DevRel should not move topics into restricted categories--redirect to alternatives

Let’s look at any of the pinned “About” topics in most categories. What do they all have in common? Right! They say this:

Please do not post bug reports or feature requests here! Always pick the right category for your topic!

So what is the problem? Staff are moving topics from #help-and-feedback / #development-discussion into #feature-requests/#bug-reports . This is bad because it encourages users to misuse categories because they know they will be entitled to having their topic moved to the correct category. DevRel should instead redirect users to alternatives, such as roblox.com/support and @Bug-Support .

Although if a user puts in bold/header font at the top of the topic that they are knowingly posting in the wrong place imo they should be striked given the fact that it was intentional(emphasis on intentional so nobody misinterprets it). The leniency really can’t last this long especially when users knowingly break rules.

a bit unrelated

I’ve seen topics where the OP at the end puts “i posted this because i was bored” so that is blatant posting for the sake of posting, which is/should be against the rules as well

If this is done it will improve everyone’s browsing experience as they will see less off-topic posts.

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Exactly what I said. If this forum allowed people the opportunity to post things in the right section, it wouldn’t cause so much clutter. I’ve dealt with many bugs and wanted to share them, but couldn’t because the category is restricted. They need to provide alternatives. It’s not easy to rank up in the system to simply put down a bug for people to discuss and report on.

I have never seen DevRel move topics from Development Discussion to Bug Reports but if this is actually happening, this is an issue because most of the bug report topics in Development Discussion rarely have any reproduction steps or any useful information to engineers.

They should make the Bug Support method of reporting bugs more available to new users of the DevForum (for example, telling users in the about section to send bugs to Bug Support). That’s what is best for now until members are able to level up again.

Alternatives exist through Roblox Support and @Bug-Support.

Some members of DevRel seem to recategorize these topics whereas others don’t (which is an issue in itself). The whole point of the category being accessible only to TL2+ is exactly that. It only seems right for topics to be moved there if they absolutely need to be, otherwise they should be treated as off-topic like any other off-topic post.

I made this topic because I saw a feature request get moved from some other category. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see the topic in its source category, but it was obviously #development-discussion or #help-and-feedback . The topic seems to be fine, but at the top in bold/header font the OP “excused” themselves by saying they knowingly are misusing the category and asking for a staff member to move it to the correct place. This should not be happening. I hope promotions will be resumed soon, and that should be worked on rather than implicit encouragement of misusing categories

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Better still, people could instead create a bulletin board post instead of in other categories and devrel can check maybe once or twice in BB for bug report or feature requests.

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Basically you’re supporting the idea of misusing forum categories just to make bug reports, alternative solutions have already been provided and it’s better to stick to those to prevent from putting the Developer Forum into chaos. Not to mention if the Developer Engagement Team tolerates this much, more and more people would begin to break the rules as influenced by what they see.

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It’s not 100% a bad idea in my opinion but #bulletin-board is muted by default and there are more topics there that fit the actual use of #bulletin-board than feature requests/bug reports. Ideally they should make a @Feature-Support group or similar, there is one for bugs.

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i don’t see them moving it into other restricted categories but can you show me an example of what ur saying

Moving a topic from #development-discussion / #help-and-feedback to #feature-requests / #bug-reports

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yea because they put it in the wrong category and they are moving it to the correct category

But it completely bypasses the restrictions put in place and implicitly encourages users to do the same which results in clutter.

isnt it being done for posts which are in which more time and effort for repro and use cases put? so even if people try to make feature requests but dont use the format, i highly doubt it would encourage others to do so. if they did follow the format, it just shows that people now know what to do and what not to do, isnt it a good change compared to one line requests like “give free robux”?

then devrel wouldnt bother moving posts to other categories if it was clutter?

Tell that to the fact that new Members of the Developer Forum are breaking the rules because of some of the forum’s new generation “role models” like Members posting trash in #development-discussion, I’ve seen visitors liking off-topic threads in #development-discussion thinking it’s allowed and valid, and the next thing you know that visitor would do the same mistake in #development-discussion, and the cycle repeats. This will just discourage proper usage of formatting, and in doing so, it would not be descriptive on how they reproduced the problem or details concerning about the problems in which the engineer is required to follow the steps for reproduction of that bug or error, or what would the feature in feature requests would address.

It does clutter however, as far as I’m concerned they move this as replies to existing threads, and most “bug reports” with little to not understandable details normally gets trashed.

visitors cant view #development-discussion

:thinking:

Point is moving it for them promotes posting in the wrong category, it should not happen regardless of if it follows the guidelines for a feature/bug

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Adding onto this, I’m seeing a lot of people posting topics in #development-discussion (often deliberately, or at least from users who have been on the devforum long enough to know better) when they’re far better fitted to #help-and-feedback (or in very rare cases #resources)

Off-topic posts should (in my opinion) be met with a warning in the form of feedback, and a post removal (specifically a removal, because simply moving the topics will give other users the impression that they can/should post in DD and have a moderator move it after) - Any further off-topic posts should be met with a strike (or at the very least, one more feedback. At that point, they would have had more than enough warning)
I would say this applies to every forum section, however everyone knows it’s literally only DD that has this problem.

A minor suggestion that could help combat this endless trash is moving DD down on the front page and giving it a much better defined purpose. I feel that two other reasons users keep posting for the sake of posting in DD is because it’s the first thing everyone sees (more visibility = more pointless hearts/views/replies/etc to show on their forum profile) as well as the fact that currently what is on topic is so poorly defined (there’s not even a pinned “this is what this is for” post) that we’re at the point where posts from the perspective of solely players that have nothing to do with development other than the mention of it are approved (and thusly cannot be correctly flagged again)

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I’m pretty sure it’s a bit harsh, to be imposing a 3x warning system, then on to a strike, off-topic posts are a bit too minor as an offense, not to mention new members sometimes learn from their mistakes when they get feedback, some who aren’t new and are still making mistakes only deserved a feedback, but I do believe a more appropriate moderation action taken against them, but as usual we’re people and sometimes we can stray off-topic.
The better for this, is just let the new system to replace Post Approval arrive and #development-discussion would be back to it’s usual state unless, there would be future changes to the forum, which is quite possible!

Maybe you should see my response regarding about this.

Hey @sjr04 and other folks, thanks for your patience. I think this will always be a case-by-case, there may be some situations where it is desirable for us to move over a post from one category to the other. In general we do forward people to the right channels when they post in the wrong category.

Closing this out since this should mostly already be the case and any exceptions are intended.

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