Issues of Diversity Inclusion on the Platform

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#1

Diversity inclusion in any field is more important than ever: different perspectives, fostering innovation, and encouraging equity for all is integral to democratic views most businesses should follow.

The developer forum is not immune from issues facing the technology sphere and issues of diversity inclusion. Game development on this platform feigns the appearance of inclusion for all, yet the culture surrounding and actual inclusion of diverse groups is few and far between. Even if its free for anyone to develop any game, this does not mean its inclusive for diversity.

But how can you fix an issue like this? Dev. Rel. needs to start diversity inclusion programs to foster minority development and interest in topics like technology and game development. They need to rethink their algorithms from being simply immune from issues of implicit biases. They need to start including more minority voices in their intern programs, ie. accelerator programs and others. People seem to think that approaching issues with a colorblind approach will cancel out bias, but it doesnt.

Firstly, encouragement of minorities to begin involvement in game development on the platform is crucial to this companyā€™s credo, a place for anyone to create any game. Itā€™s often a uphill battle for many who dont fit the mold of who is wanted, often due to implicit biases of those who can increase interests. Roblox should help break these structures not only morally but for their own platforms health. Loss of talent often follows along with loss of perspective when we allow a platform to be dominated by current demographics, which when seen will lead be a loss of diversity in general- a harm to overall culture.

We do not know how algorithms for the developer forum currently operate in accepting players, but it has been proven time and time again algorithms will learn implicit biases of those who create said algorithms and those who they are utilized on. Last time I brought up this similar topic I was simply told by developer relations that there was no way for a system put in place such as this to discriminate, as it would only be dependent on INDIVIDUALS themselves. This focus of blame was misinformed. Also to add the fact they believed diversity is not important to discussion on this platform was rather misguided. Itā€™s possible that the algorithm just here on the developer forum is simply going to prefer those with an already established privilege; either it be encouraged interest from their teachers implicit biases, to the culture surrounding this community. Those already disadvantaged in trying to get a start in this as an interest are not being tended to, and this system simply favors those already privileged. Get minority voices to be interested. Campaigns, advertistments, and more could be so important in getting those voices to become one for the community.

Excerpt from Developer Relations:

"Rather, the only reasoning for denying entry to users is behavioral, which is typically within the personā€™s own control. On the other hand, we enjoy quite a diverse forum already. While representation is not quite so relevant in terms of discussing development (and especially regarding the categories to which New Members have access)

Finally, including more voices in things like accelerator programs or even the UGC Program would be highly important. These are some of the most influential programs that Developer Relations are involved in. UGC especially needs more diverse voices to be heard. Encourage minority groups to participate. The accelerator program is one of the most influential educational programs for this platform- a huge part of diversity inclusion is encouraging education. Leaning in to encourage groups of people to become part is also extremely influential. Setting up goals for the entire platform to reach diversity inclusion are extremely welcoming. A great article can be found here on the subject.

No business is immune from the topic of diversity inclusion. ROBLOX, and especially Dev Rel. , do your part in encouraging and fostering a more inclusive culture and climate. Encourage the education of game developement within minority groups on the platform. Start looking into diversity inclusion on the platform itself.

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#2

I am fully for this but Iā€™ve seen how people treat others with different opinions here and sadly I know itā€™s impossible to make it minority friendly.

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#3

Your demographic is private on the forum unless you choose to reveal it, so Iā€™m not sure where youā€™re getting the idea that there is a diversity inclusion issue. Can you bring up some examples that demonstrate there is an inclusion issue?

Itā€™s possible that the algorithm just here on the developer forum is simply going to prefer those with an already established privilege; either it be encouraged interest from their teachers implicit biases, to the culture surrounding this community. Those already disadvantaged in trying to get a start in this as an interest are not being tended to, and this system simply favors those already privileged.

Further, there is no ā€œalgorithmā€. This is all based off statistics and posting behavior (i.e. do you make polite, meaningful posts). Applications for programs such as Accelerator are not handled by us and as such canā€™t really be discussed meaningfully in this category since this category is for feedback about the forum itself.

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#4

Iā€™m usually working under the assumption that everyone has an absolutely equal chance of being picked out for any of these programs. Now, if they decided to tip the scales towards one end (as is implied in your wording) then thatā€™d cause a different issue.

As a minority Iā€™d feel extremely discouraged if my accomplishments were simply because of my status as one, even partially.

