Wording clarity for ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted policy description column

[colbert2677 (ImagineerColbert)]

Issue Area: DevHub Content
Page URL: PolicyService | Roblox Creator Documentation

Currently, the text reads:

Whether the player can interact with paid (via in-experience currency or Robux) random item generators.

Based on some discussion with peers, it seems this wording can be confusing to some as to what the policy’s value actually means. “Whether” usually implies a boolean but that implication isn’t carried by all developers and it’s not explicitly clear what one should do based on what the boolean reads.

This request asks to have it more explicitly describe what the policy means so it’s more clear. For example, the following text can be adopted:

When true, the player cannot interact with paid (via in-experience currency or Robux) random item generators.

[colbert2677 (ImagineerColbert)]

I can’t change the name of this thread but it doesn’t make sense to make a new thread to point out the same problem so if any IX team member triaging or addressing this problem could also note that the wording choice is poor for every single policy, not just ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted, it’d help. If I need to file a new request for it to be acknowledged properly I will do that instead.

In my opinion the word “whether” should be banned from documentation because it’s too confusing. Aim to explicitly describe what something does and what happens if x is y. This can avoid gross misconceptions which, especially when dealing with policies, no one should have.

Proposals:

ArePaidRandomItemsRestricted

Current: Whether the player can interact with paid (via in-experience currency or Robux) random item generators.

New: When true, the player cannot interact with paid (via in-experience currency or Robux) random item generators.

AllowedExternalLinkReferences:

Current: Whether a player can see any external link reference (for example, social media links, handles, or iconography). Possible values include: “Discord”, “Facebook”, “Twitch”, and “YouTube”.

New: An array containing names of external link references the player may see (for example: social media links, handles or iconography). Possible values include: “Discord”, “Facebook”, “Twitch” and “YouTube”.

(“Whether” doesn’t make sense here because AllowedExternalLinkReferences is not an all-encompassing boolean, each member of the array is determined on a case-by-case basis).

IsPaidItemTradingAllowed:

Current: Whether the player can trade virtual items that they purchased with in-experience currency or Robux.

New: When false, the player cannot trade virtual items that they purchased with in-experience currency or Robux.

IsSubjectToChinaPolicies:

Current: Whether an experience should enforce compliance changes. […]

New: When true, an experience should enforce China Program compliance changes. […]

(Substitute the […] with the “see this forum post” part that currently exists.)