Let’s emphasize the word User-to-User. Short answer is NO, it will not be removed.
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Then what about people who are < 13? There is no alternative for these users set in place.
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I think this is a good decision.
It hurts player-to-creator engagement (for now), there’ll be no way to communicate with players who have no social media (without friending), all that is gone.
But something else will be completely gone as well, and that’s what I care most about:
This scam - among many others - is finally getting destroyed to ashes. No more acquisition scams, no more phishing links, this is finally a thing from the past.
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That target demographic might have some issues getting around messaging. This is merely the cost and the expense for improved safety for that demographic as well.
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There are better alternatives to this, sunsetting is an easy way to erase a problem without having an actual solution. I don’t think users who utilize the feature should be penalized because of bad actors.
However that is just my opinion and I understand where you are coming from.
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the group wall is a pretty terrible forum for feedback, hopefully the forums stuff comes soon and is well done. I really enjoy reading user feedback, even if 95% of it’s also terrible!
That’s why a decision has to be made or else there is more paralysis in choices when you think too broadly on the scope. Decisions sometime come with sacrifices(read: costs) which should be evaluated as acceptable or not.
I’m excited. We’ve never had Forums on ROBLOX before! 
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I think you have to keep in mind what kind of platform ROBLOX is. User to user communication is an absolute necessity. Whether it is development or anything website related, there needs to be a way to communicate with others on the website directly. The “Chat” system is not a replacement and Communities serve a different purpose entirely.
They removed way too many communication features over the years for it to be considered acceptable.
So now seeing a new message in the inbox is going to be like a jumpscare knowing that its just going to be from moderation.
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I can’t possibly rule that as “absolute necessity” without knowing exactly what qualifies it as that. Don’t think as “Chat” as a replacement, but as an alternative, because they can do the same job with a lesser or better capacity depending on whatever quality is sought for. Often has the last features been removed under the intention of improving user safety. It’s either they will get impacted by the safety problems if maintained for too long, or they remove it completely without further cost for that at the less quality of life for communications.
Well, a button on the game page to report bugs to the game’s creator would be a great idea to replace
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The way Roblox communicates to you isn’t changing, this change looks specifically at when users message other users.
When you get a message in the inbox, you can be confident that it’ll be relevant and important for you. For example, completing your legal duty to complete a GDPR Erasure request, or that Roblox has updated their Terms
No word here on if moderation messages will hit inbox, I expect we would see it in the same location as reports and appeals
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So basically you’re getting rid of messaging because you can’t find a way to stop spam/scam messages, it’s a lazy band aid solution
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ROBLOX is an interactive platform, no user to user communication just turns it into a marketplace. A lack of or poor moderation should not excuse bad decisions.
No one wants to add other users for an inquiry. Let alone send entire paragraphs using the Chat system.
If user safety is a major concern, precautions need to be added.
Metaphorically, if a bridge is unsafe but necessary for people to cross, it shouldn’t be taken down without providing an alternative.
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That’s an exaggeration considering you left the idea of the main source as ‘experiences’. Nothing here is really black or white, and the decisions look more greyer than you think.
This feature still shouldn’t be removed until a replacement is made. The Announcements feature you mention is tied to Guilded and therefore requires users to be 13+ to (publicly) reply to the announcements within Guilded, even if they can see and upvote them on Roblox. The Communities feature does not exist yet, and its implementation is still unclear. Fix the spam problems, not remove the feature or make it exclusively for you. You are removing the only way to contact a Creator directly on-platform.
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Everybody I know either didn’t use the messaging system or didn’t read their messages. I guess in hindsight I should have seen this coming even if I used my inbox every day.
Looking forward to what groups turn into. I think they could be more powerful than our inboxes ever were.
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Re-posting from this thread
I use the messages for contacting many UGC creators to retrieve permission to use their accessories in GFX / animations, etc; many of which have not connected any (contactable) social media to their account and are not present on the DevForum. The messaging feature has actually come in handy multiple times with a significant number of creators responding and granting me permission through the Roblox message.
The removal of this feature leaves me with no reasonable way to get that permission. This doesn’t just affect UGC permission cases, but it also impacts genuine cases where a player may reach out to a developer to ask questions or report a problem. Despite what many may believe, many creators do reply to messages they receive.
I understand if the feature is old and run-down, but there has to be some way to modernise the feature, right? In fact, just to get the ball rolling, here are a few things that could be changed to update the feature:
- Don’t send a message if it’s filtered
- Change the message page url to use a unique message ID rather than a relative ‘messageIndex’ (helps if you get a message between page reloads)
- Better spam protection, perhaps move any messages with commonly sent message content to a separate spam tab
- Finally fix archiving Roblox messages so it doesn’t delete the message out of existence
- Make replies an actual thing rather than just quoting the original message in a new one
If Roblox could simply change the above (and perhaps even add new features like basic markdown and image support?), I believe it could truly revitalise this feature in a modern-day Roblox and more importantly, remove the need to remove a feature that is ever so important for the users who use it. Removing this feature unfortunately hurts developers such as myself who genuinely need to reach out to creators for legitimate means.
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