If I wanted to log every player’s chat messages to data stores, and make it so that only I am able to view these chat logs via a GUI, would it be against the rules to store and then display those chat messages as unfiltered?
Again, only I, the game’s creator, would be able to view the GUI. The article on text filtering hints at the existence of an automated system Roblox has that checks to see whether the content your game inputs to text-displaying UI objects is filtered:
The automated checks that Roblox does to detect if filtering is being done correctly knows to ignore text that was typed into a TextBox , but only in the same session that the TextBox was used.
I say this because the chat logs in a model like Kohl’s Admin Commands are pretty pitiful. The filtering is absolutely way over-the-top. I’m not sure if Kohl’s has its own extra filtering going on (can’t even read someone writing numbers, while I can read regular chat messages containing them) or if there just exists different levels of filtering and Kohl’s picked the strictest one.
Secondarily, if this is NOT allowed, can messages at least be stored as unfiltered? That way I could just print the chat log in the Studio command bar, at least.
Absolutely not. Any player input that is going to be replicated across clients such as chat systems; must be filtered. If you’re storing player messages though, they should already be filtered.
As long as the content isn’t replicated across clients, then there is no point in filtering it.
Not sure what you mean here. Are you saying they should be filtered as per the developer’s will, or are you guessing (hence the word should) that Roblox has it set up in a way where filtering is done beforehand? If the latter, then that is incorrect. If the former, then I ask why is that the case? And how would you reconcile that suggestion with the other replier here who states
Yes, messages can be stored as unfiltered.
Sorry to be wordy, just confused with the semantics here.
I mean if Roblox doesn’t already filter them, you should before storing them if anyone is going to see them after. But for some reason if nobody is ever going to see them again, then no; no filtering required.
You are allowed to store raw, unfiltered text in DataStores and for the server’s use because you may need to parse text for game features and the like. Filtering is only required when it is shown to the player.
Filtering is intended mainly for client display purposes, but if a client can’t see the string then it is not necessary to filter it. If at any point the server needs to send that string to the client, it’s filtering time.
So to clarify: yes to unfiltered string storage, no to showing raw messages. Even if it is just to yourself, you need to filter it before showing it.
A solution to viewing unfiltered text would be to use some type of webhook system, whether it be Discord messages, or simply using a web server to send it to your system storage, there is not really a way to view unfiltered text in-game without getting in moderation trouble. Using this solution, you would be fine, as you are not viewing the text in the Roblox Game Client, rather a 3rd party source.
No, that’s a workaround. Last I recall, Roblox requires you to filter client-inputted when being sent to external platforms as well, however I cannot confirm the validity of what I heard and this will need to be followed up with via official channels to get an authoritative response.
This is more a problem of potentially inappropriate content being delivered to other services via the Roblox UserAgent rather than moderation concerns as they don’t have jurisdiction over external platforms, so they need to do what they can on-platform to prevent inappropriate behaviours.