[HELP] Giveaway Rules

[posatta (pasta)]

I’m pretty sure that’s how the rules work, yes. The point of having a code is that it’s easy to give it to someone as a gift. It wouldn’t be a really useful gift card if you couldn’t give it to someone as a gift.

Speculation

I’d assume their reasoning is something like this:

When selling Robux: A user buying/getting Robux through you and not Roblox makes them lose out on a potential buyer. You (if you’re selling it) make a profit without having to go through DevEx or spend any money and the user doesn’t have to pay as much since they’re not buying from Roblox. So Roblox loses money in two ways.

As opposed to gift cards:
You’ve paid money for the Robux before redeeming it. They don’t care whose account redeems the code; they don’t lose any money.

[Capt_George (Harrison_Hanover)]

Alright.
Is there an email like DevRel I can reach out to assure this follows guidelines?

[notchloeno (chloe)]

@lysandr

Will I get punished for it, despite not knowing?

Ignorance is never a defense - this is against the Terms of Service and you’ve kind of dug yourself into a hole here. On the one hand, the ToS explicitly forbid Robux giveaways:

@Roblox Community Rules

As discussed in Roblox Terms of Use, you cannot (and you cannot allow others) sell, trade or give away Robux, digital goods or game codes except through official channels on Roblox platform. For example, you cannot conduct such transactions through chat, Roblox Groups, or third-party apps or websites. You also cannot buy or sell Roblox games or Group

Certain trades are allowed through Roblox. (Found by clicking on " Trade " on the toolbar). No other method of trading is permitted on or off Roblox.

@Roblox Terms of Use

You may not transfer, assign, sell, gift, exchange, trade, convert, lease, sublicense, rent, or distribute Robux except through the Service and as expressly permitted by us.

However, you may (dependent on the T&C of the seller) give away codes for Roblox vouchers

@Roblox Community Rules

Third parties sell or provide Game eCards (which are physical cards or digital items that provide a code that you can use to redeem Robux or other virtual items on Roblox). Those Game eCards have their own terms and conditions associated with them. If you want to sell, give away or do anything else with those eCards outside of Roblox (on an external website or social media channel), then we take no position as to those actions. However, we recommend you check the T&Cs of the eCard and place you want to do the action to see if that is allowed.

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@lysandr

Can I do this without cash? Because I currently do not have the cash on hand to buy people Robux gift cards.

Not really, as e-cards are the only legitimate way to follow through on what you have promised.

And as a further warning, changing what you give away near the end of the giveaway could be construed as breaking of Section 10 of the Community Rules:

@Roblox Community Rules

Dangerous, unethical and illegal activities. Not only do we not allow these activities, we do not allow anyone discussing them or encouraging others to discuss (or take) such actions, including:

Hacking, phishing, flaming, exploits, cheating, spam, deceptive practices, scams;

Changing the giveaway prizes after you have already benefited from it, having reached 4th on Top Rated? I would personally 100% define this as a deceptive practice, if not a scam.

@lysandr

It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth if there’s no way for me to get some kind of trusted reputation with Roblox so they can let me do this kind of thing.

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The Roblox rules apply equally to everyone on the platform - that’s how it stays fair. If you do want special treatment, I recommend researching before you do stuff like this in the future, and making sure you’re not breaking any rules.

If you want to do some damage control, I recommend contacting DevRel
devrelations@roblox.com

[lysandr (Joey)]

Thankfully Roblox is still run by humans and not robots.

Ignorance is not a defense of course not. But intent definitely matters when fixing morality problems. And I had no ill intent in what I did, I wanted to give back to my community and apparently that breaks a rule that I didn’t know existed. Roblox does not expect every developer or member to recognize and understand the rules and policies front-to-back before doing things. Mistakes happen, and people learn.

And as much as what you say is true, I believe Roblox will allow some leeway for people that have good intents and make genuine errors or lapses in judgement. This is why there are appeals. Especially when nobody was harmed, nothing was stolen, and nobody was scammed.

But we shall see, soo far nothing has happened. And if Roblox does take moderation (which most people I’ve talked to about the subject doubt they will) I will give my full and honest testimony and appeal in the most respectful way possible.

Thank you for the reply.

[lysandr (Joey)]

Gift card giveaways being allowed make no more sense than giving readied Robux via group payout in a giveaway.

Both can be lied about, both should be equally moderated. The Robux that the group has comes from somewhere, same with the gift cards. Either which way someone paid for the Robux, and it all either goes back to Roblox, or someone pays it out via Dev-Ex.

I’m not alone when I believe this rule should be re-looked at. The rule being there makes sense, though I believe the cons outweigh the pros and I don’t believe it should be a rule, there shouldn’t be a double standard.

[posatta (pasta)]

Whoever buys the gift card spent money on it. They’re not going to sell it for less than it cost them. You can earn Robux by selling stuff without spending any money. You wouldn’t value that Robux as much, since you haven’t spent money for it. You’re much more likely to sell that Robux for less than Roblox’s prices. If you buy a gift card and sell it for less than Roblox is selling it, you’re losing money and probably won’t be able to keep it up. If you sell Robux that you paid nothing for, there’s nothing stopping you from doing it with all your Robux.

[lysandr (Joey)]

But you aren’t allowed to sell Robux.

