An academic article was written about my group in a publication from Duke University. If I wanted to share it with my group how would you suppose that I do that, @Roblox?
I feel I need to make a summed up version of why this decision is the worst decision ever.
First, let’s start off with what the actual OP said.
Wait, what? Let’s break this down.
Looking to find the "best balance between enabling creative and social experiences, while also ensuring a safe and friendly working environment for everyone?"
Discord is by far the best example of a social experience. Discord is made as a hangout for users to communicate with each other and play games with each other. Obviously, there is more to Discord, but that’s one aspect. If you are saying Discord isn’t a social experience, you are misinformed.
"Since Discord’s Terms of Service only allows people aged 13 or older to use their platform and Roblox is a platform for all ages, we cannot risk unfairly exposing underage users to platforms such as Discord." … "We understand the argument can be made that YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch all have similar policies regarding users under 13, but these platforms also allow users to browse without logging in, while Discord requires you to have an account so people aged 12 and under cannot see the information you are linking. This is the primary reason we are not able to allow it."
There are so many things wrong with this statement.
Yea. You are right. YouTube, Twitter, and Twitch all have those policies, much like Roblox. Yet kids lie. It happens. You can’t put anything past ‘em. It’s not the companies’ fault, it’s the parents’. Nothing you can do.
How does the fact that a website allowing you to view content while not being required to sign up GOOD if that website requires you to be 13? It makes no sense. It’s like you are encouraging users to go to Twitter, not sign up, and then not complain if they see inappropriate content whilst not being signed up. If you are required to sign up to view content as Discord supposedly is, then isn’t that GOOD in terms of security? If the user lies, it’s on them; not Roblox.
"We are in the process of reviewing all game descriptions and old forum posts for Discord links and will be removing these descriptions and posts over the next few weeks. If you think that your post or description has been incorrectly moderated, please email appeals@roblox.com with the information on your game and your concerns."
Only concern with this is that these posts that get moderated receive a warning or ban. If a post gets moderated for something that WASN’T a rule and that person gets banned, that is completely unfair and will guarantee players and developers leave.
"We’re aware that our current chat / messaging and group systems do not allow developers to do all of the things they want for the player communities they’ve established and we are actively working on creating better features and tools in hopes of resolving this. In the coming year look for announcements from us regarding improvements and changes to game description, chat, and group functionality."
If you KNOW that Discord is relied on by SO MANY developers, why would you restrict access to it? If you KNOW it doesn’t provide what Discord does, why remove access to it? It’s completely absurd. Discord provides core features for a functional community, and most especially for developers. I will get to this later. Discord has a clean UI, amazing moderation systems. bots, etc. that enhance communication, moderation, keeping the server safe, etc. Discord also has many games using it VERIFIED, such as Minecraft, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, etc. Why does Roblox have to be the odd-ball in an ever-so increasing world of online communications?
Now, let’s get into what HASN’T been said in Roblox’s original post.
Discord is by far the best thing to happen to Roblox. It allows for such amazing communication among communities. But, most importantly, it allows for communication among developers. Before Discord, SO MANY developers worked alone because there was nothing good to communicate with fellow developers. Roblox has it’s ####### ###### ### filter and other applications are just… bad. But now, with Discord, there are becoming more and more TEAMS of developers, getting closer and closer together.
So many gamers use Discord. It’s just a fact now. If you ask in-game “who has discord,” an insane amount of people say something along the lines of “I do,” “me,” “add me @_____#____,” and it’s just unfair for those that just want to play a game with their friends.
A lot of development communities have centered around Discord. For instance, take Hidden Developers by @HoudiniDev. The Discord server has such AMAZING creations posted by members, and we do quite well keep it PG and abiding by Roblox’s rules. I see nothing wrong with this amazing aspect of Roblox development.
People will just bypass it. It’s just a fact. So many people use Discord, it’s insane. Additionally, look at the number of people that bypass the other rules; posting links to other websites.
Banning users from linking a Discord server on their Twitter, YouTube channel, etc. is completely out of jurisdiction and will just result in developers leaving.
Can’t you just like… oh I don’t know, just block ALL links for ONLY users <13. Obviously, block links for 13+ that are rated triple-X, but is it really necessary? If these websites are for 13+ only, then block it for <13 and allow it to be seen by 13+.
