Working with around moderation policies and enforcement is one of the biggest pain points of being a developer on Roblox. I’ll always support efforts to make policy and enforcement more consistent and transparent.
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Content moderators are outsourced. They are given instructions on what is okay, what is bad, and then they set off and deal with asset approval (youtube videos, meshes, decals, audio, etc) and reports (in-game, on the site, etc). They wouldn’t be able to easily deal with something like this - like this instance, as far as they know (and are told), the shirt was against the rules. They don’t know the history behind the logo, they don’t know what the logo even IS, they just know it’s against the rules and to moderate for it.
Developer relations should be here to deal with the more complex situations like this one.
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Unless you’re referring to one of my later posts where I go into detail about the logo that got me banned, this request isn’t about the logo itself, it’s about the age of the assets that we’re being moderated for (the shirt was so old that I completely forgot it even existed) and how the moderation ticket is displayed to the user. It doesn’t matter that they don’t know the history behind the logo, or what the logo even is. The fact that the logo was uploaded some crazy amount of time ago (I assume that they can view the upload date) should be taken in consideration.
I’m saying that moderation should take dates into account (which can easily be included in the given instructions to outsourced content moderators). The point of bans are to teach you a lesson and to prevent you from uploading any more inappropriate content. I don’t think banning people for things that they uploaded 10 years ago will teach them much of anything, aside from the fact that the moderation system is terribly flawed.
I get that a lot of the moderators may be outsourced and are given instructions and currently are not able to easily deal with something like this. You’re explaining how the current moderation system works. That doesn’t mean that it’s any good, or that it can’t be vastly improved. For example, improve the instructions given to the outsourced content moderators and expand upon the amount of information that they’re able to view (such as the asset’s creation date, if for some reason they are currently unable to see that). And the moderator notes are almost completely meaningless in a lot of situations, as they completely fail to explain why the assets were moderated, so I’d love to see improvement there as well.
I feel that Roblox could vastly improve on their communication with outsourced content moderators in order to make this less of a hassle.
(Also, I’m not sure if you read, but I did try developer relations for my specific situation and it was no help at all.)
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Regardless of the date, something can still be breaking the rules. Yeah, obviously you shouldn’t get banned for something that was okay a while ago, but just because it WAS okay doesn’t mean you get a free pass for it to stay up.
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I’m not saying that it should stay up. If something becomes inappropriate, it SHOULDN’T stay up. But that doesn’t mean that people should be banned for it, either. Just moderate the asset, tell me that something I uploaded 8 years ago was moderated, and move on. A ban on the persons account is unnecessary.
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I’d like to follow up that because of this it affected my dev ex eligibility. Which extremely sucks considering I was banned for hate speech however my uploaded content had nothing that offended a race, ethnicity, religion, or a sexual orientation. I really hope a staff looks into this because this is really affecting affecting me
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This sucks to hear. From my experience, the moderation team is somewhat secretive and sometimes hands out hate speech moderation like candy. I was actually banned for 3 days for Hate Speech while I was interning at Roblox because I uploaded the official Roblox helmet of the Washington Redskins during the NFL event. Hope this can get sorted out for you 
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Yeah man this is just flat out bull. I literally been done wrong and given bans that don’t even reflect my actions and now because of the moderation team failure to give out bans that are accurate to what I’ve done, the dev ex team thinks I’m some racist bigot who spreads hate speech which in fact I did nothing of the sort. Not to mention I was moderated for an innocent hockey jersey that was uploaded 4 years ago. I emailed roblox and they tell me basically, “yeah we can’t do anything because it’s unfair if we change your time frame to devex but come back in April and MAYBE we can reconsider your eligibility”. I’m really going to just quit the platform as a whole because I just feel so unwelcomed here. I try, I really try to do my best to NOT break the rules, and my ban record since 2017 has been nothing but bans I got from uploaded assets that was previously accepted on roblox. I’m very hurt about this since roblox was my main source of income. But I guess it is what it is. I really pray this gets looked into or something does take action and correct these unjust bans or at least correct the misrepresentation of bans. I have been a loyal player on roblox for over 10 years and to have it end like this is just a shame.
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This is honestly absolutely ridiculous… I really hope something is done to help you, because it makes me sick that someone on a “development platform” is even in this position. I do not believe that Roblox’s main goal is to even help DEVELOPERS… They ignore the problems with their over-the-top faulty moderation system and all the problems it causes their developers and their users alike . I really hope for the best in your case, and I hope it all gets resolved
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i just got hit by one of these so i’ll bump this thread so that the issue can hopefully receive some attention.
i was suspended for 3 days because of a t-shirt that i uploaded over 5 years ago. frankly, i had completely forgotten about that shirt’s existence, and it obviously passed through moderation when it was uploaded, but the real zinger here is that i didn’t even receive a warning prior to my suspension.
it should not be the case that someone can be suspended (or worse) just because roblox changes its interpretation of the rules and decides to go after old content which is no longer allowed. i should have been warned, or otherwise contacted. i would have gladly complied and deleted the item in question. instead, i have to wait out a ban and hope that this doesn’t affect my devex standing.
some change in moderation practice has to be made. users (and especially developers who make games as their source of income) should not have to be paranoid about uploading assets out of fear of retroactive moderation.
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I got a ban today for content I made 4-5 years ago.
There’s still similar model I made roaming around, so I fear I can get another ban and termination. I might have few with the reference to it.
I think ban was related to unfortunate event that has happened recently, even though there’s a visible YEAR GAP.
