If they add a chat filter in devforum im moving to scratch games, I am very serious.
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I feel like this should have been in place from the start, even if it meant delaying the launch of the Talent Hub. You have a pretty nice looking chat system for applications, but then you officially encourage off-site communication? By doing this, you are kind of saying you don’t care that much if a user is safe, just that the unsafe things don’t happen on-platform.
Allowing Discord doesn’t solve anything. I know too many good developers including myself that don’t use Discord/aren’t allowed to (surprise: being 13+ doesn’t mean you don’t have parents!) but Roblox has always been seen as a safe platform for communication.
I do agree that there should be a filter in place, but at the same time, the DevForum doesn’t have one, so what, really, is the difference? If you insist on a filter, my suggestion is that it just block (all) language, inappropriate messages, etc. if people bypass it because it’s weaker, people can always report.
Currently the best solution is DevForum, but I’m interested to see what Guilded is like in the future. Currently it’s so similar to Discord there’s no way I’m allowed to use it, but that could change in the future. However, if not much changes about it, forcing users to contact through Discord or Guilded would just block developers, not help them.
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If a handful of developers voluntarily choose to not use discord, that is on them. If they “aren’t allowed to” use discord, that is also on them, and makes no sense if they’re allowed to use the devforum, in certain aspects they really aren’t different, there isn’t anything discord has in particular that would make parents (nobody said 13+ meant not having parents!) not want their children to use it that the devforum also wouldn’t have. Roblox shouldn’t not allow discord/guilded just to please a negligible minority, it hurts the majority. As a developer, switching back from discord to devforum PM/email is very painful, and to make matters worse, the non real time aspect of those two makes communication even more painful.
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I have two questions:
-
It will not ‘keep everyones safe’
If we can talk on discord, It is not safe at all. discord doesnt have any filter. then, why not just delete talent hub’s filter? -
If discord is main chat application, Why talent hub has chat feature?
Why talent hub’s profile system does not have the discord linking system?
You can just remove chat from talent hub and just send discord username and tags linked to profile when someone wants to be hired, right?
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I just ran into this filter and was unable to send a message that contained the last 4 numbers of my Discord handle several times. Had to eventually just reply to the person telling them to contact me in a different way… not the best experience, and definitely made for an awkward first conversation.
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I assume they mean people can choose not to engage in a Discord convo with the person. That’s the safety part. You speak in a controlled environment and then you can choose to go with a less controlled / safe platform.
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If I got that right, do you mean that the Devforum is just as “secure” as Discord? I can’t agree with you, because there are moderators in the Devforum who also react to rule violations. In addition, there is the fact that Discord has a voice chat function. So your quote “they aren’t allowed to have Discord” has two sides. On the one hand, the parents’ side, which I had to listen to for hours about dangers on the Internet, and then the lawl regulations. Here is an excerpt: https://support.discord.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/1500000159622-Why-Is-Discord-Asking-For-My-Birthday-
I hope you understand me, but there is a lot of dichotomy between rules and the law. The fact is: some parents think it’s okay, others don’t.
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Who are akin to the moderators of individual discord servers, and there is also the trust and safety team.
Joining voice channels is completely optional.
For the rest of your post, discord is literally 13+, parents can be less restrictive at that age, at least in most of the world. Someone messaged me privately about an oversight in my post, that was that other countries have their COPPA equivalent (e.g in Poland minimum age is 16), and therefore could legally not use discord (pretty sure if devforum/talent hub want to operate worldwide they have to comply with local regulations, so being <16 but >13 while living in somewhere like Poland is questionable), in that case discord tags should not appear for them on talent hub or anything like that, but I would imagine this minority being negligible. Communication would just be harder for them.
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I have been using the developer forum to find and collaborate with people for ~2 years now, mainly in circumstance where I am finding someone to fulfil a commission I n need doing.
The problem I have always had is that due to the wide pool of developers I can easily end up getting 20+ applications for a position which only requires one, Whilst doing this process on the dev forum I would always have a strict policy where the applicant DM’s me their past work / portfolio and if I decide to hire them, then and only then do I give them my discord to continue communication.
