Update to Developer Forum Entry Process

[LuckyTux]

That’s the problem though: it going from being a developer forum to just being a regular forum.

[AviaByte]

That is true because anyone can ‘be active’ on here. I hope they do not use this as a replacement to the old Roblox forums. But it is a better way to join the DevForum.

[fly_san (fly)]

Just remembering, @luckytux @amoeba and I are working on a thread to resume our suggestions and concerns, so it’s easier for anyone who is interested to read. It’s interesting because each one of us has a different opinion about it, but we still have similar concerns. Expect something tomorrow.

p.s: thomas has been writing for about 1 hour now, guys expect a huge fireball anytime soon.

[wravager]

Yay, more chances for new developers to get in the know!

[13kapi13]

It’s pretty huge topic to talk about so we need this thread for sure.

[WhySoMysterious]

Good to hear, this sounds like a much better process. Glad that there’s security and observation for spam/alt accounts as well.

[Lilly_S]

Some answers to some of the questions and concerns being presented here:

1. RDC invitations: we have a few solutions in mind that, frankly, just make more sense than what we did previously anyway. We’re going to work on fleshing out these ideas a bit more, but we did think of this while designing this process and have a few different solutions we’re deciding between.

2. @TheNexusAvenger’s alternate account test of gaming the system: As TheNexusAvenger will recall, his alternate account was automatically silenced when trying to respond to topics and DMs due to the system recognizing him as an alt. Being silenced means that his alts’ posts required manual approval until we unsilenced it ourselves. We’re not very worried about alts being used in this way, and his alt actually reinforced our confidence in the forum software’s ability to detect and prevent spam from alts.

[NarbraWalters]

@Lilly_S

As TheNexusAvenger will recall, his alternate account was automatically silenced when trying to respond to topics and DMs due to the system recognizing him as an alt.

This statement isn’t 100% correct. The problem I (this account, main is TheNexusAvenger) had before was that it was a private message before New Member status was granted. It isn’t a problem now, having the New Member status.

[Lilly_S]

(For clarity, NarbraWalters is TheNexusAvenger’s alt)

We had to manually approve your posts because the system silenced you for being an alternate account posting (DMing) - while the New Member status may have come later, I’m not sure that the chronology matters to the forum software.

Either way, it’s a genuine concern that we did think of and don’t predict being an issue.

As always, it’s imperative that everybody - this entire community - does their part to bring attention to any kind of rulebreaking. If something is against our rules, flag it. Never assume somebody else already did.

[Etheroit]

Hey! Can we get on Discord PM for a while?

[chrisofdoom (DontCapTheHat)]

Understood, thanks for the information.

[buildthomas]

@TheNexusAvenger

I am not sure if this is really a viable option. It seems too easy to go from not being a member to being a new member (<1 day).

@yan3321

As a new member who was recently accepted through the new system, I feel as if the system is too lenient.

The requirements will be adjusted as necessary to get the right influx of people.

@len_ny

May I know how this will stop exploiters and exploit developers from coming into the forum?

It doesn’t – you can tell us via the usual channels if someone on the forum shouldn’t be here and why you think they shouldn’t.

There’s no point hiding anything, there’s nothing to gain from a bad actor having read access to any of the New Member categories here.

@len_ny

Contact with the developers on their cheats or getting more out of the developer because they got into this forum would be both terrible for the developer and the ROBLOX brand name.

People harassing others via the forum is extremely inappropriate, and it has been, so just let us know and we’ll take care of it.

@LuckyTux

It is assumed that it won’t be.

The comment you’re quoting is on the Visitor → New Member procedure, please don’t apply my comments on any other procedure than that.

@En_oe

I feel like at this point new members should have their own forum. New members aren’t as experienced as full members and I’ve started seeing so many posts in the wrong categories and portfolios that mainly use free models. New members are also talking about how their alts are now new members and some are saying they aren’t even developers.

Please contact us when you see inappropriate posting behavior, like usual.

Absolutely not a good idea to have a separate forum. This spreads discussion and feedback out further and people won’t learn proper posting behavior from more experienced users that way.

@TaaRt

Too many applications to handle all the applicants with a limited amount of people, yet 3 lead_top_contributors is sufficient to carefully check and handle the multiple posts all of the newly admitted people produce?

It is not efficient to check applications because they need to thoroughly check and discuss each one. It is efficient to simply scan through a bunch of posts and delete the bad ones – we have been doing that for the past months and it’s working out fine.

