The word “Discord” is not a link – IMO it shouldn’t be blocked any more than “Skype” or games for older players like “Skyrim”. It is blocked to make circumventing the rules more difficult, but at the cost of legitimate conversation.
The codes are attempts to bypass rules (no directing users offsite), so they are definitely against the rules, just as linking Imgur images as /asdasf.png is. If you’re going to ask for Roblox to change for the better, you should make requests that improve and only requests that improve Roblox (e.g. better clarification, better social tools, etc), rather than requesting loopholes.
Also, there are a lot of posts on this thread that need to be more civil. Know the difference between mistakes that Roblox is more than willing to resolve (lack of clarification in rules, etc) and intentional design that makes the site harder to use. Someone running around berating staff for innocent choices that lead to unintentional mistakes to the same level they do for intentional design is going to quickly lose the respect of anyone reading the thread with a level head.
I’m not trying to berate staff, be rude, etc I’m just asking genuine questions, because from my point of view as a user, there is no actual rules other than something a staff member said on the devforums, telling me I can’t post off-site links.
Which, for new users, is going to be really confusing as they get a warning/ban for something, that they never knew because it was never clearly defined in the actual rules.
It may be a stretch, but the way I read it from Roblox is that off-site links could put a child in an inappropriate situation, which is kinda explained in the rules under section 4:
Child endangerment. We have users of all ages and we want to create safe environment for all of them, including children. So, we do not allow any actions that could put children in inappropriate or dangerous situations
Here, Roblox explains why Twitter, Twitch and Youtube are exceptions, as well as the Roblox site allows one to link its account to these services.
I do think it would be nice if the use of off-site links (including the 3 exceptions) are nicely written down to make it clear for any user that the use of off-site links falls under inappropriate content. The prohibition of off-site links is, in my opinion, one of the most known rule under veterans. Right now it’s rather unclear and could indeed lead to issues with new players.
What about not posting discord links but posting the invitation code instead?
Would that warrant a ban?
For example, instead of posting Discord you would post invitecodenumber.
Regarding permissible links, I don’t really know what was going on with all the ROBLOX YouTubers but I respect fairness and they are supporting the community. I only want people to watch this little extract where this guy got moderated for putting his Google Plus link in his profile…despite having a section to put it?
As a separate related matter, how can we allow facebook and google plus links in the profile section also if we can’t even use the link anywhere else?
This is because < 13 users can see Facebook/Google+ links in descriptions/etc, but they’re hidden from them in the profile links. See here for more info.
Also, take what YouTubers say with a grain of salt – it’s a lot easier to build popularity by feeding anti-Roblox propaganda than providing useful content, so that community can be pretty toxic. At the part you linked, you’ll see that he was only warned – no real moderation action was taken. That was just a heads up about policy, and nothing was done to his account. Of course, presenting it as “Roblox is out to get YouTubers!!!” will get more views though, so that’s how it was presented.
I think I understand what you’re asking, but I’m not sure that I do.
You are only moderated for your actions on Roblox. You will only be moderated if you post the link/id. If someone else posts your Discord group or profile id on Roblox, then they will get moderated for it, not you. As long as you don’t post any Discord ids or links on Roblox, then you’re good.
The only possible exception to this that I can think of is when you have a game that allows players to build or create their own things, and they use it to share Discord ids. I’m not sure how that is handled. I know that you aren’t responsible for chats or wall posts of other users, but you might be responsible for content created by users in your game. You’ll have to ask Roblox Staff about that.
I was wondering about that because if someone else was to make a shout with the discord id, then they would be moderated, but I was wondering if the owner would be moderated too. If not, then I would see people abusing that flaw to shout discord ids.
Then again, it wouldn’t matter to me, because the people with the power to shout wouldn’t post the discord id on there. But that got me thinking about the group wall, since you could technically choose which people are able to post on the wall as well, just like the shout.
I’ll take your word for it since that’s what makes most sense to me
I don’t think a single occurrence of a Discord id being posted will result in moderation for the group or its owner.
