Roblox's Moderation Needs To Be Fixed

Feature Requests Website Features
#135

The accounts of people who earn a living off of the platform are considerably more important to protect compared to those who do not rely on Roblox for their rent, bills and salary. However, I have no idea what the actual meaning of a “protected user” is to Roblox or what treatment there is different to other users, because any analysis is extrapolating from a leaked photo without the adequate context to figure that out.

It’s also not very useful to extrapolate anything out of threads like the one you linked. We have no context, for example:

  • Has that user tried to upload Ugandan Knuckles in the past, hence the issue now?
  • Was there some other context around what moderators were seeing that day that led to this issue?
  • Did the user appeal, and if so, was it unsuccessful?

Moderation is never perfect - it can strive to be better, but there will always be moderator mistakes, or delays just because of the scale involved here. Millions of reports a day, meaning every staff member has to read through thousands. (And no, “hire more moderation staff” is not the proper solution to this).

2 Likes
#136

Roblox is literally all about caring about developers. I don’t understand how you can think this, in my experience over the past ~6 years on this forum Roblox is one of the most accessible companies in terms of listening to feedback despite not being anywhere close to a top earner myself.

4 Likes
#137

Read: when it’s about moderation

In my opinion Roblox is amazing on all other points, for all types of developers and players.

1 Like
#138

Since we can’t make multiple posts about the same topic on this forum, I feel obligated to put my opinion on the current state of Roblox moderation in this post.

I think it’s time that we admit that the current moderation process is obsolete and needs to be improved. Many times rather than chancing having their main account banned, users are having to create alternate accounts just to upload assets that shouldn’t even come close to being worthy of a warning or ban. This not only puts more load on Roblox account wise but also inconveniences the user by making them sign in and out of accounts just to upload assets.

It’s also now possible that Roblox will moderate your account for things that you may have done years ago, wether this be a place or asset that has become ‘questionable’ in the moderation teams eyes. As we’ve seen in the past, they’ve even gone as far as moderation for those who used profanity inside of scripts that would never be seen by a normal user. Personally, I find this infuriating as I could possibly lose my account on the premise that I broke a rule that was previously not in place. This type of moderation should be avoided at all costs, and in my honest opinion, should be condemned entirely.

The reason this was recently brought to my attention was because of multiple Reddit posts I’ve seen in the past few days encountering moderation issues. While I’m aware that each of these cases could be falsified or exaggerated in some way, the sheer amount of these posts that I’ve come across on the DevForum, Twitter, and Reddit is alarming. Like the original post in this topic says

A new moderation system has been teased for years now, but has never come to fruition for reasons unknown. I think it’s time that Roblox comes up with an answer so we can put a kibash on this problem that shouldn’t even exist to begin with.

24 Likes
#139

Hello,

Yesterday, I uploaded two exactly the same images to Roblox.
One decal, and one Game Pass icon.

Guess what, the decal was rejected and gave me a Spanish (I have roblox set on English and I never had it set on Spanish) warning.

1436×2048 565 KB

Okay, I dropped the moderator note in Google Translate and this came out:
We are sorry, but due to a request from the copyright owner, we cannot allow this content on Roblox.

Okay, makes sense. Fine, the image is not allowed…

… BUT NO!
The same image was accepted on my Game Pass without issues.

The point I’m trying to make here is that Roblox’s moderation is based on luck. You’ll just have to encounter a good moderator for your asset to be approved.

This moderation system is corrupt, broken and completely unfair.
And if you thought this post has come to an end now, you’re completely wrong.

Look at my uploaded image, and at the original image uploaded by Roblox (I modified it)…
Original uploaded by Roblox

Modified image uploaded by me

So, what’s going wrong here? Roblox is allowed to break the Terms of Service?
And why is the image approved on my Game Pass, but not on my decal?

Enough reasons for me to appeal. In the first place, I used Roblox Support but I don’t have high expectations of that so I also messaged the Mod Review Requests group.

The point I’m trying to make here isn’t my moderation action which was unfair. It’s about the system.
It’s corrupt in my vision that you can upload the same image which gets accepted at place 1 and rejected at place 2. What it makes even more unfair is that this image is nearly the same as Roblox’s one.

Do something to fix your moderation system. Your system is broken, and has been broken for the last years.
Don’t come with the argument that it’s hard to moderate so many assets per day. Social Media platforms like Twitter do an excellent job on moderating violating stuff and taking care of player’s reports. It’s about investing money on the right way.

Thank you.

29 Likes
#140

I am not sure your specific case was really a good example of moderation being “bad”, it could have easily been interpreted as the Starbucks logo. Just a small mistake. Can be expected from automated moderation. Just reupload it! I upload stuff to Roblox and never have these issues. If this does happen though reuploading works on my machine.