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#5

Both the Member and Regular promotion algorithms are based on stats that are visible on your profile. Thereā€™s no way those could be discriminatory, unlike complex neural networks which take many many many more factors into account.

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#6

Just to add; how is there an issue with diversity on Roblox anyway? The Roblox developer community is one of the most diverse Iā€™ve ever seen, second to the wider Roblox community itself.

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#7

Often diversity inclusion issues are invisible to most, and there is no access to demographic data on users of the developer forum.

Just as an example: the current acceptance system on the developer forum does not encourage more diverse voices to be heard, it simply tends to those who are already privileged ie. being encouraged to look into thing as an interest due to implicit biases. Often minorities are neglected in budding interests in influential spheres. An interesting article on just stem majors can be applied here

#8

So youā€™re trying to suggest we do minority interest building programs like how some organizations run girls programming workshops?

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#9

I think the biggest misnomer here is that those stats are separate from the idea of implicit biases in encouragement of interests in the field. Nothing is immune. I stated in my post how itā€™s affected.

#10

But thatā€™s not Roblox. Please provide a reputable or primary (preferably the later) source proving diversity issues in the Roblox, or Roblox developer, communities.

There is absolutely no need for ā€˜diversity programsā€™ nor positive discrimination (which is still discrimination).

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#11

I have no idea how ā€œread for 2-3 hoursā€ could possibly be susceptible to any kind of bias.

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#12

Yes, its one of the most important ways of growing interest within minority groups.

#13

I donā€™t understand how they would even know if you are a minority? Itā€™s ROBLOX. And you donā€™t need to reveal anything about yourself in real life to be on the developer forum anyway.

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#14

Those who have encouragement to read into development from outside forces ie. schools, interest groups in their favor, and more are going to be more likely to even meet the stats to be accepted. Thatā€™s how implicit bias takes part.

#15

Iā€™m not sure how there is issues on diversity inclusion when race, sexuality, etc isnā€™t even tracked to begin with.

There is no way to know the current inclusion statistics.

But based on personal interactions, the dev community is insanely diverse, thereā€™s people from all over the world here, who are different races, sexuality, religion, etc. This platform if anything fosters diversity, it allows you to be yourself without judgement or risk of bias. Everyone gets an equal starting point on the platform.

And getting into the devforums is as easy as reading and just being active. Being a minority isnā€™t even considered in the automated system that literally just tracks how much youā€™ve been active on the site.

Also growing ā€œinterestā€ within minority groups? You have no way to track the current interest. You donā€™t know what minority groups are doing what, so thereā€™s no way to say there is an issue in the first place.

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#16

DevRel already has initiatives for attracting international users; if you check out Developer Forum | Roblox you can see thereā€™s a number of international groups you can join to participate in forums in other languages. Iā€™m not totally sure, but I think theyā€™re also doing some stuff behind the scenes to bring in and expedite international user access to the forum.

Can you be more specific about what youā€™d like to see? This entire topic and your responses sound very implicit and roundabout.

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#17

Have you ever checked out the International categories? There are exclusive events and opportunities happening all the time.

How exactly is an algorithm detecting a personā€™s demographics based on how often they read and like posts? Iā€™m pretty certain the devforums donā€™t use a machine learning algorithm (because if it does itā€™s pretty bad), so this notion of a biased algorithm is a moot point.

Your status on the devforums have nothing to do with ā€œprivilegeā€ because the forums donā€™t even have that information. Your status is based on your behavior and post quality, and thatā€™s about it. Thatā€™s one of the great things about the internet: regardless of your background/demographics/privilege, youā€™re set to the same level as everyone else.

Continuing the point I started above, there are exclusive UGC opportunities in the international categories.

Thatā€™s goodā€“it means people canā€™t be discriminated against.

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#18

Arenā€™t like 50% of Roblox users outside North America. OP, you are yet to provide any evidence proving there is an issue with inclusion.

Your points seem to be targeted to governments (education system) rather than Roblox.

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#19

Do you have statistics for this? Sounds interesting.

#20

As a minority myself, I personally find that inclusion programs degrade our image. Why? We are seen as less capable because we require an advantage over others.

I firmly believe in equality of opportunity and not equality of outcome. By having such programs, Roblox would simply be fuffilling their quotas of having X amount of minority individuals, possibly disregarding the many other talented people who are not minorities. This would be an example of affirmative action.

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