This is for a few reasons, Firstly I simply like to keep my discord friends list fairly organised and only keep people I actively communicate with and secondly I have found that if you add 20 people on discord and decline 19 of them, the people who you declined are likely going to try and engage you with offers / requests that are of no interest to you for the succeeding months.
The talent hub however has put a huge thorn in my side, after finally bothering to update to MacOS Big Sur yesterday (thank you for that advice btw) I decided to try and experience the talent hub by making a job post for some general assets I didn’t immediately need and quickly found myself inundated (to my delight) by a plethora of very skilled candidate applications.
However, of the applications I received the only ones where I could get a valid idea of their skill were the ones who simply told me to go to their profile page and through there go to their developer forum portfolio, the others either gave me discord tags which I have no interest in at the application stage or a tagged out link. And of course there was little point inquiring further to those that didn’t have a portfolio because, well, there is no way to send any images of example work.
So by combination of a chat filter + the inability to send any file let alone image file through a DM it become impossible to judge a candidate on the talent hub simply because it didn’t have the resources to actually show an employer what the applicant can do leading to the talent hub instead just being a vessel for the collaboration section which it is meant to replace.
If the talent hub is meant to supersede #collaboration:portfolios in any meaningful way, it really needs to contain basic communication systems which are essential to judging an applicants proficiency in anything visually based.
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I think you have a very valid point, making a place for developers to collaborate and then making it near impossible to communicate renders the Talent Hub useless. At the same time, I don’t think getting rid of the chat filter altogether as you suggested, is a good idea either. From my experience, people are incredibly pushy and toxic, especially when you’re open about being a female and a minor on the platform. I used to use Discord to communicate with developers, as per what Lua suggested in his response. Safe to say, Discord makes communication much easier, but it also leaves the door open for predators. I would get commissions from supposed “teens” wanting icons and UI components and would then be greeted with unsolicited images, threats, and inappropriate messages. Discord, being the online e-dating platform that it is, would do nothing about this, leaving practically no room for accountability for the developer’s actions. I think the Talent Hub must have a chat filter so it can protect its younger audience (13, is fairly young) and female community (men can be victims to this too, I’m just speaking from experience) from inappropriate messages and abuse. The chat filter needs to be modified to fit the needs of developers; however, removing it altogether will only put the community at risk.
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If you’re greeted with those types of messages from people who claim to be teens but aren’t, I suggest using the FBI tipline for reporting them. They usually take it from there 
Just a reminder that sending and soliciting those photos to and from minors is illegal.
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Use the recruitment tab while it’s still there.
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Circling back on this at a high level - there appears to be an issue with the filter, as it is restricting things it shouldn’t do in the context of Talent Hub. The team are investigating this issue.
I see a few people are asking questions about safety - in the ideal world, we’d love for people to stick in Talent Hub, as it’s an environment we control, so we can ensure it’s safe. However, I’m also aware we can’t build both a good job finding platform and a communication/collaboration platform. We can have a much bigger impact by focusing on the former and doing it well. This is why we expect users to actually do the work with others off of Talent Hub.
The reason we push initial communication through Talent Hub applications is because it forces a neutral ground between two strangers so that they can communicate in a safer environment, and ensure that they trust each other and want to work together. Even though eventual communication goes somewhere else, this is a great screening process for Creators.
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They should remove it and make talent hub not available for players under 13.
I also suggest that only people that are DevForum Members able to access Talent Hub, if only DevForum Members are allowed on Talent Hub, then less scams would happen.
And also if you want to keep chat filter in, for god’s sake fix it. It filters so many normal words and sometimes doesn’t even censor the swear words.
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This is already the case, I believe.
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No, not really. For example, every (kinda) developer I know received Talent Hub access, while I haven’t received any form of access (even though my DevForum activity, place visits and DAU is higher than most of them).
I don’t really get the criteria, and I guess it’s just based on randomness or a percentage of the DevForum members (A/B testing).
EDIT: Seemly I’ve been given access now, don’t really know if it was coincidence 
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Anyone with access…will get access?
I don’t seem to understand what you mean by that.
Shouldn’t it be, the access will be removed?
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I mean access to the Talent Hub will be given to anyone with access to #collaboration currently.
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