I appreciate this may have been suggested already, however from my admittedly small search I could not see a particular request around this.
To set the scene, a bit about myself:
Click me to understand my story a bit, so you can appreciate where I am coming from.
I’m a professional 24yo full-stack developer these days, although I don’t actually do a huge amount of programming on Roblox anymore. Most of my development time nowadays is spent working on enterprise web applications and systems, which, as anyone working in that sort of environment will know, has a habit of taking up quite a lot of your time! That said, I’ve been around Roblox for a very long time. I first discovered the platform way back around the 2006–2008 era, when I created my first account in an airport lounge, played some of the most ridiculous games imaginable, and somehow ended up really liking the platform.
After spending a good while playing as a Guest, I eventually created the account you see here in 2012—complete with what I can now admit was a pretty terrible username. So while I might not develop on Roblox much these days, I’ve essentially grown up alongside the platform and have watched it change enormously over the years. That combination of being a long-time player and now working professionally in software development is a big part of where this feature request is coming from.
The platform has changed a lot since those days..
Click me to appreciate how the platform has changed
Unfortunately, one thing many younger and newer developers didn’t get the chance to experience was what I’d probably call Roblox’s “days of freedom.” The internet in general was a much less regulated place back then, and Roblox was no exception. There were fewer restrictions, fewer safeguards, and considerably more freedom in how people interacted with one another.
Of course, I completely understand and respect why Roblox has moved away from that model. As the platform has grown, so has its responsibility to protect its users and remain compliant with increasingly important online safety requirements. Some people inevitably abused the freedoms the platform provided, whether through inappropriate content or, far more seriously, predatory behaviour towards children. With that context, it’s entirely understandable that Roblox has introduced stronger safeguards over the years.
With that being said, I do think something valuable has gradually been lost along the way. The ability to easily communicate, socialise, and simply spend time talking with friends was a huge part of what made Roblox special to many of us. Thinking back 10–12 years now (sheesh), those friendships and social experiences were often what kept us coming back to the platform in the first place. I worry that Roblox is slowly moving away from that sense of social connection, and I’d argue that this has had a negative effect on the social side of the platform. There’s obviously a difficult balance to strike between giving people the freedom to communicate and ensuring that younger users remain safe, and perhaps some of these changes are simply necessary given the scale of Roblox today. Still, I don’t think safety and sociability necessarily have to be mutually exclusive—and that’s really where my feature request comes from.
And now for my problem:
Remaining compliant is becoming increasingly difficult.
The same principle applies to the games, places, and assets we create. Roblox has introduced a considerable number of policies, technical safeguards, content maturity requirements, and moderation systems over the years to ensure that experiences remain compliant with both Roblox’s own standards and the wider obligations the platform now operates under. I don’t disagree with that direction; in fact, I think these systems are increasingly necessary for a platform of Roblox’s size.
The difficulty, particularly for developers who aren’t constantly following every policy change, is knowing exactly what those requirements are at any given moment.
Speaking personally, Roblox development is no longer my full-time focus. I work professionally as a full-stack developer, and while I still return to Roblox and have projects and assets here that I care about, I’m simply not monitoring every DevForum announcement, policy update, Terms of Use amendment, or change to the Community Standards as it happens.
I imagine I’m far from the only developer in that position.
This becomes particularly frustrating when an experience, place, model, image, audio file, or other asset is moderated for non-compliance, but the information given to the developer doesn’t adequately explain what specifically is non-compliant or what needs to change to make it compliant.
Why do we need a solution?
There is an important distinction here between moderation and developer guidance. I’m not suggesting that Roblox disclose sensitive information about its moderation systems, provide information that could help genuinely malicious users evade detection, or offer detailed explanations in cases involving child endangerment, exploitation, serious illegal content, or other circumstances where providing additional information could itself create a safety or legal concern.
For ordinary content and policy violations, however, I believe the default should be considerably greater transparency.
If, for example, an asset violates a particular content requirement, the developer should ideally be told which requirement has not been met, where the problem exists where reasonably possible, and what would need to change for the asset to become compliant. Something as straightforward as “This asset does not meet requirement X because of Y; removing or changing Z would allow it to meet the current policy” would be enormously more useful than simply being informed that the content has been moderated.
The objective of moderation should not only be to identify and remove non-compliant content; wherever reasonably possible, it should also help legitimate developers become compliant .
Most developers receiving this kind of moderation aren’t necessarily attempting to circumvent Roblox’s rules. In many cases, particularly with older experiences and assets, something that was perfectly acceptable when it was created may simply no longer satisfy the standards Roblox operates under today. Roblox has changed enormously over the last decade, and expecting every developer—especially those returning to older projects—to have continuously tracked every policy change during that time isn’t particularly realistic.
Giving developers actionable compliance information would benefit Roblox as much as it benefits us. Instead of developers guessing which part of an asset triggered moderation, repeatedly changing things until something happens to pass, or abandoning older content altogether, Roblox could provide a clear route towards remediation.
Tell us what requirement we haven’t met, tell us which part of our content is causing the issue where possible, and give us enough information to fix it.
Here is an example of where this has occurred with my friend:
So, what exactly has been violated in this example?
Is the issue with the game’s chat system? Is there a text box somewhere that accepts client-side input? Is it a particular script or piece of code? Could it even be functionality contained within an asset or dependency that I didn’t personally write and may not realise is there?
That’s ultimately the problem: I don’t know.
I’m not looking to circumvent the rule, argue that it shouldn’t apply, or find a way around Roblox’s moderation. I simply want to understand what is wrong so that I can fix it and get my game back online.
If I’m told that an experience is non-compliant but I’m not told which part of the experience caused that decision, I’m left searching through potentially thousands of assets, scripts, UI elements, dependencies, and other components trying to identify what Roblox has detected.
Even something as simple as identifying the affected asset, script, system, or functionality—and pointing me towards the specific policy requirement it fails to meet—would give me somewhere to start.
I want to comply. I want to fix the problem. I want my game back online. But to do that effectively, I need to know what I’m actually being asked to fix.
Roblox should absolutely continue enforcing its standards. I’m simply asking that, in cases where doing so doesn’t compromise user safety, child protection, legal obligations, or the integrity of Roblox’s moderation systems, developers are given the information necessary to actually meet those standards.
Thank you for attending my Roblox Ted Talk 