2012 April Fools incident

The 2012 April Fools Hack was an event that took place on April 1, 2012 that involved the compromising of the Roblox website which concluded in the website being taken offline for a brief period of time. While there was no actual hacking of the website, the event was widely referred to as such during and after it took place.

Suspected Timeline of Events

The incident was believed to be started when players were able to exploit access to Roblox's admin panel by creating an account on SiteTest3 under a Roblox Administrator's Roblox Username.

On April 1, 2012, an unknown user (some sources allege the user is DracoSwordMaster^{⁠[citation needed]}) caused what would become the website's most notable "hacking". It involved the currency system and item catalog, the use of the warning banner, and unauthorized user promotions. In a 2017 Reddit comment, Gordonrox24, a former moderator, noted that "It was nothing... You won't see it happen again" ^[1].

The suspected precursor to the event was a forum discussion that deteriorated into an argument between Minish and Merely involving money and the economy of ROBLOX. It is alleged that Minish's account was taken over by the unknown user^{⁠[citation needed]}. Minish bought Merely's famous Domino Crown, which was Merely's personal favorite catalog item. The forums soon exploded with threads discussing the events. As a result, the two users were each given bans. This would also lead to Merely briefly quitting ROBLOX.

Soon afterwards, users Pheedy and are17, both accounts under the control of the unknown user, became moderators and used their elevated privileges to unban Minish. The prices of hats in the catalog went down tremendously during this time, and hats were released by the minute for 1 Robuck. Some of the names of the hats were changed, such as Explosive Hair being changed to Rocket Hair, Hooded Spacelord to Noob Hood, and Mementero Mori to Candle Skull.

The perpetrator released multiple new Roblox assets during this time. He first released a new face into the catalog with the title "c:" on the official Roblox account for 1 Robuck. The only account to purchase it was Stickmasterluke whose account was assumed compromised. The face's image asset can be retrieved on the Roblox website. Another "c:" face was made, which can also be retrieved on the website.A third face face called "hai guize derp" was also released and can be accessed on the Roblox website.

It is speculated that 1dev2's account was one of the accounts that was also compromised. Many items were put into his inventory during the event, and his avatar was changed multiple times. His account was subsequently terminated by a moderator. This ban was never revoked, but 1dev2 was possibly allowed temporary access into his account after the event, which during that time, he uncopylocked his game "Welcome to the Town of Robloxia".

Other accounts affected during this incident include

Qman1245 obtaining the Dominus Empyreus, Domino Crown, Ban Hammer and the Admin Badge. He was later terminated
Rippinz obtaining multiple items released during the incident, including two copies of the Scary Hood
Misteroe trading away and laundering an estimated 100,000 to 350,000 Robux. There is also some speculation that Misteroe was directly involved with the event.
ExFamous obtaining Dominus Frigidus #16 and #59 Ghostwalker, which were worth approximately eight million Robux at the time

Banners

Banners were added to the top of the site and frequently changed colors and displayed questionable content. Examples include (but were not limited to):

"thank you minish for messing up the economy. nub.",
"always share your passwords with strangers, kids!"
"Haha these are so funny let's go spam the forums about them :D"
"Remember kids tell your parents to vote Ron Paul"
"Yo gonna give a shout out to the homies in dah hood"
"Abcedfghikjlmnoqprstuvwzyx"
"OMG like srsly Becky?","JOIN BUILDERS CLUB! ITS FREEEEEEEE!!!!"
"Yo RT stop yo ranting homies"
"Playing Roblox is better then going outside!"
"pink. Its my new obsession,pink. it not even aquestion."
"I'm the annoying orange banner. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. "
"NO TOMATO IS ALWAYS BEST SILLY ORANGE"
"minish is a stupid noob. nah not rly."
"Do a Barrell Roll"
"jaredvaldez4 best builder on roblox kthxbai"
"minish is climbin in yo windows. snatchin yo people up."
“these aren’t the droids you're looking for!”
"Go out and buy some peanut butter yo"
"You put the peanut butter in the potato and stir it all up"
"WHO IS IT? 1x1x1x1,Dignity,Minish,Jared,The Admins? The world may never know :o"
"WII GONNA FIN WII GONNA FIN U"
"You lik these headers? Tell me how you’ve always been such a fan"
"APRIL FEWLS”
"SKRILLEZ BANGARANG WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUB"
"Proscribe stop posting your gonna get proscribed BROO"
"Bro chill we get it"
"Yo dog ya'll need to chill it"

Roblox's Response

After all this activity occurred, Roblox staff brought the site offline and reported that they were attempting to patch up the currency system. The website was brought back online during the late evening of April 1. The Trade Currency system and Roblox Catalog were offline until the following evening.

In a Roblox Blog post on April 2, it was announced that "(Roblox) experienced a site issue the evening of April 1st..., and (they) took the site offline". They noted that "Several assets were released from (the catalog) backlog that were not ready for production", and "Several accounts were incorrectly granted large amounts of ROBUX; some of these ROBUX were subsequently traded with other accounts." Some catalog and currency transactions were audited and rollbacked, and they estimated the rollbacks occurred in fever than 0.01% of Roblox accounts^[2]. Some items were updated with new pricing, while other items were taken off-sale. The "c:" face was changed to "Dr. Smyth Face" and was temporarily available for purchase.