The Problem
Since the removal of Post Approval on Dev Discussion posts, it has become a lot more difficult to find quality threads or discussions because it is saturated with relatively low-quality discussions that serve more as an open ended “What do you think about XYZ” than a place for Intelligent, On Topic and Respectful discussion about Roblox development.
This isn’t the fault of the posters in most cases - it is a problem with the scope that is defined for Dev Discussions, which is extremely vague.
The current scope for Developer Discussion is:
For discussing any and all topics related to development on Roblox.
This allows for threads that sound like the following:
- “How often do you use Roblox Studio?”
- “What do you want to achieve on Roblox?”
- “How do you normally design a game”
- “Why do you use unions”
n.b. That none of these threads are real, and any likeness to existing threads is coincidental - I’m not calling out anyone in particular
As you can see, these kinds threads don’t serve any purpose other than generating Lounge-like discussion, which makes it harder for people to find genuinely insightful or interesting topics, and hence people are less likely to get involved in debates or discussions that could have an impact on the platform for staff and developers.
Proposed Change
I propose we narrow the scope of Developer Discussion to something along the following lines:
- Discussion about new features (not announced elsewhere), or upcoming changes to the platform
- Discussion about specific development topics (not open ended) i.e. a particular feature, methodology or practice
- Generic questions regarding a specific problem or narrowly scoped inquiry, however not pertaining to a real game or scenario (which would be more suited to one of the #help-and-feedback subcategories).
Any other topics of a vague and open-ended nature, such as “When did you last use a Union in a build?”, that are meant to generate discussion that does not solve a problem or develop knowledge of an area, should be delegated to #lounge:roblox-discussion instead.