Explicitly clarify that using Development Discussion to circumvent Platform Feedback post restrictions is not allowed and stop dismissing those flags

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#1

With the removal of post approval in September, members are unable to use the Platform Feedback category. I’m not sure what the progress on a new process is because Developer Engagement hasn’t been transparent about that, but I digress - that’s not my business.

As members are unable to post in Platform Feedback, there are a number of users who are circumventing post restrictions by posting prospective topics in the Development Discussion category, framed like a discussion to appear okay for the category but actually intending to be a feature request. These topics are already not allowed.

Such circumventions most commonly appear in the form “should Roblox add X” and other variations of this title. A platform feedback thread already doubles as both a thread to discuss a feature and a place for the community to provide feedback for platform improvements, so a discussion thread would in effect be an unnecessary duplicate. I can understand the point of gathering opinions before putting it to a real request if one is unsure of the reception, but you can easily just withdraw that request (? provided the staff member reviewing a request acknowledges the withdrawal and doesn’t continue processing it internally).

I’ve done a lot of flagging on such threads but I can’t understand why sometimes I’m told that the thread was already reviewed and it was determined the thread was okay. This judgement is or should be incorrect and needs to be flipped to stop enabling misuse of the category. It’s not about improving Development Discussion, rather upholding the spirit of the rules in proper category use.

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The forum is producing a lot of spam right now
Restrict Development Discussion to only be used by Regular+
Restrict Development Discussion to only be used by Regular+
The forum is producing a lot of spam right now
#2

I flag topics like this regularly and they are often taken down. Are you using the Something Else option and explaining clearly what the problem is?

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#3

I use the Off Topic option when flagging these threads. Often they do come down but there’s an occasional exception where the “we’ve reviewed this and it’s fine” message is shown to me, which then I escalate it up with the Something Else option and explain from there.

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#4

I strongly agree with you :+1:

After the removal of #platform-feedback the amount of Platform Feedback Topic has drastically increased and most of em’ are topics created more than 10 times.

Hoping #platform-feedback will come back :pensive:

I didn’t want to make a post because I didn’t want to kinda not been seen as an enemy/rude guy to people who post these Topics :disappointed:

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#5

There isn’t much that can be done other than having a template when creating a new post that basically reminds people of the rules (example below from #platform-feedback:engine-bugs)

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However, those prove to often be useless since no one really reads those.

#6

Discussions can’t and shouldn’t be templated. Additionally, I’ve stopped banking on the idea that people would actually read anything as clearly evidenced by use of the forum. Discussion is so unclear about its use though and has so much wasted space that a note like that would be hard to go unread, even if it is still just as easy to ignore by our users who care more about stats or getting answers than to understand how the forum works and respect processes.

My primary pain points are two, but probably trivial as well:

  • These threads are off topic and Developer Engagement shouldn’t be saying the threads are okay. Use of the Something Else option helps correct this judgement though.

  • Users think Development Discussion is an all-encompassing category even though its primary intention is to discuss development on the Roblox platform. We have a category for requesting features and posting reports, which hasn’t had its quality review process renewed yet.

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#7

I’m not talking about templating discussions. I am talking about putting rules in there as a reminder that #development-discussion isn’t #lounge for new members.

#8

They should’ve immediately supplied members with an alternative outlet instead of cutting them down. People want their opinions and voices heard. Silencing them will only backfire immensely as we have witnessed over the last 2 months.

I for one have no sympathy whatsoever for the people running this forum. This problem could’ve easily been avoided.

3 Likes
#9

I highly agree, purposefully posting in any incorrect category should be taken more seriously. I feel like a strike should be given rather than a pitiful feedback message as the user is disobeying the rules which every user of the forum must follow.

Odd that some of your flags for these types of posts have been unapproved, I haven’t had that before. May possibly just be a mistake by the moderator.

#10

I actually disagree with you. When i first posted on the forum i didn’t know you couldn’t put bug reports in discussion. You should be given a feedback message first. Then a warning. THEN a strike. New users make mistakes. And getting a strike for that first time?

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#11

I disagree. In fact, I think that’s harsh to the point of being unreasonable. People learn by making mistakes, and if they are chucked out after only a few, they’ll stop posting at all out of fear of being chucked out. There’s nothing wrong with making mistakes, the problem is when people ignore feedback and continue making the same ones.

