So right now I’m filtering my mod messages.
Since the filtering system is rather arbitrary some ban comments can be fully filtered.
“Using flyhax”becomes“Using ######”
Because I can’t read the message it makes the ban invalid.
Therefore I would like to suggest that game owners have the right to read datastore keys made by other users without filtering them (given that the comment-creator is 13+).
There is no API to determine age on ROBLOX, if there was that would, itself, be a COPPA violation. Your point doesn’t make sense.
You facilitate a terrible situation regardless if that were the case, because now we have inconsistent policy and therefore only half the issue is fixed (probably less than half, I assume most of ROBLOX is <13).
All it checks is whether the player is over or under 13, doesn’t specify the age.
Look it up, it’s not considered personal information.
The policy is not inconsistent. If it were, then it already is inconsistent because the filtering system is already more strict for <13s than it is for 13+.
ROBLOX evidently does not want to hand out that information, otherwise moderation wouldn’t moderate giving out your age (rules of conduct specifically state age as personally identifiable information)
Evidently it if this was a thing unless they cleaned up policy elsewhere on the site.[quote=“PlaceRebuilder, post:5, topic:34557”]
If it were, then it already is inconsistent because the filtering system is already more strict for <13s than it is for 13+.
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How? I say inconsistencies would arise from datastores filtering differently between users. You should be saving to datastore with the broadcast filtering api (or some equivalent combination) which maintains at least a semblance of consistency even though it results in unfavored behavior across the board.
Especially for your use, there are easier ways to get around this. Use drop downs to allow for a wide selection of reasons why someone was kicked or banned from a game, these will not be required to be filtered. I don’t think someone needs to write a novel and give every detail of why they kicked someone from a game. They were flyhacking. They modified their health. They gave themselves weaponry they shouldn’t have. etc.
There are locked functions to do what you ask, but they are locked. For a reason, I might add.
ROBLOX would evidently disagree with you.[quote=“PlaceRebuilder, post:7, topic:34557”]
And that’s somehow different than chat being filtered differently between users?
It’s clear you’re not here to give constructive critisism so please just leave and don’t turn my thread in a flamewar of stupidity.
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I am posting my disagreement with your proposal and providing reasons why I do not think this is the way to handle your specific case. If you cannot deal with criticism (you’re the only one who has resulted to ad hominems, ie “flamewar of stupidity”) perhaps you should take your own advice.
Regardless, I suggested an alternative to your specific use case.
I have told you why I believe (with evidence) ROBLOX likely won’t do this.
But you don’t have concrete evidence that an user is <13 or 13+ just from the filtering API - Community Sift uses trust, and filters messages differently for every player. So you can’t be certain, even if you think “oh, if I just filter some pre-defined string for the player, I can detect it!”
I get that you want to be able to read exploit reports from your community members, but I strongly advice you to follow up on @Polymorphic’s suggestion above, and users can issue you a PM or other message if they think the selection of options aren’t enough.
I think that improving the filter to the point where it’s no longer a nuisance is what the ROBLOX employees are looking for.
We can both agree that the filter is complicating things it shouldn’t most of the time, but you can try head to http://devforum.roblox.com/t/this-thread-is-the-place-to-post-review-requests-about-chat-text-filtering/25717 and see if the words used by your community members to report exploits whitelisted, as they don’t seem to need to be filtered as I see it.
AFAIK it definitely does need to go through the filter; the filter will decide what you’re meant to see and what not. For example it will try to filter out anything that looks like telephone numbers / addresses for (at least) 13- users.
@PlaceRebuilder an easy solution would be to give your moderators a choice from a dropdown list (“using speedhax”, “using flyhax”, “offensive behaviour”, etc) and send that along with the report, so that you don’t have to filter these strings since they were hardcoded by you, the developer.
Think the issue here is the filter itself. If ROBLOX wants users to make games such that they can be coppa compliant then they should support developers by having a system that allows users to communicate effectively.
You still have to filter outgoing http requests… Why would you think otherwise?
@PlaceRebuilder
Honestly just have a set of preset reasons for banning someone. There really isn’t that many reasons and it would cut down on the amount of data you would need to store
What if my game allows players to file bug reports through an in-game form, or send feature suggestions my way, can I send those to my web server unfiltered as they will not be readable by other players?
Not allowing that wouldn’t make sense if an allowed alternative is “Hey go to my totally unfiltered Twitter and follow this Discord URL to provide feedback!” which is currently happening with nearly all top games.