Ultimate Guide for Creating Topics

How To Have A Successful Topic with Helpful Replies

Introduction

Hello, I am 'Sbob' and I am a Roblox developer. Over the past few weeks, as more and more developers grant access to posting on the Dev Forum, I've seen numerous mistakes and unprofessional created topics. Although I may be a New Member, in this tutorial I will guide you to be a professional at posting on the Dev Forum. Feel free to use this tutorial from time to time, especially if you're a new user. First, I'll introduce creating the right topics along with tips to becoming a well-known Developer.

Part 1 Topics: Coming Up With a Topic Idea

You may be wondering for the right time to post a topic. Before we come up with a topic idea, we must know each category.

Public Updates and Announcements

The Public category is where Roblox staff members put announcements, updates, release notes and other insights about the platform. Non-Roblox Staff cannot create topics in this category.

International

This category can be used by international members to discuss development in their native languages on the Developer Forum. There are subcategories for some specific languages. I won’t go into much detail here since I don’t post in this category.

Development Discussion

For discussing all topics related to development and creation on the Roblox platform. Instead of solving an issue or asking for feedback, you ask a question that can be talked about. For example, you could start a discussion by asking: What’s Better Low Poly or Realistic building? Before posting ask the following questions:

  • Am I asking someone to solve a problem? If yes, then post in development support.
  • Am I asking others to share their own opinions or ideas? If yes, then this is the right category.
  • If you’re just asking for opinions or thoughts then this may be the right place

Learning Resources

Pretty self-explanatory, create tutorials or resources for the Developer Community. New members cannot post here.

Development Support

Development Support is the place where you can get help on any development issues you run into. ALWAYS before you think about posting here, try to solve the issue on your own or use the search button located in the right corner. They don’t put the search button for no reason-- it’s used to make sure two people don’t post the same topic. You don’t wanna be that person that makes those mistakes. I always laugh at people who do. Answer these questions to see if you should post in this category:

  • Has this question/problem already been made? If yes, then use that topic, don’t post here
  • Is your issue very specific? If not, then you are better off posting in the development discussion
  • Have you tried researching your problem but you can’t find anything? Then you should post here

Remember, if your problem or feedback isn’t specific, you should post it in the development discussion category.

Public Collaboration

This category is for posting development portfolios and recruitment posts. It is a marketplace for developers to showcase themselves, to find work, or to post opportunities for development work for others to see. Often time you’ll see unexperienced members hiring people for “free”. If your one of them, you’ll never get professional developers and it will make you look unprofessional. Ask these questions before posting:

  • (Public Recruitment) Am I very serious about this project and have every detail ready? If no, don’t post here yet
  • (Public Recruitment) Am I not paying my developers? If so, don’t post here or specifically say ‘No Pay’ in the title.
  • (Public Portfolio) Is my work substantial and am I willing to cooperate with others? If no then don’t post here

Please don’t start a studio without Robux, it makes you look like you don’t know how to do anything-- or in other terms “Unprofessional”.

Platform Feedback

This category can be used by developers to post bug reports and feature requests for the Roblox platform. Don’t post feedback about the Dev Forum here.

Inception Forum

This category is for discussion of the Developer Forum itself. Suggestions, bugs, feedback, and issues concerning the Developer Forum should only go in this category.

Bulletin Board

Last but not least the Bulletin Board. This category is for sharing content with your non-forum communities on the Roblox platform, such as game and group communities. Most commonly members use the Bulletin Board category to post their game updates, group rules, game handbook, and other things.


Once you've read information about each category and think you have the right idea to post, go ahead and create that topic.

Part 2 Topics: The Mechanics of Making Your Post Proffesional

The Title

Your topic is created and the category is selected, what do you do now? Probably the most important part is your title. Make your title as specific as possible.
Bad Example of Title

help with my code

Awesome Example of Title

ColorSequence.New Is Failing To Change a Particle’s Color

Bad Things to notice about the first example:

  • The main words aren’t capitalized
  • Not a good summary of your problem or question
  • Doesn’t relate to your issue

Good Things to notice about the second example:

  • The Main words are capitalized
  • Detailed summary of the issue or question
  • Thoroughly relates to the topic

Your Description

Let me describe the next few paragraphs with one word: Make your topic as detailed as possible! You always wanna add in every detail to make sure everyone understands what the issue is. In the development support category, make separate subheadings with these different titles:
  1. What do you want to achieve?

  2. What is the issue?

  3. What solutions have you tried so far?

In my example I will use ColorSequence.new.

Bad Example

help with my code

so i was looking to make a water fountatin that changes color. script:

while true do
– define variables
Water = script.Parent.ParticleEmitter
Water = ColorSequence.New(Color3.fromRGB(0,0,255))
wait(10)
Water = ColorSequence.New(Color3.fromRGB(0,255,0))
wait(10)
end

Awesome Example

ColorSequence.New Is Failing To Change a Particle's Color

What I want to Achieve

For the past couple of days, I've been trying to change the color of my water fountain (Particle Emitter). I did some research and it seems particles can only change with the ColorSequence.New. Every 10 seconds my code should have turned blue, and then green and cycle repeats.

The Issue

So I put my ColorSequence in a while loop but it isn't changing color. My output window has no errors. My script is inside of the particle emitter. Here is the script:
while true do
     -- define variables
     Water = script.Parent.ParticleEmitter
     Water = ColorSequence.New(Color3.fromRGB(0,0,255))
     wait(10)
     Water = ColorSequence.New(Color3.fromRGB(0,255,0))
     wait(10)
end

Part 3 Topics: Grammar

Grammar is a crucial part of making your posts accurate, understandable, and readable. Though advanced grammar isn't needed, you'll still need to know the basic stuff. I took the time to make an editing checklist for you to refer time to time.
Editing Checklist
  • I used end punctuation(“.”;?”;”!”) accurately. I ask myself: Have I written a complete thought? Is there a subject and a verb in my sentence?