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#12

I agree with @goldencowboy he didn’t do anything bad actually he did something good to tell about us devs *and the admins to discuss how we stop this issuse i think that some *some not all shoutout to @TaipanVII and @Moxyll for actually give warring and sometimes help you

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#13

This happened because you didn’t read the rules nor the category guidelines or check the rest of our categories and their purposes to determine if where you were posting was the correct category or not. This is primarily on you and it comes back to what I, as well as others, have said in the past in that people don’t read information or try to understand our processes first. That being said, this also does speak to the vagueness of the category guidelines.

Admittedly, despite that, I somehow still think including some readable information is still a good solution for some of the problems on the forum, which is what this thread is banking on. It doesn’t typically work but Development Discussion’s category guidelines and post outline (the message that appears in the box that can be deleted) is so vague and ambiguous that a big “NOT FOR SUGGESTIONS OR BUG REPORTS ABOUT ROBLOX” can have enough visibility to deter at least some category misuse.

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#14

@omgcchheeessee

How would a new Member believe that #development-discussion, which has guidelines and rules there to read, be thought as a place to post bug reports despite there being bug reporting categories?

This is once again proving my pointing my point of:

As they have simply not read the rules.

@rogchamp

I agree with this, however, purposefully posting there because you haven’t read the rules is not ok. Far from ok, hence why I suggested the tougher punishment.

This is not “unreasonable”, it is fair punishment for those with ignorance to read.

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#15

I completely agree, this is a serious problem.

Forum members are discovering that they can’t post in website features or bug reports and decide to go in development discussions.

What’s really disturbing is that a lot of these people know the rules, and purposefully post in Development Discussion.

I don’t know about this, but perhaps a solution would be you have to take a quiz on the rules of a category before posting in it? Then there would be stricter punishments, as the only way to post in the wrong category would be to deliberately disobey the rules.

2 Likes
#16

I still cannot understand why members are allowed to post in discussion. Most of the topics written in that category are ussually created by “New members” and add nothing to the community itself. Buildthomas said that the purpose of this was to “remove the feeling of superiority of Regulars”, but I don’t think such things exists. I’m a member and I HATE seeing those stupid posts and I really would like to be unable to post on that category.

My flags ussualy doesn’t work either, but I don’t receive a message to let me know that the post was already reviewed, DevRel just ignore them.

3 Likes
#17

Still, a STRIKE for putting something in the wrong category? Also i did read the rules (I was a bit fuzzy on them because it was a lot to remember). However like @rogchamp said everyone makes mistakes. It should at most be a warning for the first time. Extreme punishment like that should be reserved for people who do it over and over that are obviously ignoring the rules.

1 Like
#18

It cannot be argued that this issue has started upon the opening of the category to tl1 without some sort of approval of posts before they hit the forum.

Peacefully, I think that the solution to this problem isn’t adding new rules, because nobody reads them, and shoving them in someone’s face would result in a bad ux, but rather the solution would be temporarily closing it down until devrel gets their approval system in place. I asked developer engagement team about it, they said they had a team working hard on it. So I don’t know if it’s a completely automated AI that scans the post and checks if it complies with the rules or whatever lol (but that would be badass) but a system is overdue and it has clearly shown that opening a category that was previously closed causes chaos. I thought we learned from that.

@omgcchheeessee there is literally no reason to not use the correct category. If you read the rules you can’t post in the incorrect category. It is physically impossible. Also:

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#19

I’m not disagreeing with you on the part of if we should punish them I’m disagreeing with you on the how much part. I totally agree there should be something more than a reminder. However I don’t agree that you should get a strike first time. I mean you post something in the wrong category 3 times your banned!!! Strikes should be reserved for people who deliberately try to break the rules over and over.

#20

To clarify I didn’t say anything about how you should get a strike for first-time offenses. I do think it should be beyond feedback for the second time though, preferably a warning (Discourse has warnings built into it), then the third time a strike. Kind of like mini three-strike system which goes 3 strikes and you’re out, but the mini version would be 3 infractions and a strike.

In fact Discourse has a lot of moderation tools, many of them going unused (like warnings and silencing, although for the latter due to how big the forum is, there simply might not be time to silence rule-breakers, so it is easier to just get rid of them), developer engagement team should try them out.

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