The Robux earned in groups was already paid for. Buying a Robux card and gifting it to someone is the same as gifting Robux that you already have. Again, someone paid for that Robux to be there. Robux doesn’t appear out of nowhere in a developer’s hand. The consumers of the developer paid for that Robux. And I just wanted to give back. I didn’t sell the Robux. I was giving it away for free, that someone else had previously paid for at some point.

[notchloeno (chloe)]

@lysandr

Ignorance is not a defense of course not. But intent definitely matters when fixing morality problems. And I had no ill intent in what I did. Roblox does not expect every developer or member to recognize and understand the rules and policies front-to-back before doing things.
…
Especially when nobody was harmed, nothing was stolen, and nobody was scammed.

Your intent would appear to be to increase your player count:

@lysandr

It was a marketing method

Which would result of course in you getting increased revenue from your game if it was monetised to any degree whatsoever. At the very least, you took a spot on the Top Rated list from another developer who was likely following ToS.

@lysandr

I just stated in the game’s description & title GIVEAWAY AT 10K LIKES.

This is also a big no-no:

@Roblox Community Rules

Do not create promotions offering prizes of any sort (including contests, raffles, lotteries, chain letters or any kind of giveaway).
It is okay to offer players promo codes for in-game items only so long as they are not in exchange for something (e.g., in exchange for a thumb up on your game).

You not only created a “giveaway offering a prize of any sort”, you also effectively did it in exchange for 10,000 likes.

You have breached the Roblox Community Rules and Terms of Use on several counts and have done so with the intent of increasing your ratings and thus your player count - no matter how altruistic you claim to be, this is a move clearly made to benefit you.

Also, Roblox DOES expect developers to read and understand their Terms of Use - that’s why they’re there - when you tick the box whilst signing up to Roblox, you acknowledge that you’ve read them and will follow them.
Whilst most people don’t read and don’t need to read them to enjoy the game, developers definitely do, especially when pulling a move like this.

This was an intentional move on your part to increase ratings for your game, and you’ve dug your own grave with these moves. If you want to complain about the rules, there’s a place for that, and this is not it.

Again, I would stop making excuses, contact the winner of the giveaway (since it should be over by now, with the deadline being over 24 hours ago according to yourself) explaining the situation and, since your game has found its place on the front page, contact DevRel and sort this out with them.

Next time read the rules.

[lysandr (Joey)]

Thanks for the advice, though I’m not sure how I would contact DevRel?

In a lot of your responses you presume to know my own intentions. Why I did and what I did was intended for good, but in causeality broke a minor ToS rule that was unbeknownst to me. That is the bottom line.

The evidence does look pretty readied to be shallowly assumed that I just wanted to get money and fame but unfortunately you’ve got it wrong. You can’t really assume to know someone’s intent solely on their actions, you’d have to gather testimonies of people who know the person, personally. This is why in a U.S. court of law there are testifiers that testify for, or against the accused. Especially considering that as soon as I found out that it was against ToS I immediately took it down (except the giveaway, I still fulfilled my promises).

The Giveaway At 10K likes could be perceived in two ways.

1. (this is what I was going for) I am announcing that I will give away my earned Robux to my community once we hit 10K likes. This doesn’t mean I am extorting people to like it, people could stop liking the game entirely and it wouldn’t ever hit 10K and that’s fine. I’m just telling people once it does, if it does, I’m giving away stuff out of kindness. I didn’t pay people to like the game, I didn’t ask people to like the game, I didn’t extort people to like the game. I told them I was giving away stuff at a certain goal.

2. (this is NOT what I was going for) I mentioned a giveaway just to excite people which COULD cause them to like the game.

Again, I chose the first. Especially because, like most people here I’m sure, I am used to ‘accepting a social norm’ in which I see giveaways being done all the time. Robux giveaways, gift card giveaways, USD giveaways. I had not thought it would’ve been a bad thing to give away part of what I earned in gratitude for the loyal and fun community. Evidently I was wrong, and I’ve already apologized for it profusely. This is testimony to my ignorance.

No serious company expects each and every user or even developer (considering there’s 100s of thousands of us and most of us are amateur teenagers that don’t even have a full vocabulary yet) to remember and understand everything on a ToS or Privacy Policy. To believe that they do is foolish, or very, very off-touch of reality. At most, the average person just knows what the basics are. Don’t cheat, don’t hurt, don’t scam, steal, and don’t be super toxic. Which I’ve done none of. This seems like a harmless thing anyone should be able to do, but evidently not. In fact during Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s hearing in a federal court of law about privacy concerns, it was a running joke amongst the law-makers that almost nobody reads their ToS & Privacy Policy or can remember everything after reading it.

This has become an almost off-topic discussion though and I’d like us to stop. We don’t share the same opinions and cannot find common ground, this is not a place for arguments.

The bottom-line is I had good intentions, it just so happens that despite that it broke a rule I was unaware of which I’ve apologized for and promised it won’t happen again, thanks!

[notchloeno (chloe)]

Bruh.
Roblox’s ToS and Community Rules are designed to be easy to read and understand.
You’re not meant to memorise them, but you are meant to check them before you do something like this.
Contact DevRel at devrelations@roblox.com.
Stop bringing up US law, you’ve broken the Roblox rules - you’re not Mark Zuckeberg