Those platforms are 13+ and therefore have more lax rules, Roblox on the other hand is for all ages including <13 so it has to be tighter

3 Likes
#141

Now, what if the same thing happens? Should I restrict another warning or even a ban against me?
I don’t want to ruin my Moderation History, and I came at a point where I’m too scared to do these things as I don’t trust Roblox moderation anymore.

13 Likes
#142

I am able to upload things just fine without any warnings. Most I get is probably an image rejection. I am not sure why people are so scared to upload items – I do it and nothing happens to my account. I do not believe a warning will affect your ability to devex.

I honestly believe this to be taken out of proportion.

3 Likes
#143

Warnings don’t have any affect on your moderation history really. You can even get DMCA strikes and still be able to DevEx. (from my experience) Just a heads up, warnings also expire after 24 hours or so, some short period of time according to Roblox Appeals. :wink:

4 Likes
#144

I’ve had a number of assets moderated. I’ll provide some examples:

MainUIBackgrounds
MainUIBackgrounds1000×1000 440 KB

baseline_account_circle_white_18dp

are some examples. All of them are UI components and as you can see there is clearly nothing malicious intended nor suggested in them.

I’m not sure if this is accurate. If you’ll recall devforum used to be applicant only (personally it kept non developers out, so in that respect it was better). I applied and my first app was rejected due to moderation history. I was warned several times for various assets that should NOT have been moderated and where basic parts of UIs. At one point I’d racked up enough warnings that I’d actually gotten a 3 day ban.

It’s a very crazy environment, and developers shouldn’t need to live in fear that their account is touched by moderation marks that can affect devex chances, over assets that are wrongfully moderated.

Personally, I find it rather shameful that Roblox won’t improve the moderation, and then won’t tell us if warnings affect DevEx or not.

30 Likes
#145

This is false. About two or three weeks ago I received a warning for uploading the following image through the asset manager in studio:

big e
big e1500×1500 9.89 KB

That resulted in me receiving a 7 day ban today for uploading a band logo. A friend of mine decided to upload the same image I tried to on one of their alt accounts and he received only a warning for the same image. Warnings are a step in their internal escalation system and receiving false warnings negatively impacts your moderation reputation

26 Likes
#146

I think what was meant before is that only having warnings does not negatively affect your ability to use Roblox services such as DevEx, eligibility for RDC, Stars program, beta feedback groups, etc.

A warning does make it more likely to incur more serious moderation actions in the future for similar “offences”, yeah.

5 Likes
#147

Just to also piggy back, I also agree this seems to be very inappropriate and really unprofessional, how is this even inappropriate content.

image
image1242×2688 867 KB

This is not in anyway inappropriate nor should be deemed inappropriate, they should really fix their moderation.

I was warned simply for telling a story of why I left and returned to Roblox.

8 Likes
#148

If I had to guess, it’s probably the fact you mentioned “furry fandom”. Also, if I were you and you were me, I’d refrain from these giant stories of why you left and came back. When you get older, you’ll regret it. Take it from someone who has done something similar, is now older and regrets it.

12 Likes
#149

Majority of moderation on this platform is automated. Hiring more moderation staff won’t fix the issue that comes with managing scale. It’s a pretty big technical issue that a lot of companies face. This basically sums it up though.

4 Likes
#150

Roblox has 1500-2000+ human moderators employed FYI. This statement is not accurate.

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#152

I feel like this number is exaggerated. They may have a number of moderators but, that specific range doesn’t make any sense considering the amount of mistakes in moderation. Even if it’s outsourced (which it is), that seems unquestionably high.

#153

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1315098/000119312520298230/d87104ds1.htm

As of September 30, 2020, we have a dedicated team and over 1,700 trust & safety agents protecting our users by focusing on detecting inappropriate content 24/7 through a combination of machine scanning and human moderation. We take swift action to address any content or developer or creator that violates our terms of use once detected. We have a Safety Advisory Board, made up of global industry experts that advise on the best practices to protect our community.

It’s likely 2000+ by now. Some recent news articles appear to mention 2300.

5 Likes
#154

3 years since this was made, and the debate is still on. Roblox needs to improve moderation, especially now that they are public. What if someone important quits one day because of the moderation? Thousands of players can be lost. I once took a month break from Roblox because of the stupidity of it. You get warns on decals without reason, they don’t listen to reports, and it seems like moderation is falling apart. I hope Roblox improves on this before there is truly a disaster.

21 Likes
#155

Can’t argue with that. Didn’t actually know that document listed that.

4 Likes