PSA: Stop posting for the sake of posting

[ItsKoiske (Koiske)]

Please note that this post is not an attack on anyone - it’s just a PSA for users to rethink the way one posts here.

Hi there! I’m your avid Regular DevForum reader, and I’m here to tell you to not post for the sake of posting. Here’s why.

It doesn’t help you reach the regular rank

According to the DevForum rules, you ought to make meaningful and contributive replies. You could also use that as a little help to make sure that your threads are also contributive. Don’t get me wrong - posts like “I need help/feedback on x” aren’t bad. You shouldn’t post because you’re bored. You should post because you want to share knowledge with others. Think about things you post about before posting. It’ll help you in the long run.

@Roblox

Regular

As a Regular, you can now create posts and replies in all categories without post-approval, as you have shown that you know how to make these topics according to forum rules and guidelines.

You can level up to Top Contributor by being active and making frequent, positive contributions to discussions. This level is meant for the best contributors in our community, to acknowledge and reward their dedication to high quality discussion.

Additionally, it is possible to be invited to level up directly to Community Editor . The criteria for this are (roughly) that you show exceptional knowledge of forum rules and guidelines, and have consistently high quality posts over the time span that you have been a Regular.

It lowers the quality of the DevForum in general

While I see some people complain about this off-platform, I also see some of those people putting out low-quality posts like they’re a production line. While they may not know what an acceptable quality of posts is, most resort to arguing about it with them, which results in breaking the Public Rule #4.

Remember, there’s also a person on the other side, and you should resort to politely messaging them privately by clicking on their profile picture and clicking “Message.” Another option is just to report the posts for whatever reason you think it’s breaking the rules (but don’t resort to mass-flagging, you can get warned for it yourself).

Tryharding doesn’t get you anywhere

Another thing I should mention is tryharding. While it’s not officially against the rules, it’s heavily frowned upon in the community. Many people do it both as Members and Regulars. What if I told you that you can always spot a tryhard by their posts?

This goes back to contributive posting. You, as a developer, can choose how you spend your time on the DevForum. Unfortunately, many resorts to trying to speedrun their way into the top ranks of the forum resulting in many arguments and replies to posts that ask for the same things that have been previously mentioned by others. Remember, quality over quantity is what gets you far in the long run.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

Edit (May '21): I have gotten some DMs over the past few weeks, complaining that I have outdated information (you can’t become regular) here and I should either take down the post or update this. This will not receive an update because regardless of if becoming a Regular is possible or not, the post is still relevant to a degree. This post is also from July 2020. If I feel like this will need an update, a new post will be made to comply with the bumping rules. Please stop messaging me about this.

[LuaBearyGood]

I feel something I want to particularly emphasise is the amount of crapposting in #updates:announcements

A few weeks ago there was a topic I had a lot to say about, so took the 15 minute lock as a chance to write up my thoughts, i then went to post and arrived just after it became unlocked, There were about 20 30 character replies, all with the same general focus:

‘Wow, thats a cool update! (Here is the part where the 30 character limit obviously comes into play) This will really make roblox better!’

While im not saying its a problem In other categories, I feel announcements is the source of the issue, since to many members its ‘easy likes’ a problem I feel could be solved by locking badges in announcements.

[loueque (paperbagger)]

I’ve been seeing random posts as well in #help-and-feedback:scripting-support, #help-and-feedback:cool-creations and sometimes in #updates:announcements, but a common issue that I always run into is people posting a single word instead of liking on the forums.

^ An example has to be: Cool. 30Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaars - Just blurring it out so some don’t find it offensive or rude to them or anyone, like the reply or post.

Every time I look on every post on the forums from cool creations to scripting support, I see useless posts or random links from the hub and youtube that helps the OP out or a 30char sentence, I feel like if you want the help the OP with his/her issue, then don’t post a random link and never describe it to the OP.

I’ve seen some people give a great explanation on how to fix the bug and valid code to fix the issue or to explain to the OP that this is how you should do it and how to fix the issue so the code can function without any other error.

Anyway, I do support this PSA as it should be seen by everyone on the forum to improve the quality of the forum and especially a reminder to everyone to like instead of replying.

Off-topic:

Off-topic: I don’t know if this counts for posting but a lot of people always call out to the OP in #collaboration:recruitment such as prices are too low or too high, it has low effort, and being rude instead of helping the OP. Instead, these people should PM the OP the points that I stated above as it creates toxicity against one or another and needs flagging and moderation like the rule that you stated:

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P4 Disrespectful/impolite argument in public topic

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[NINJAMASTR999]

@Krunnie

Another thing I should mention is tryharding. While it’s not officially against the rules, it’s heavily frowned upon in the community. Many people do it both as Members and Regulars. What if I told you that you can always spot a tryhard by their posts?

I want to give my own perspective on this. I personally don’t think that tryharding should be necessarily frowned upon so long as the content is worth posting. The reality of the forums is that the more high quality content you post, the more likely you’ll bell recognized by not only your peers but also by folks at Roblox.

I suppose my main point of contention is really why it’s called tryharding in the first place. We should be celebrating people who spend their time trying to provide value to others on the forums, no?

[VegetationBush (FartedAtLightspeed)]

No, tryhards are basically people who literally farm for likes like they do in cookie clicker but it’s not cookies. Now, tryhards aren’t necessarily bad, they just have an exponentially higher chance of getting into arguments than normal people who browse through the forum and takes their time on making posts.