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I agree with this completely. I find it ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS that people are being punished for things that they’ve created in the past that were originally not against any rules, this is not how this should be handled and I think it’s wrong. Roblox has all rights to remove the assets but it’s nowhere near right to punish the person especially since at the time there was nothing wrong. No one should be receiving any form of moderation because of an old asset that broke no rules. I can not stress this enough.
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Support, Moderators should not be allowed to ban people after X years for some content that should of been content deleted in the first place if its deemed offensive or whatever. They should just delete it and inform the user that the content has been deleted.
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I’d like to follow up that roblox now allows you to hide your inventory from the public. So I’d like to thank them for that. Even though that doesn’t solve the problem that I had a few months earlier with the moderation system I feel like this will definitely prevent some guy going into my inventory and spam reporting so that I can be punished for accepted assets 3-4 years old. So again roblox I really appreciate you guys doing that. 
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Update: 7 months later I am still getting banned 3 days for assets uploaded over 5 years ago.
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I too, have experienced problems similar to this. Mostly for copyrighted shirts like Sunkist.
However, I have been warned or banned for assets I uploaded over 6 years ago.
Personally, I think Roblox needs to have human moderators dealing with cases that involve an asset uploaded 6 years ago, instead of having a bot that has no mercy on who it bans, no matter how long ago the asset was uploaded.
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Preach! Changing the rules should not make creators liable to what they made in the past. Not to mention the support is terrible and essentially useless for any case - I’d love to see roblox actually show the asset that they moderated instead of just a default N/A box as well. I can’t even remember what the heck I uploaded half the time.
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Hey everyone. I wasn’t at RDC so I can’t really describe this in great detail, but I’ve heard that Roblox is planning a “Moderation Overhaul” for 2020, which hopefully includes making it more obvious as to why your assets were moderated and takes into consideration asset creation dates. This is great news!
If anyone has any details on this, I would love to hear from you.
25 Likes
I have to show complete and total support for this. This excellent platform definitely needs to improve on player and developer support - after all, we can’t solve all our problems by ourselves. It shows that often, the support we end up getting is simply a repeat of the facts. Support won’t listen to your problems, they don’t care about your issues. It ends up being really frustrating trying to deal with a support team that is only making the initial issue worsen over time.
I believe that currently, the team isn’t very helpful. I have had a 2-month long experience and they forcibly cut me off and told me to never send a ticket to them again. They often sent me Help page links and told me they couldn’t answer my questions anymore, often changing their names multiple times and evading actual judgment. The quote “There’s always hope, but there’s no chance” can be applied.
The best solution is for Support to be denied of forcibly cutting off after every ticket. I have had to send multiple tickets to answer a single problem because every ticket ended up getting cut off by a previous employee when I ask a reasonable question. Support says not to send multiple tickets, but they end up cutting off most of the tickets - especially when a problem ends up getting unsolved and leaves a bad taste. The message being sent usually ends up being:
We’re sorry but we’re unable to provide you with any further information or response regarding this inquiry. We encourage you to review the previous information sent to you as we have provided you with all that we can at this time.
However, if you need further assistance with a different matter, please don’t hesitate to let us know using our support form.
We’re pursuing a solution to problems - and seeing that after a singular message that justifies nothing - it appears to be what is needed. Support doesn’t seem to care much about the quality or issues that need to be handled and it needs to be addressed. Thank you very much for your time.
Regards,
Freeze
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Recently, I got an incorrect DMCA strike, and no one has helped me, no one! There needs to be some major improvements to the system for users who get flagged incorrectly. The support during this process don’t even seem like support, they’re just pushing you back into the issue and close your ticket. They won’t read your messages, they’ll tell you to read the automated message and leave you at that. I know some people who are friends with admins and are able to get this resolved. But, if you don’t have any, you’re stuck in a pickle!
The automated message flags users who create the game. What if it’s a group game you don’t own? What if I didn’t upload the content and it’s been years since I was able to edit the game? Welp, still got moderated for something someone else uploaded! Why am I responsible for the content of others if it’s not my game and I can’t remove their permissions? You could just be demoted and lose access to the game, like me, and have no control of what people can get your account marked for.
Well, since support won’t help, I asked around to see what could help? Lots of people said “Go to Developer Relations!”, but let’s face it, that’s not their job. There needs to be better support from someone, whether it be improving the support on the appeals side, or improving support from moderators themselves. I’ve heard about a category for Regulars that are able to access direct help, but us helpless Members can’t see it! No matter what I’ve done on Roblox, if I’ve done more than someone who just created their account today, I still get the same support as them. I still get the same responses and uselessness from the support form. No one willing to help, just pushing me back to the message which says absolutely nothing useful.
Well, now, you might say, what about the automated message I keep getting redirected to? There’s 3 options, do nothing, appeal the content itself, or enter a program. This isn’t my content, I have no idea what’s in an under review game, how can I submit a legal statement for content I don’t own, didn’t make, and have no clue what it is to begin with? I shouldn’t have to enroll in a program for an incorrect strike just to get it removed, I didn’t do anything wrong!
It doesn’t stop there. I enroll in the program and get in contact with a “Copyright Agent”. They send the copy and paste emails as normal and completely disregard my emails. They link me to the same exact “Removal Tool”, which I cannot use if it’s not my content. I let them know of this and all the sudden they switch over to “Customer Support”! Of course, copy and pasted responses again and it’s identical to the support provided from the support form. No one works with you to remove the content, only send help articles and put you back in the loop of making tickets.
Overall, the support experience is terrible and sends you in hours of headaches just wondering what the next move is. I’ve had to get multiple friends that some have experienced the same issue, or even just have some good knowledge on getting support on the platform. It would make a lot of our lives easier if we just were able to talk to a reasonable human on the other end who would actually read our messages, not going through hours of headaches just because of an automated bot.
23 Likes