I figure this is the right category as it’s UI design.
I’m creating a custom chat module for my development studio’s games, and I plan on implementing emojis. To reduce my pain, I’m uploading all of them as a sprite sheet rather than each individual one. I’ve found a VERY handy github repository that did all the work for me of creating a sprite sheet and cataloging each and every emoji on the sheet. I do plan on condensing the JSON quite a bit by removing unnecessary fields, as Roblox scripts have a character limit.
The obvious issue comes when I go to upload/use the spreadsheet. If I don’t remove the obviously bad ones (e.g. eggplant, middle finger, alcoholic beverages, etc), it’ll be moderated. I plan on replacing censored emojis with the hashtag emoji on the sprite sheet, just as Roblox’s native chat does. Now, the question I’m asking is which of these emojis are censored? Is there an official list somewhere that I should go off of? Are there certain emoji combinations I should also hard-code into my chat filter?
The most I could findd on the topic is this thread on an unofficial site. If there’s no public list, would emailing Roblox support be my best option?
Thanks for any help!
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I recommend basing it off of the roblox emoji censoring, which I believe you can find here-
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@TheKitDev 's suggestion seems like a great place to start. I couldn’t seem to find the actual file with the censored emoji’s, but I probably just didn’t look hard enough lol.
The way I look at it, any emoji with a name/description that would be moderated or otherwise seems like it would go against Roblox’s basic rules would be moderated. Think about it in the same way that you would when uploading individual images.
You could give Roblox support a shot, but they likely won’t take the time to go through and tell you which emoji’s would get censored if there is not a list that they have easy access to to simply plug in and send in an email. Worth a shot though.
Maybe testing suspicious emoji’s in a private server and seeing which ones result in censoring would be the best plan other than the other options available to you.
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I’ll look there. I’ve looked for a while and haven’t found it, and if I recall correctly, Roblox uses a third party filter that they send their stuff through. Otherwise, @CheckYourFacts, attempting to do that won’t work well because since I’m implementing emoji images (and not ascii emoji text), roblox has no way to censor them except for me trying to upload it. The main issue with uploading them one by one is that there’s over a thousand of them. Secondly, as I’ll just be uploading a single sprite sheet, I have to hope I get it right the first time so that I’ll be able to use the entire sheet. Otherwise, moderation action would be taken against my account.
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That’s true. I didn’t mean to upload them all separately, I just meant to play on mobile or something and run through the suspicious ones that are built into your phone or tablet’s keyboard and see if any get censored in Roblox’s default chat. Maybe I’m misinterpreting what you’re trying to do or how Roblox’s chat engine works. Sorry if I am!
Anyways, good luck. It’s kind of annoying that they don’t have a resource for this readily available.
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Yeah, but at the same time we can’t really expect them to. It’s not like they’re just gonna release a list of all the censored words and emojis.
So I do believe that my best option will be to contact the developer relations team and see if they can do anything for me. If not, then I’ll just have to wing it and hope for the best. I do have a couple other options available to me as well as to how to use it.
As for @TheKitDev’s idea, the repository he listed doesn’t have any filtering code in it. It all goes through TextService, which isn’t open-source. AFAIK, TextService, among other game services, are provided by the game’s engine and written in C and C++, not lua. Also, I believe that the chat filter goes through a third party anyway.
Thank you guys for your help! I’ll edit this post with my results.
EDIT: I just censored what I found in the article listed above, and then anything that I personally felt breached Roblox ToS/ToU/PrivPolicy. Basically alcohol, expletives, dating, suggestive emojis, etc. I ended up censoring about 125 of them, and I was successfully able to upload them all without issue.
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