
you should always be using written contracts when working with anyone
https://docontract.com/ is a pretty easy way to create a contract if it seems overwhelming
(and also remember to get a parent signature if you/the contractor is under 18)
Agreed, one should always use a written contract when partnering up with another person but in practice does it benefit?
The general populace of ROBLOX is -18 and comes from every corner of the world. Let’s say someone does break a contact, what authority should go on to punish and or correct it?
I believe contracts only really help when there is a " he said, she said " situation wherein the contract can backup someone’s claim.
Other than that… I don’t see the usefulness of a contract. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
That is why they suggested a parental signature, as this would make it legally binding.
In regards to this idea though, I can’t see it working - it’d be a reputation system, and a particularly bad one at that. Shaming would occur instead of private resolutions, which is what should be occuring.
This’d be pretty unfair to new members, limiting off a feature like this. Moreover, it wouldn’t exactly stop people from abusing it.
Overall, a system like this can’t show the reputation of a user. I prefer to see what they’ve created for commissions from the person who commissioned them and in their words, how well they worked yet also the quality.
Honestly when employing someone / buying from someone I dont think this system is necessary.
I always do a basic background check, look at portfolio, vouches. etc. then I go onto whats the deal maker the ‘Insurance policy’
This is basically where you look at their account and see what sort of a reputation they have (for example a famous youtube has a high reputation, an account made a day ago doesn’t) and if they are likely to risk that reputation by scamming in a deal. While shaming should ALWAYS be a last resort its always a viable backup option. If it does come to this make sure it only occurs on personal channels such as a twitter and not on a forum, also be careful that no harassment occurs because of it, since people’s mental health is a very valuable and fragile thing --Exampla of viable denounce message ‘Employed @XYZ recently and wasn’t very happy with my service’
Im seeing a lot of talk about contracts, sure you can make a legally binding contract with minimal effort, but you must consider the costs of enforcing it, considering on average it may cost $1000+ dollars to enforce which for the scale of most dev forum deals is honestly by know means worth it. However it is always useful to try and keep people playing fair, just be aware its an empty threat.
A reputation system would be abused endlessly with people trying to lower rep because a certain piece of work was completed like a day after the deadline due to personal issues. not to mention enforcing the validity of it is hard.
a vouching system kind of exists on portfolios. If you work for someone, most people will always be happy to leave a vouch on your portfolio if you ask them nicely
The advice to just go get a contract is absolutely terrible and frequently repeated.
Most users who aren’t 18 yet are not going to go to the trouble of getting parental signature on every single deal they make.
You are not realistically going to enforce contracts for small (relative to the legal system) amounts. Particularly across national jurisdictions.
There won’t be any realistic consequences for lying about your name on a contract. Go try to explain to law enforcement about how you got scammed out of a $150 Roblox graphic design by someone across the Atlantic Ocean. Deterrent effect exists but is ultimately insufficient, and also applies to legitimate people who won’t sign a formal contract.
This suggestion discriminates heavily against working relationships between developers from different countries, and while these are mostly concentrated into English speaking countries and western Europe right now, this will change as Roblox expands.
Most people won’t want to give out so much real-life information to people for small sums, and don’t even suggest setting up a company to cover deals valued at less than the cost of registering the company.
The actual solution to this problem is to just relax the rules on feedback on posts in the Collaboration section. It’s ridiculous that you have to send a PM to a forum group and cannot simply raise objections to the thread. If someone is selling stolen work, it’s best that a reply indicates this immediately, not some post approver dealing with it potentially a while later after people could already have been scammed. Just require some minimal level of maturity in arguments.
When you’re dealing with thousands and tens of thousands of dollars, you can demand more procedure. But this doesn’t reflect the reality of the Developer Forums.
Finally, in many jurisdictions the deals many users are already making are already legally binding contracts. So please, no more armchair lawyering. The only benefit there to a more “legalese” contract is the clarification of ambiguity when you want to enforce it.
Of course it’s a good idea. This is how sites like Fiverr work. It’s not unfair. You don’t show up on day one to begin work and get equal credit… ridiculous. The main problem though is I believe Roblox would rather not be involved in anything further complicating or involving them in these developer transactions. They have 2 billion in the bank from front end consumer transactions. These micro-transactions on Dev forum are of no interest. Neither are disputes over tiny transactions. Also, contracts are purely a way to guilt moral people into doing the right thing. Unless the contract can realistically be enforced it’s just hot air.