Moderation - Repetitive Deletion of UGC Items for the Same Reason

Bug Reports Catalog Asset Bugs
#1

Hello, I’ve recently been experiencing an issue with moderation that has largely been affecting my income from my UGC avatar items, recently causing me to spontaneously lose 20% of my income from random deletions.

My possessed girl items have been deleted for a total of over 10 times, with the same moderation reasons for the majority of these deletions. In the past week, the possessed girl (ID 122981280248795) has already been deleted 3 times for “spam” everytime, and even after the moderation is revoked and the item is reinstated, the moderation system does not note that the item does not consist of “spam” and deletes it again for the same reason.

I understand that it’s hard to get automated moderation to have an 100% success rate, however I believe that the moderation system should at least note previous false detections (moderation reasons that have been successfully appealed), and not delete the item again if it detects this reason again, as it’s not possible that an item suddenly changes to break moderation rules.

This would increase the accuracy of the moderation system, save a lot of frustation from users, and preserve the income and livelihood of users like me from unnecessary punishment.

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As shown above, just in this month, my item has been deleted 4 times, all times for spam.

Here is the currently affected item’s link: Possessed Girl (Currently deleted as of 24th December)
The back facing version has also been deleted 5 times in the past: Back Facing Possessed Girl

Expected behavior

As I’ve said, I believe that the moderation system should at least note previous false detections such as spam (moderation reasons that have been successfully appealed), and not delete the item again if it detects this reason again.

In the case of the possessed girl, after seeing the “spam” reason had previously been appealed successfully, the moderation system would not delete the possessed girl in the case of detected spam.

This would drastically increase the accuracy and reliability of the moderation system and save users like me from a lot of stress and damage to income.

8 Likes
#2

The layered clothing you created violates Roblox’s marketplace policy because it makes the avatar partially or completely invisible, and should never have been restored/existed in the first place.

For more information, you can read Roblox’s Marketplace Policy: Marketplace Policy | Documentation - Roblox Creator Hub

As seen in the screenshot you sent, your previous appeals have already been rejected, and they are certain that the rule was violated. It seems like you are somehow getting Roblox support to restore these items every time, even though they clearly violate the rules.

This bug report can be ignored, and as a side note, Roblox support should have more experienced reviewers handle appeals for this specific creator, especially for layered clothing, and immediately reject any appeals for clothing items that make the avatar invisible.

3 Likes
#3

Hey there, what you’ve posted is not addressing what I’m talking about. Lemme break it down for you:

First for all, my item was deleted for “spam”, which the item does not consist of. I’m writing this bug report to try improve the moderation system, by not repetively flagging the same reason if it’s been successfully appealed. This is not an unreasonable request, and the moderation system would still be able to flag the item for any other valid reason.

Second of all, some of the automated appeals were rejected, which are likely judged utilising the same or similar moderation system which deleted the item in the first place. This is part of the reason why I’m reporting this issue.

Please think before jumping on bug reports and trying to invalidate them. I’m not trying to begin an argument but your message does not target the bug report but more my item. I’ve already contacted staff, and they can deal with the situation accordingly.

I wouldn’t go and target any of your UGC items so please let’s keep it respectful.

Thank you and have a good day.

5 Likes
#4

You can have the category of the rule you violated corrected through the ‘Violations & Appeals’ section, but this does not change the fact that your item still doesn’t belong on the platform. Furthermore, Roblox support can already change this to the correct reason, so you should not use the bug report option for any of these issues.

Once an item has been restored, it shouldn’t be immune to being removed again for the same specific violation. Most items usually violate one specific rule, and if that rule is no longer enforceable, the item would essentially become untouchable—which is equivalent to wanting the ‘Report Abuse’ button to be rendered useless for restored items.

I can’t even imagine them making a change in this direction because numerous examples can be provided to prove how helpful it is, and it doesn’t seem like there’s much for them to change.