  • I accurately use commas in my writing:

  • I used commas to separate items in a list.

  • I used a comma to separate a dependent clause followed by an independent clause. Example: After I joined the soccer team, I found myself so tired at night that I could barely stay up past 9:00 p.m.

  • I spelled all words accurately.

  • I capitalized all proper nouns (specific names, places or events).

  • I capitalization“I”- Remember, you are important!

  • I spelled commonly misspelled homonyms: to (preposition), two(the number), and too(also); there (place); their (possession); they’re (they are); were (past tense of the verb “are”; we’re (we are)

  • I spelled contractions correctly: “can’t, don’t, doesn’t, won’t”.

  • I do not have redundant word choice or overuse of words or details.

  • I used consistent verb tense. My writing is written in either the present, past or future tense.

Active voice: I have limited use of “to be” or “state of being verbs”. (am, is, are, was, were, have, has, had, do, did, shall, would, could, should, must, may, be, been).

The most common grammar error I see a lot is “i”. You ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS want to capitalize “i”. Little things like this matters!

Editing Pro Tip: Read your post out loud. If something seems wrong, change it and read it again.

“If you can’t get the little things right, you will never do the big things right.” William H. McRaven.

Part 4 Topics: Styling Your Topic With HTML, Polls, and Other Useful Techniques

Utilizing the key features on the Dev Forum is what makes your post professional. Whether it be using HTML or the polls, here I will list the top tips. The awesome part about this forum is that you can add really amazing things to make your post stand out!

What is HTML?

Assuming you are a beginner, HTML stands for Hyper-Text-Markup-Language. Basically, this is a type of scripting language used to create websites. HTML was originally created by Tim Berners-Lee, and you can find the first ever created website here.

Sooo... How Do I use HTML in making posts?

Okay, here are the beginner steps to using HTML.

  1. All HTML elements are first created using an opening tag.
    • Here is an example of an opening tag. First type the less than sign < then your element, and lastly the greater than sign >
    • Here is an example using the heading one tag (I will get more into tags later): < h1 > Note: the spaces are not used while making an opening tag. Space is there so the element will not disappear.
  2. The next step is to add what you want to put in the tag. Since heading 1 is a huge font, you use this element to make titles or subtitles.
  3. Okay, now the final step: make an ending tag. Using the exact format from step one accept you put a backslash before the element. Example: < /h1>
  4. Final example: < h1>Hello World!< /h1> will make this (Delete the spaces):

Hello World!

Here are some tags and examples

< h1>Hello World!< /h1>

Hello World!

< h2>Hello World!< /h2>

Hello World!

< h3>Hello World!< /h3>

Hello World!

< h4>Hello World!< /h4>

Hello World!

< h5>Hello World!< /h5>

Hello World!

< h6>Hello World!< /h6>

Hello World!

< small>Hello World!< /small>
Hello World!


< hr> This is a Horizontal line


If you want more information on HTML checks out this website:

Conclusion

Knowing these skills will allow you to be a well looked at developer. It's always best to look as professional as possible! I hope this tutorial will venture you into your next developing dream. Feel free to comment below with advice for others.

Cheers,
Sbob

If you want an even more in-depth tutorial with pretty much everything you can do, there is a tutorial from Discourse which you can find here.

114 Likes

I know this may be a bit off-topic, but, is there a way you can view all the different like commands/shortcuts you can use while creating your topic?

13 Likes

The forum is run off of Discourse, which means that post formatting supports (99% of) Markdown, a bit of BBCode, and some HTML.

Most users will only ever need to use the Markdown elements. You can read all about it here: Markdown Reference

There are some other elements that you can insert via buttons in the editor, like polls, date-times, file uploads, and spoilers.

More info: Is there any reference documentation for post formatting? - #2 by mcwumbly - support - Discourse Meta

16 Likes

Alright, thank you very much, this has helped me a lot!

11 Likes

Thank you so much! This defiantly helped me. Although, I’m new to Devfourm and was wondering if anybody knows some good posts I can read explaining each button and what they do when writing a post. :flushed:

8 Likes

I totally understand what you’re saying. I was just like you when I first joined the Devforum. I found this “Discourse New User Guide” which basically goes in-depth with a lot of the questions you probably have. I hope that helps :smiley:.

8 Likes

You’re legit a lifesaver! Tyty!

7 Likes

Isn’t capitalizing most of the words within a phrase, considered a bad practice / grammar error? Sorry to bring this back after a while…

Besides that, nice.

6 Likes

I believe capitalizing most words in a sentence is only considered proper grammar for writing titles. Otherwise, you’re right.

6 Likes

Hello, if you could help me with something whenever I try to post a topic it is automatically closed by the system no matter what it is about and I do not know how to re open it please help me as this is very stressful

5 Likes

I’m going to read this everyday. I am getting a lot of flags and the flags are telling me to do better. Me going to read this everyday will help me improve on my topics. Thanks for this lovely guide.

6 Likes

Hey, I have a problem. Why did I can’t find the #feature-requests topic when creating a post?

1 Like

This is because you are currently a Member on the forum. Only Regular+ can create topics in #feature-requests.

1 Like

This tutorial is helpful, thanks!

2 Likes

I have a question. How can we create spoilers?

1 Like

text

Just wrap it in [spoiIer][/spoiIer]

3 Likes

thanks heheheh