Is avoiding broadcast-level filtering allowed for text filtering?

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1
  1. What do you want to achieve? I want to know if the following would be allowed with text filtering rules:
  • I have a system in-game where users can report bugs and can add YouTube video links (if their policy info says they can) showing the problem. These happen through datastores on different servers (AKA I’m not in game).

  1. What is the issue? I would use :GetNonChatStringForBroadcastAsync() however this filters out the link due to it being really heavy on restrictions. And for :GetNonChatStringForUserAsync() well that requires me to be in the server.

  2. What solutions have you tried so far?
    I am using this code when the user sends a report:

	local filteredTextResult
	local success, errorMessage = pcall(function()
		filteredTextResult = TextService:FilterStringAsync(text, player.UserId)
	end)
    if not success then
		return false
	else
		return filteredTextResult:GetNonChatStringForUserAsync(player.UserId)
    end

And the following when me (the owner) looks at the report:
local FilteredText = game:GetService("TextService"):FilterStringAsync(Name, OwnerId):GetNonChatStringForUserAsync(OwnerId)

I’m just wondering if this is with-in Roblox’s terms or if there is something else I can do.

1 Like
#2

if you are using something like discord to handle these you shouldnt really worry about filtering that much because no one else is gonna see it. you cant get in trouble for making something unfiltered on something that isnt roblox

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#3

Sadly no, it is not using discord it is viewable in-game by me only…

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#4

You could make a different textbox for the link, which doesnt get filtered or if you are the only person viewing it, you dont have to filter it

#5

The rules state that everything seen by someone other than the player must be filtered so that’s why I was filtering it…

#6

its okay if you are scared/cry about seeing other people messages, there is another method. Filter the message seperately and dont filter the link. if you want to make sure that someone doesnt type something random in the link, you could use the almighty, glory

 string.match(link, "www.youtube") -- Hey mate, i am a very special function

function to see whether it has www.youtube.

example

--lets say this script might be inside a remote function

function OnServerEvent(player, message, link)
-- Filter the message then
if string.match(link, "www.youtube") then
-- continue
else
return "wrong link" -- you could use this info to prompt a message telling the player it is not a link
-- more stuff
end
end)
#7

Thanks however the problem isn’t me being scared about the messages not being YouTube URLs it’s that Roblox takes down games that don’t filter user’s content appropriately.

#8

if the message was going to public and other people could see it then it would make sense to filter it because people can report the game, but the message is private to you so nobody would be able to report to roblox

#9

Broadcast is meant for, as the method’s name implies, a string intended for widespread display. If you are making a report system then you shouldn’t be using broadcast. Store the raw string when you need to parse it and when it comes to needing to view it, use GetNonChatStringForUserAsync with the viewing player (in this case, yourself) before displaying the text.

#10

Yeah, however as I stated in my post that requires both users to be in the same server and TextFilterResults can’t be stored in datastores.

And for :GetNonChatStringForUserAsync() well that requires me to be in the server.

#11

If you are letting people put youtube links, some people might post links leading to non kid-friendly content.

#12

Yes, however I am the only one who can see the links plus YouTube has their own report system which is why Roblox allows YouTube links in the first place.