Moreover, not every moderator always makes the most accurate and appropriate decision, which is why your items shouldn’t be immune to moderation in the first place. In your original post, you even stated, ‘I understand that it’s hard to get automated moderation to have a 100% success rate.’ Because of this, your two points contradict each other entirely. If moderation doesn’t always produce 100% accurate results, why should restoring an item once make it untouchable? The most accurate decision might not have been made initially, and in your case, it seems it wasn’t made a few times, as the item keeps getting restored despite clearly violating rules.

Lastly, I would like you to understand that this is not a bug report because everything is functioning as intended. You used a specific example involving items that clearly violated the rules, and I based my argument on that. As long as you continue trying to bring the item back to the platform, it will keep getting removed, and at this point, you should take a step back and reconsider who’s actually at fault here.

In your main bug report, you talk about the accuracy of moderation and the issues arising from the removal of your items. However, you portray your items as if they weren’t violating any rules.

Thank you, and have a good day.

5 Likes
#5

In addition, the guideline you are using here to deem the possessed girl inappropriate is not valid.

Making a user’s avatar disappear (completely or partially) likely refers to the whole avatar being invisible or tiny. Applying these guidelines to layered clothing would literally remove almost every layered clothing item on the catalog, as layered clothing uses HSR data to remove parts of the avatar which clip with clothing. That would mean arm braces, jackets, full body suits - literally anything that uses HSR data would count as making the avatar “partially invisible”? Clearly the possessed girl as an item is visible when worn and therefore doesn’t violate that guideline.

2 Likes
#6

You’re incorrect. Through multiple discussions with engineers, I can confirm your item does violate Marketplace Policy for the reason specified above. Whether or not it was taken down for this reason, and regardless of whether ‘Spam’ is the correct reason for this item’s removal, your item does violate Marketplace Policy for manipulating the caging to make the player’s body invisible. Roblox is actually rolling out patches for this in a few months’ time, and once they are rolled out it’s likely your item will no longer pass validation:

The user above also mentions an agreeable point in relation to your “one successful appeal should make an asset immune from being moderated in the future” ideology. As someone who is responsible for dealing with lots of inappropriate content, especially on the catalog, and has insight into these assets’ statuses (including the amount that are appealed and reinstated), you’d be astounded at how many appeals are accepted incorrectly despite the items in question clearly violating the rules. If Roblox felt this was needed, they would’ve implemented it from the start. However they’ve obviously considered the many flaws to this idea and ended up deciding against it.

You also need to take into account situations like this:

  • Item is incorrectly taken down for violating rule A (it doesn’t violate the rule, and the mod reviewing the item made a mistake removing it)
  • Item is then appealed and restored by another moderator. The human reviewing the appeal only checks if the item violates rule A (the rule it was taken down for breaking) rather than assessing it against every rule in the Community Standards & Marketplace Policy combined.
  • Item is now reinstated, but also breaks rule B, C and D, however it can no longer be reported due to your suggested system being in place. This makes it impossible for the item to be taken down and allows the violating content to remain on the platform.
2 Likes
#7

To address the main bug being reported here: 100% definitely a bug.
If an item is repeatedly getting removed for the same reason, despite being manually re-approved several times before, there’s gotta be something wrong in the system
(either the mod bot being oversensitive or somehow re-checking content that was previously human approved, or it could even be on the other end of the system where content breaking whatever rule is getting incorrectly approved multiple times)

To address the points this post, and the other users, have raised: While I do agree with the idea of manual approval whitelisting an item, it may need some thought/polish to it.

Personally I feel manual approval/overruling a moderation action, at least for lower tier rules (spam, pre-emptive copyright based removals) should have a whitelist applied for that specific rule that was manually approved for.
This way, if an item gets removed for an incorrect reason (in your case, spam) it won’t get repeatedly taken down for that incorrect reason, but if it broke other rules (in your case, allegedly hiding the avatar/making it invisible) then it should still be perfectly valid to remove it for that.