If your group appears to be systemically posting Discord ids from various users in the shouts or on the wall – or anywhere, as a group – in an effort to evade moderation, then I can see your group being moderated. On the other hand, if it appears to be uncoordinated and random – just users being unaware of the rules – then I can see individual punishments per user being dealt out. Coordinated rule-breaking will be dealt with differently from individual rule-breaking.
Similarly, if you appear to be using alternative accounts to evade moderation when posting Discord ids, then you could be moderated for it.
As long as you don’t try to break the rules, you should be fine. Don’t encourage anyone to post Discord ids and when you see a shout or post on your group with an id, delete it. Ideally, put in your Discord server’s rules, “do not post our Discord id on Roblox”.
Last of all, this is not an official opinion from Roblox Staff – I don’t know what Roblox will actually do, but what I’ve stated seems reasonable to me given their past actions.
I don’t think this ‘legally’ needs to exist. Roblox can do whatever they want, it’s their platform, if they wanted to ban you for something that’s not on the rules I’m sure they could; there’d likely be outcry, but it’s still their platform and their property, they have no obligation to allow anyone to use it.
I need re-clarification; are we allowed to put our Discord/whatever appropriate links on our Twitter and link said post, or Twitter account, without being marked down?
e.g.
twitter url / myusername / postid → On post, says “Come join the X Community Discord! discord url / discord code” → Post it to (group description)
That much is unclear to me. I’m scrolling through but I can’t seem to understand if this is the case or not. Some are saying its allowed, others not (but putting it on your bio is allowed? wouldn’t that be the same as linking a post?).
You are not allowed to directly link to a tweet referencing Discord or including a Discord id.
You are allowed to link to a profile that includes a pinned tweet or an id in the bio. You are not allowed to link to the tweet, but you can link to the profile.
“Check out my twitter! <link to profile>” (which happens to have a pinned Discord id) is fine. “Get my Discord id from Twitter! <link to profile>” is not fine. The link and the Discord id have to be “coincidental”.
Consider this – a child is on Roblox. He or she clicks a Youtube link, and watches some Roblox video. 30 minutes later, they’ve followed a YouTube trail to some questionable content. No reasonable person will blame Roblox for that – YouTube is one of the most popular sites in existence. If you don’t want your child on it, you had more than enough time to block YouTube or give them a restricted account. The first thought in this scenario is, “why does YouTube allow this? Perhaps my child should not use YouTube.”
On the other hand, consider what happens in a parent sees their child click on a Youtube link on Roblox that leads directly to a questionable video. The first thought is, “why does Roblox allow this? Perhaps my child should not play Roblox.” This is made worse if the content on Roblox specifically mentions the questionable content – “Check out <questionable NSFW content> on YouTube, guys!” is seen as really bad on Roblox’s part.
On some level, kids avoid such questionable videos naturally. Giving a child access to a normal, reasonable YouTube video is fine because they probably won’t end up at anything questionable. Kids want to watch videos about games or fidget spinners – not NSFW or otherwise questionable content. Directly linking them to something questionable removes any chance of staying safe.
Now apply the same logic to Twitter – linking to reasonable, safe Twitter content is fine. Kids will avoid the bad stuff, and if not then their parents should have blocked it. Linking directly to a “questionable” tweet? Clearly not the same – there’s no way for the kid to avoid the content naturally anymore, so Roblox is at fault, from the parent’s perspective.
Linking to a Discord tweet is direct. Linking to a profile that has a Discord link somewhere on it is indirect. The latter will not be seen the same as the former.
I know one of the reasons Discord is not permitted on Roblox due it being
moderated by the community who own servers. However, Discord did
recently add a feature and dedicated team who moderate content.
Discord has always operated a dedicated team, however the tools to access the team was limited.
Before the implantation of the feature you described, there was a report button when right clicking and before then there was a dedicated email, abuse@discordapp.com in which you required:-
Although, I would love to see Roblox review this policy at a later date when things have improved and Roblox has regained some level of trust within Discord.
You can have chat moderation on. I am not sure how powerful the filter there is, but it probably blocks the bad words and things. As addition to that you can also add a verification level. I just recently suggested an ‘Age Restriction’ option, among other things, on Discord’s feedback site as well.
If all that would become thing, would that potentially make Discord white-listed?