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@LuaBearyGood

‘Wow, thats a cool update! (Here is the part where the 30 character limit obviously comes into play) This will really make roblox better!’

Literally every thread about the forum talks about this. As I said, people just come for likes, being narcissistic and really just want the likes because it makes them be in the spotlight.

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But, the point I’m trying to make here is maybe it’s not everyone’s fault, or even a select few peoples fault, because of the sudden explosiveness in the members of the forum, there will be more cases where people argue, and break the rules overall. It’s not that the forum is getting worse, it’s most likely that the negativity is more concentrated, while the ratio of good:bad is still the same. We just need to really make the effort to stop people from making mistakes(i.e., braking the rules) because new members would most likely look up to the already existing members of the forum and assume that it’s right, which is what we all naturally do.

[sebi210]

I agree with this so much!

The worst posts are in #updates, such as these:
HAHA! I can finally do this
Jokes aside, thank you Roblox, this will help many people.

Like, why? Did you have question? No. Then do not post these under every Updates announcement.

[Aorda (Arda)]

Totally agree. When I brought this up a year ago, many people were angry with me, and I am glad people are now seeing the issue more clearly. While I appreciate the information you stated on the topic, I don’t think people will fix themselves. Roblox must add new rules regarding the content of the posts and enforce them better. I know they ask us to post replies only if they are contributing to the topic, but nothing is done about the 100 replies that say “love this update, great job”. Only coefficients is trying by opening announcements to replies after ~11 minutes, but anyone can hardly argue that it is an effective method.

[Castlemore]

It’s definitely worth emphasising that if your post has to contain “(30chars)” or some equivalent in order to be posted, it isn’t worth posting. I’m not saying that it might not be worth posting; it just isn’t.

This is a particular problem in Support sections where people just say “Thanks (30charsss)”. It’s a pain in the ass.

[sjr04 (uep)]

Yeah it is honestly terrible.

I wonder if there is a way for a filter to be added against “30 chars” terms or similar to them.

[Castlemore]

Highly doubt it, but even if it is, it’s not necessary. These problems can easily be flagged.

[sjr04 (uep)]

Yea but there is too many of them and it would be hard to flag them all. Would be nice since there is (or was) a similar filter against “roblox critical”. (but without the space)

I tried putting as many special characters as I could just so I could say it so I could be understood but I never seemed to get around it.

[Castlemore]

I wasn’t aware there was a filter against that. Even so, that relates to the potentiality of a breach in account security; ‘30 chars’ is literally just a forum-related nuisance. Very different ends of the spectrum.

If you see something untoward then the best thing to do is just to flag it. Whether flags actually mean anything anymore, I’m not too sure; I’ve been unreliably inactive from the DevForum compared to how I used to be.

[megapaul0917 (Pablo)]

See, this is why I thank you for posting this @Krunnie, I agree with your point, that some users are just posting for the sake of posting, and this does not even make a user here to become a regular, I also think this post should be useful, as I’ve experienced tons of users in the Developer Forum posting in #forum-feedback just because they want to get noticed, and this is seriously filling up #forum-feedback or #bulletin-board with useless, and or, spam posts, as I’ve noticed that these two categories are without Post Approval, and they begin to abuse this by posting not-so-relevant posts in the past few days.

If your new, I would seriously recommend that users should just post in the sake of contributing something useful for developers, rather than making more spam topics or spam posts, that does not help anybody, but just become a problem for the Community Editors, because they’ve been deleting more non-sense topics and posts. I’ve actually noticed this in two categories such as #bulletin-board and #forum-feedback.

[sjr04 (uep)]

@megapaul0917

and this is seriously filling up #forum-feedback or #bulletin-board with useless, and or, spam posts

Bulletin board is not meant to be read. Not sure why you’re bringing it up.

@megapaul0917

filling up #forum-feedback or #bulletin-board with useless, and or, spam posts, as I’ve noticed that these two categories are without Post Approval, and they begin to abuse this by posting not-so-relevant posts in the past few days.

Help and feedback categories and updates categories don’t have post approval either.

@megapaul0917

but just become a problem for the Community Editors, because they’ve been deleting more non-sense topics and posts.

Community editors can’t delete topics. They can only rename them and recategorize them.

@megapaul0917

I’ve actually noticed this in two categories such as #bulletin-board and #forum-feedback.

Again—not sure why you’re mentioning bulletin board.

[megapaul0917 (Pablo)]

@sjr04

Again—not sure why you’re mentioning bulletin board.

I’m actually mentioning the #bulletin-board category, because nowadays, users create useless topics, there that aren’t even abiding with the rules on how to post topics on that specific category.

@sjr04

Help and feedback categories and updates categories don’t have post approval either.

As I’ve stated the Help and Feedback categories are without Post Approval, I mean by this is, that the #help-and-feedback category is sometimes abused as most users tend to post useless and or irrelevant topics here. Sometimes they spam the topics, that are already existing in this category.

@sjr04

Community editors can’t delete topics. They can only rename them and recategorize them.

I also apologize for the misunderstanding in my earlier post, I was thinking about Post Approval, though I just realized that Community Editors don’t have the ability to delete posts, as the Developer Engagement Team has this responsibility.

[sjr04 (uep)]

But you aren’t meant to read on that category. It is muted by default for a reason.

[megapaul0917 (Pablo)]

@sjr04

It is muted by default for a reason.

Oh, I get it, that’s why #bulletin-board is automatically muted, thanks for informing me about this.