(Note: whitelists based on this stuff should really only be applied for lower tier rules. Worse things, such as inappropriate content, shouldn’t have a whitelist unless it hits some sort of minimum limit for approvals - at some point in time it’d be reasonable to say that it’s had enough approvals to be absolutely without a doubt within whatever rule(s) it’s being falsely removed for)

3 Likes
#8

Hey man, I’m not sure why you and your friend are so intentful on proving a single item’s invalidation. I’ve seen your friend’s UGC and yeah, I don’t really need to say more on that one, maybe consider using these same standards on your friend.

Referring to “manipulating the caging to make the player’s body invisible”, this is just entirely wrong due to the fact that you haven’t made any layered clothing before. There’s no magic cage manipulation needed to make layered clothing cover your body, it’s just made like any other jacket, with no special cage changes or glitches. My possessed girl would still pass all of those validation criteria you sent in the post, so please, let’s focus on the bug report.

You two have made it clear that the expected solution of the bug report isn’t perfect and may need some development, but it is still a valid bug that could be worked on to potentially improve the moderation system. It’s not you and your friend’s job to scrutinise bug reports and attempt to invalidate them, especially when they may potentially contribute to improving systems. If Roblox thinks the bug report is too impractical, that’s okay, but why are you involving yourself?

Secondly, it’s clearly a bug, there’s clearly something going wrong in the system causing the possessed girl to be deleted for spam like 11 times. I think that’s pretty clear. I’m just proposing a solution which is prompted for under the “expected behaviour” section when making a bug report, that doesn’t render my whole bug report a feature request because I suggested a potential solution.

“Clicked your link to the other item and deleted it as well” no man that one has also been deleted like 5 times for “spam”, way before this bug report, what are you on about😂(you edited that out now)

At this point, it seems like you two are just trying to look for any way that you can invalidate my post, and are aren’t really contributing productively to the issue. Let the engineers and moderators sort everything out guys, no need to populate the replies with rude, unproductive arguments.

Edit: I won’t be responding to future posts to keep the focus on the bug report. Merry Christmas :santa:

3 Likes
#9

I know from previous people who reported similar things here that nothing further will be done about this “bug” report (literally complaining about moderation and trying to change a moderation policy that’s been in place for years by bringing up a rule-breaking item along with it). But don’t lose hope; maybe they’ll help. Good luck with that, though—at these standards, you’re unlikely to get much of what you’re expecting.

1 Like
#10

Since you have the time to stalk myself and the other posters’ accounts (and assume they’re my accomplus and we’re both trying to attack you, playing the victim when I did not at all say anything derogatory towards you in my reply), I’ve looked further into your situation and might’ve found out why your item has been deleted 10 times.

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It’s because you have multiple copies of it uploaded and on-sale (these are excluding the 2 removed ones, by the way). This is quite literally the definition of spam. You don’t have to respond to this at all, but I do hope this gives the engineer reviewing this report one more reason to close it. If this report doesn’t receive a timely response once engineers are off their holiday break (which shouldn’t happen, the team behind LC is usually pretty quick to respond), I can forward it onto some I’ve been communicating with to see if they can confirm what I’ve said here.

Edit: Seems all of these items have been deleted now!

6 Likes
#13

For Scripts, I run into the same issue. However, the Appeal System usually gets it right… or not… I am not gonna talk about it. But… yeah, it has an issue.

Now, everytime you upload an asset it goes through the same filtering. This filtering needs to be manually adjusted by staff. I am not sure how that filter looks like for Avatar Assets, but for Scripts, it’s pure text or RegEx matching.

 

The only way to not have this deletion, is by getting the Asset ID excluded. e.g. Adonis Admin System has this exclusion https://create.roblox.com/store/asset/7510592873

Not sure how one obtains this, I guess maybe through Support?

1 Like