@amoeba

vindictive kids will wait and do whatever they can to become a part of something they want, even if it doesn’t apply to them (…) Not looking forward to LMaD types who were insanely cruel, nasty, and willing to break into peoples accounts or do other trashy actions

This is what we’re here for. We’re mostly invisible, but we hide posts on a daily basis to filter out noise and other inappropriate posts, and give the posters feedback in private / on the thread. If someone continuously is abusive on the forum in any way, they will receive strikes and eventually be removed.

You can help out by flagging bad posts or private messaging @DevEngagementTeam or @Community_Sage.

@Dekkonot

there’s absolutely no way to make sure everyone who joins is a developer

This is not the goal. The goal is to create a discussion platform and feedback channels on all things development.

@Dekkonot

There’s also a worry about alternate accounts.

Let us know and we’ll take care of it.

@Dekkonot

but people have already commented on the lowering quality of posts by new members and as this progresses I fear we will see that continue in a downward trend

Let us know and we’ll take care of it. (2x)

@TaaRt

Flagging does not alert a top contributor, they’re all added to the moderation queue. Typical moderation takes anywhere from a few hours to a few days, and this is only getting longer. My point is that the scaling may be hard if using manual approval, but scaling is not getting easier by allowing this many new people.

Yes, please tag @Community_Sage if you want to see action taken quicker. I personally spend an hour before work every day just going through things people send me and making sure all new threads and newly added posts are appropriate in the public categories.

@13kapi13

DevForum was pretty prestigious forum so if you was hiring someone from this forum then you knew that this guy must be enough skilled in developing. Right now almost everyone can get into this forum without any knowledge about developing.

You hire people based on skill, not because of their admission to the Developer Forum. You should have done this even before this automated system. There are a lot of people in this forum with varying levels of skills, and most of the people on the forum don’t meet the quality standards I would set for my own teams. You should always judge based on skill and not on a quality indicator as artificial as forum membership.

@amoeba

I’ve seen a few of the hiring area posts that are like “if u make me this large amount of things i need i will give you 35 whole robux”

Yes, please let us know and we’ll hide these threads (I’ve hidden this specific one earlier today, usually we hide them even quicker before most people have seen it).

@13kapi13

but what about group like “Hidden Developers” that using role “DevForum” to verify trusted developers on thier discord

That’s their problem for assuming anything about forum status, discuss with them to get it resolved.

[LuckyTux]

Thank you for informing us.

[Maiaiiaa (Maia)]

Hearing this really made me feel better about the changes, thanks a lot

[LuckyTux]

@buildthomas

It is assumed that it won’t be.

The comment you’re quoting is on the Visitor –> New Member procedure, please don’t apply my comments on any other procedure than that.

@buildthomas I apologize for misquoting you

[Dekkonot]

@buildthomas

This is not the goal. The goal is to create a discussion platform and feedback channels on all things development.

That’s my worry. If anyone can join, there’s a better than average chance that people who don’t belong will join. It’s not my business to judge who is and isn’t a developer, but I can reasonably say that the majority of people on Roblox would not make good members of this community, either through lack of interest or maturity. The former group is accounted for because they’ll likely not accept an automated invitation (or they’ll get it and it’ll make them interested), but immature users are a real problem, and they’ll inevitably lead to bad topics and discussion.

I guess at the end of the day if the Lead Top Contributors and the Moderators are okay with taking on the extra work load, we’ll have to see how it turns out long-term. It seems too early to make a serious judgement and you’ll know sooner than us if it’s not working, so… The new member visit time could probably use some adjustment though because 3 hours seems a bit short.

[Intended_Pun]

When I was a noob I definitely would have appreciated this change. Hopefully this will benefit all of us!

That being said, I hope that we can continue to communicate with more experienced devs only too (no offense new guys reading this).

[amoeba]

Thanks for clarifiyng everything Thomas, I think you brought up and sated most of the qualms brought up here, hoping from here it just gets carried out correctly!

[Ben_Est]

This is an excellent change considering all exclusivity was destroyed long ago. The mission is to connect smaller devs with the resources they need. Those who want to chat with other large devs have other places to chat that are pretty exclusive anyway.

I like where the dev forum is going based on your mission. Excellent change. This will keep the worse of the worse out of the forum while letting everyone access!

But I swear if a chat filter was ever added… lol

[Greeny_Alien (Greeny)]

I might ask my developer friends to join the DevForum because of this, they probably wouldn’t have tried to apply due to the long time it takes but now they can.