Reputation based access to the developer forum. As well as reverting the changes of March 18

Forum Help Forum Features
1

The Problem

The problem with the forum is that it requires all users to be 13+ age verified. Many users do not wish to have their faces given to Roblox and it’s their right. But because of this, it will limit many under-teens from working and developing their skills here at Roblox.

Why the change happened?

The initial reason for this sudden move was “safety”. Which is completely understandable as many cases have been talked about by the members of the forum about bad actors using the developer. It is understandable but it still limits many users from interacting with the forum!

What solutions can be enacted?

My proposed solution for forum safety is to enact age-based restrictions and reputation-based restrictions as well.

COMMENTS AND AUTHORIZED USERS

Comments are going to be a short list of text with a max limit of 1000 characters per comment. Users can leave comments on posts and it can be liked or disliked by authorized users. They are more restricted and are going to be a starting point for most users.

Authorized users are those people that have their ages verified and are above the age of 13. And, they have a clean moderation history in the past 90 days and their accounts are older than 3 months.

Age-based restrictions:

PEOPLE UNDER THE AGE OF 13 OR PEOPLE WHO DO NOT HAVE THEIR AGES VERIFIED:
These users are allowed to roam the forums, and leave replies and comments and likes but the posts will be filtered for them. This will utilize the Roblox chat filtering API with a few modification made to it. As well as having images filtered by passing them through a filtering API
This will be done for under 13 people and people who are 13+ and chose not to verify their ages. Their posts will also be moderated.

PEOPLE ABOVE THE AGE OF 13
Normal forum experience, they can reply and commend and like posts without any hassle.

Reputation-based restrictions:

Implementing a reputation system where a new user starts with zero reputation. They can comment on posts and they will gain reputation from authorized users. After some reputation is gained, say 30 likes in total, they will unlock more features throughout the forum, like liking/disliking posts, as well as replying directly to posts, and as their reputation increases, they are able to use the new Lounge category.

Lounge Category

Just like before March 18, add back the Lounge category but have it completely hidden for most users that are not above 16 years and don’t have a specific reputation or higher. This ensures the lounge category is accessible to mature users so they can communicate with fellow developers easily while also preventing all bad actors from interacting with it.

Why should it be added?

It should be added to allow all developers to use the forums without having to verify their age while also keeping the developers that are under 13 safe and sound from any bad actors. WHILE also allowing developers to easily communicate with one another!

Final Say

I hope I have provided a concise overview of the issue, and it’s solution and why my solution should be added with some modifications done based on the preference of how Roblox wishes to have it.

The issue, I will repeat, is obvious. People can’t use the forums!!! Many people do not want their faces shown to Roblox and that limits their creativity! It’s their legal RIGHT to reject showing their faces online but if it comes at the cost of their growth, then that’s a serious issue on Robloxs side!

  • Great solution. Must be implemented.
  • Good solution. Requires slight tinkering.
  • Okay solution. Requires heavy tinkering.
  • Bad solution. Must not be implemented.
0 voters
2 Likes
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It’s difficult for me to form an entire opinion on this I think, but the DevForum used to have Trust Level roles.

It was an unobtainable barrier to making feature requests and bug reports for years, and before that it had critics. There was a lot of work to remove these barriers and move away from a reputation system like that, in that form. There’s a less official version I guess with badges and mere peer recognition.

I wouldn’t be against a return of trust levels, given it doesn’t limit access to those formal categories. But I don’t think it should limit commenting ability or anything like that. Roblox has or had an identity of letting creators known or new, big or small, have the same access to things. Studio and the DevForum. Or it was the goal.

Maybe reputation for Lounge to come back would be nice, but it doesn’t appear to be something the DevForum wants to support to maintain a more professional -or less trolling and so casual- environment.

And, it would be nice to do away with the age restrictions or verification on the forum. It seems to be a higher level decision though for platform wide safety, as you note a bit. A non negotiable, even if we don’t like it and it hurts the audience and accessibility of the DevForum.

1 Like
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Yes I remember, I was on the forums before all Regulars were moved the Member rank. But it’s currently completely useless. Even the visitor rank as it’s very easy (trust me very easy) to bot it. Hypothetically, a simple python script running for an hour or two can be enough to get anyone access to the developer forums in no time.

It would limit creating/writing posts and it will limit replying. You can still comment on posts but liking/disliking will be limited to prevent bots from artificially improving a posts or users reputation.
(Commenting is basically a small section on each post where users can post small replies, similar to stack overflow). However, a user can skip the reputation system if they have a clean moderation history plus an account that’s aged 1 or more years.

Sadly you are right…

Yeah, it does hurt the audience of the DevForum a lot as many people who were actually mature won’t use the forum because they do not want to share their face with Roblox.

It does has its downsides but if we want to have it approved by Roblox, we ought to sacrifice a few things.

1 Like
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the main problem is that the “reputation” seems to be based on other users rather than an unbiased source. All you need to do to get those 30 likes is have some friends spam likes on your posts or just say something like “I hate this update” on literally any recent Roblox announcement.

1 Like
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I think the reputation-based access was better. Now an acquaintance of mine, who isn’t even a developer, has gained access to this place and he gives me VERY bad second-hand embarrassment. All I can do is hope to God he isn’t reading this right now.

2 Likes
6

Honestly, you should either apply or be manually enrolled into access for all categories. Perhaps except for helping and certain feedback categories, all categories should be locked behind roles. You wanna get a role? You apply. If you get rejected, too bad. Make the enrollment process strict and require good stats to even be considered.

If Roblox wants more adult developers and players coming to the platform, it must establish a professional environment for developers.

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Just get rid of his internet access and you’ll be fine, that’s the one true way to deal with Deltarune fans.

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Let’s all be honest with ourselves this place was realistically a lot better when you had to manually apply to post here

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I wasn’t a member back in those days but yeah, that sounds much MUCH more reasonable and sensible.

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You’re mistaken, I myself am a Deltarune fan, it’s just…Somehow, I’m the reason he’s on the Developer Forum.

1 Like