I could put much more, but this is already quite long.
TL;DRThis decision was by far ONE OF the worst made as it’s just ruining communities and teams of developers.
In my opinion the last 2 sentences are slightly over exaggerated. Roblox functioned fine without Discord so I don’t think it will slowly crumble apart from this change.
We hear your complaints. We don’t like to impose restrictions to your ability to manage or build communities without offering any alternatives. With that said, I highly encourage you to post feature requests geared towards improving the tools we do offer for this. Improving the platform for developers is an important goal, and the best way to accomplish this is to ensure you have the tools at your disposal to be successful.
When Roblox removed Tix, they offered a 30 day window of time for users to prepare for the changes. Why don’t you do that now? Allow us the time to make feature requests and allow them to get implemented before tightening down on our functionality.
This is a very poor decision with not much logic to back it up.
Why not filter out the links for users under the age of 13? You already have different filter systems for the two age groups.
Err… so what? Other people have mentioned that it is possible to see server content without an account, and I have no idea if that’s true or not since I never sign out, but even if that’s not the case, this argument seems irrelevant. If it’s a matter of the mod being able to review server content, most of your mods most likely have a Discord account already anyway.
So? I’d think this is actually a benefit from a moderation standpoint.
If you really plan on truly making all of the same functionalities of Discord available on ROBLOX, you’re basically saying that you’re going to completely remake Discord. That would be, quite frankly, a waste of time. Discord is an entire company focused on one single product, and you are a company focused on sustaining and improving an entire platform. There is statistically no way to realistically build and operate a system equivalent to that of Discord while running everything else.
Ultimately, I feel that the banning of Discord links is only further destroying the social aspect of ROBLOX. I have no reliable way of contacting ROBLOX developers/players other than Discord. The messaging system has been beaten and battered to dust, and is essentially completely unusable when trying to have an intelligent conversation. In-game chat is hardly a replacement for development conversations, and the forums… enough said about the forums.
If f I remember correctly, Roblox made a really big push to get Roblox players to stream their gameplay on Twitch not so long ago. Yet twitch links are not provided. Even as Roblox hosts streaming all week, yet does not allow twitch links.
That would explain why I was moderated for a Wikipedia link I posted on the forums in 2014 then. What, do you have a bot scraping through and flagging or moderating posts with offsite links? Not cool.
I never really had a problem with this, I always assumed this was the rule so I just have the discord link pinned at the top of my twitter for the game, and any user who cares enough to even be an active member of my games community finds it easily enough without me having to directly link it anywhere.
can we get the actual questions that need answered relayed to the right people
are there any major updates or overhauls coming for groups?
link section for links to people/places/games
group wall that isn’t literal cancer
proper group chat system, literally just make a copy of discord or slack
a way to ping people online that isn’t a group “shout” that literally nobody looks at
can we get a reviews system like fabrick added to the site?
can we have a tab called “patch notes” or something added to place pages?
in short, we’re removing the ability to have a proper community around a game without any sort of alternative because moderation or something
not sure if the people who made this decision are aware but you can look at literal porn on twitter without having to make an account or be logged in
if you want to ban for discord? fine; but get a proper alternative in place before removing the only option we have
At this time, I’d like to reiterate the policy, as it seems to be quite misunderstood.
The moderation team is not going to go searching through your social media looking for Discord links. However, do not use permitted sites like Twitter to get around the rule of not using Discord links on the Roblox platform.
For example, do not post something like this on your game’s description, “Hey go here! [Twitter link]” when all that’s in that tweet is a direct link to Discord or inappropriate content. These bypasses are not allowed on our website - and never have been. This is a reminder of the policy.
I’m not linking anyone to a tweet with the discord link. People can find my twitter, and ON my twitter I have pinned my discord link. Nowhere am I linking people directly or through a re-direct. My way does not infringe upon the rules.
It is not against the rules to simply link directly to my twitter:
Hey guys! Follow me on twitter to get the most recent updates on my development progress! https://twitter.com/RbxColdSmoke
and then to have that tweet above^ pinned on my page. Users will still eaily find my discord link, but nowhere am I advertising it FROM Roblox.
Correct, as long as you don’t mention discord and don’t directly link to anything on your twitter with the discord link it should be okay. That should not be seen as a violation of the rule.
