Heads-up on old post edits: Forum Spring Cleaning 2019

Forum Help
#1

Hi all,

You may get some notifications on old posts and threads over the next week(s) as we are doing some one-time cleaning of the forum that has been long overdue, namely the following. (EDIT: This does not affect you at all if you have no posts before 2018-ish.)

Please link people here if you see them asking about old post edits!

1. Restoring broken image/file links in old posts [DONE]

  • What: Some links to images/files in posts made before 2017 have been broken since we switched to the current hosting solution that Roblox uses for the Developer Forum.

  • When: Fix has already been happening, and will continue to happen over the next few days / couple of weeks most likely.

  • Why: This makes old threads more valuable to read again, because sometimes the images / gifs / videos / rbxl / rbxm files are necessary to understand the thread or are the main point of the thread (such as repros on old bug reports / feature requests, or files containing open source creations in the Cool Creations / Development Discussion category).

All of these edits will be performed (most likely) by the company that hosts this forum, through the @bubabis account, on several thousands of posts. The edit note should mention that it is about fixing broken image/file links.

2. Categorizing unsorted threads into the right subcategory [DONE]

  • What: Some top-level categories have unsorted threads because it was possible to directly post into these top-level categories (without picking a subcategory) some time ago. We will be fixing this by running some scripts that (semi-automatically) sort these threads into the right subcategory with a script.

  • When: We will perform this fix for these categories:

    • Public - Collaboration: Fix already happened for ~200 threads. (edited)
    • Collaboration: Fix already happened for ~850 threads. (edited)
    • Lounge*: Fix already happened for ~7500 threads. (edited)
    • Platform Feedback*: Fix already happened for ~1300 threads.

  • Why: When posts are properly categorized, they will be easier to find by users and engineers who might be searching only in a particular subcategory for a certain topic, rather than the top-level category. Moreover, it makes it easier to understand the scope of a thread (Roblox vs off-topic, engine vs studio vs web, etc) at a glance. It also allows posters to completely edit their old threads in these categories, whereas right now they cannot edit the title/category, only the body.

These edits have been performed by the @buildthomas account (myself).

If you feel that any of your posts are not moved to the right category by the semi-automated procedure, or you feel it is entirely outdated, feel free to move it to a more appropriate category or message the @Community_Sage group to have it removed. If your thread is solved by a reply but has no marked solution, feel free to mark a relevant post as the solution.

(* Note for Platform Feedback: some uncategorized posts in this category will instead be moved to Lounge / Development Discussion / Development Support as appropriate if they do not meet bug report guidelines or are about removed features.)

It is safe to ignore these notifications. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Thanks for reading!

27 Likes
Receiving notifications from old Topics
#2

Until April 10

1 Like
#3

I have a question, will this affect me in any way? For example, will something happen to the post, that will

  1. decreases likes or comments
  2. delete the post its self
    Just a quick question I had.
#4

It’s just moving posts to a different category and editing old posts to fix broken links. It does not change the posts in any other way.

Please note that since you joined only in 2018 this will not affect any of your posts. This is more of a note for forum members that have been here for 3+ years.

3 Likes
Receiving notifications from old Topics
#5

Oh, okay, I also know I wont be affected by this, but I know some people probably had the question on their mind, so i just decided to ask it.

#6

Does “editing broken links” also mean pointing downloadables to the right uploaded files? If so it’d be nice if #development-discussion got some of that spring cleaning as well.

1 Like
#7

Yeah, it also fixes file links (images being a kind of file). Can you send me some examples of posts with broken files that you are thinking of in DMs?

3 Likes
#8

Thanks for fixing all these older posts. Seeing all these notifications from you I thought you might have some vendetta against me or something. :stuck_out_tongue:

#9

No, we are good, but I never knew when I talked to you :thinking:. If you want to talk about this, DM me, this is off-topic and may be flagged.

#10

Can I ask for the “What are you currently working on? (X YEAR)” threads to be prioritised? They likely have the most amount of images and the thread is virtually worthless without them. I believe I mentioned about broken images to someone before not long ago and I am so looking forward to looking at those threads with all the images working.

#11

It will be done in some arbitrary ordering, it’s not possible for us to tell the company that hosts this forum to do it in a particular order.

3 Likes
#12

Just a few :wink:

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image1125×1580 614 KB

#13

Fixing uncategorized threads is now done. From now you should only get edit notifications for posts that fall under the first item in this thread.

3 Likes
#14

Thank you for your service, have a trophy.

Trophy01
Trophy011920×1080 481 KB

9 Likes
#15

This is now more-or-less done. 20,000+ posts with broken image and file links were fixed. You might see some sporadic notifications still over the next few weeks from the bubabis account to fix the remaining few posts that their initial search missed.

Additional cleanup performed over the past 3 weeks:

  • Almost all About posts have been updated with brand new content.
  • Removed a bunch of pinned threads with outdated information.
  • Hidden several announcement threads about outdated forum application procedure, Top Contributor program, New Member role, etc.
  • Rewrote several threads aimed at providing information to new forum members.
  • Language has been simplified and shortened in all pinned posts (more direct and informal language rather than vague, formal and Silicon-Valley-esque; easier to read for younger people / foreign developers).
  • Formatting of forum rules has been improved and language simplified.
  • Fixed naming convention of some categories and category slugs.

A thank you to @Kampfkarren, @PeteyK473, @Lilly_S for helping out with this and reviewing all changes.

Thanks all for enduring the notification spam.

3 Likes
#16