Currently, scripting support is a thriving and active category, that sees most of the activity on the DevForum, as such it is the place to flock to when you have questions about your scripting or development. Many developers with more specific or specialized questions that require more intensive help fail to get their questions answered, as demonstrated by this post by @bloodbonniekingnoob1 made around a week ago. This makes sense, as more common topics are likely to be answered faster, thus drowning out the more advanced topics. People donât have time to analyze and figure out the problems that occur in more advanced systems.
If you search in scripting support (and other forum help categories), you will find hundreds, if not thousands of threads that do not have answers.
You can find a list of some I found made two weeks ago that have yet to receive replies:
The main problem lies in the fact that such topics are drowned out by simpler and easier-to-answer questions. Assuming that the DevForum is their last resort (which it shouldnât be), this creates a roadblock in development as they cannot fix the issue on their own, forcing them to give up. This leads users to bump their posts, which is against the rules.
Possible Solutions
A possible solution would be to implement some sort of bounty system, but I just wanted to outline that this is a problem.
I am highly confident that the Roblox staff is aware that scripting support posts often go unanswered. However, there should at least be a system in place to highlight unanswered topics and bring them to the forefront. This doesnât mean prioritizing them over simpler and easier-to-answer questions, but it should make them accessible and easily viewable to more experienced developers who may not visit the scripting support section as frequently as others.
Yeah I agree, however something I tend to do is add a reply on my own topic if it isnât getting enough attraction to bump it back up to the top. Then I delete the post so that roblox canât moderate me for it. I know I just ratted myself out but anywho yeah.
This is extremely true, I knew my problem was somewhat advanced, and didnât expect an answer but tried anyway, and not a single reply. And that AI system wasnt even completely advanced, it was fairly basic, but more advanced than the average post thereâŚ
I just brought in any topic I could find. Itâs not that your topic was advanced, itâs just that it was buried and will likely be never found again.
You can sort of already do this with the solution filter:
But I donât know if this would incentivize more replies since a lot of experienced scripters arenât active in #help-and-feedback:scripting-support anymore, and it doesnât necessarily address the original issue of:
Thanks for posting about this problem, Iâve linked your thread to our product manager for Creator Hub. Weâll make sure it is covered in future discussions.
I wanted to give my two cents. For context, Iâve been on the platform since 2009-2010 and have a bachelor in computer science - so I have a lot of programming experience in general.
As for asking advanced questions, I do agree that itâs difficult to ask advanced questions. Nowadays I ask my questions in private Discord groups instead and I donât feel confident those questions would be answered reliably on this forum. Hereâs a question I asked recently:
Does UserInputService:IsMouseButtonPressed(Enum.UserInputType.MouseButton1) return true for mobile touches? Iâm guessing yes and if so how am I supposed to check if the input isnât a mobile touch?
The answer to the above question is in fact yes and even ChatGPT gets this wrong. The âsolutionâ was to use InputBegan to track when âtouchâ inputs start & stop and then check if the number of touch inputs equals zero alongside using IsMouseButtonPressed. I also see a lot of users just âguessingâ an answer - and most of those answers are useless.
As for answering advanced questions, I see a lot of poorly formulated questions which discourages me from answering them. Questions with 30+ lines of code for example are tough to answer because it takes a lot of time to familiarize yourself with their code. A lack of comments, or any visuals at all make it harder for me to help them. If you post a question, help me help you!
Also some users upload videos in a format that donât embed properly. Sorry but Iâm not going to download a wmv file. Upload an mp4 instead or link a YouTube video.
There should be badges just like the ones above but for amount of solutions, the numbers of solutions required for each badge can be adjusted to more suitable numbers.
This may not solve this issue, but it will help encourage people (who collect badges (including me)) to attempt solving OP's scripting issues.
There is no reputation system, but there could be one implemented.
Having a score just for support categories might be a good solution. As topics get older, the reward for solving them would increase. I think itâs something definitely to think on.
What about tags that is visible as âIntermediateâ, âAdvancedâ etc.? We know the words differ by person but atleast it will be easier to sort out, especially useful for Advanced questions if you guys limit the tags to people who requested access to the tag/Regulars ex.
Sure, it would be helpful to have indicators, but that still doesnât make these questions any more likely to be answered. I believe active reinforcement will probably be the best solution here.
I disagree whole heartedly in including the reference post to the user provided, primarily because I was the last replier to one of the posts he was complaining about
nobody (in their right mind), including myself, wants to put in the work of basically doing it for you with zero or little returnâyea if we know something off the top of our heads or something that can be derived with some haste, a response will come.
I am basically agreeing with you that there could be some reinforcement to improve responses however you will still stumble on posts that want you to do the system for them or where OP never responds or has a significant lack of understanding of the concept(more so scripting in general) which drives me away at leastâI am carful to avoid responding to posts there because more often than not, its a waste of time, though admittedly I frequented there alot when I was a beginner scripter (both in answering and questions)., it helps a lot as its basically practice problems
most of my recent topics werent solved by anyone but myselfâvery little never solved to begin with. I honestly do not mind, I believe problems can be solved on your ownâit doesnt hurt to send a question up but you have various tools at your disposal, GPT, googling, assessing the problem in parts and methodically sweep.
Honestly, I use AI, including GPT, to help solve my problems a LOT. However, most of the time, it gives me completely wrong answers. To make good use of GPT, Iâve learned that you should ask the AI to rework or fact-check the information or code ai generates multiple times until you find one that works. Of course, always define your problem well and break it down into smaller parts first. This approach helps both you and the AI solve the problem better. AI isnât 100% accurate most of the time. I learned this through experience, and the majority of people using AI have probably encountered this problem before.
To ensure the AIâs accuracy, always google the answers. Google is extremely reliable if you find a solution to your problem. The issue here isnât accuracy but finding a solution in the first place.
The best approach to solving problems would be a combination of GPT, Googling, breaking down problems into smaller parts, and asking the Roblox community for help if you canât solve the problem.
A big reason people donât like solving advanced problems is that the code is sometimes unreadable. Add comments explaining the code, make the code more readable and clean, and organize your code. Learn refactoring to help minimize your code, especially for the conditional logic. Another problem is that people sometimes include unrelated code thinking the problem lies inside the snippet. This can be extremely demotivating and discouraging to those willing to help and read the code.
