Comments, formerly known as Commentary, was a section available through assets on the Roblox website. Comments could be disabled by the creator of the asset. For assets on the Creator Store (formerly Library), comments have been succeeded by reviews.
Restrictions[]
- The user had to be verified.
- There was a 200 character limit on all comments left.
- The user may have to complete a captcha.
- 1 minute cooldown after posting 2 comments.
History[]
Implementation[]
Comments were added on October 30, 2007, available for hats and t-shirts, later available to places with the delay for commenting at the same place starting off at 15 seconds.
Rise of spam comments[]
By later years, the administrators of Roblox decided to limit players from continuously posting comments every second. This action to extend the delay was done to combat the prevailing spam comments that were continuously appearing on Roblox, which included those that claim about the ability of a user getting lifetime Builder's Club membership and/or infinite Robux by posting the spam on a certain amount of different items and those that include a potentially harmful link. From now on, the delay was extended to 3,600 seconds (or 1 hour).
Since its creation, users often posted comments about a different subject rather than the main topic of that commentary. Other players encouraged users to do what they ask, such as joining a group or sending a trade. Some players advertised to try and get attention. However, the majority of the commentary found in Roblox consisted of "spam", where players just post comments that is off-topic and has nothing to do with the subject at all.
As of May 2013, players were required to be verified in order to comment on assets.
When users commented on catalog items (including places, decals, models, etc.), a tiny yellow check mark might appear next to the time the comment was posted. This yellow check mark indicated that the user owns the item.
Disablement[]
At one point during the Tixapalooza sale, comments began to be disabled on many gear items and some hats, potentially due to users repeatedly posting spam comments to try to get others to play their game, send trades, post links to scam websites, buy their clothes, etc. As of now, comments will be disabled for future catalog items because of this.
On May 18, 2016, comments were then disabled from all catalog items which were made by Roblox. This was due to a massive number of bots spamming links to scam websites. Similarly, comments were removed from all games on December 2 of that year, for the same reason. As of that date, comments cannot be re-enabled due to its configuration being hidden. However, shirts, T-shirts, pants, accessories, meshes, images, decals, models, plugins, and audio would still have comments enabled if the creator allowed them.
Four weeks later on December 30, the tiny yellow check mark indicator was removed due to the massive UI overhaul that occurred since late 2014.
In 2018, comments were disabled for passes and later badges due to a change in the way they functioned. This was also likely due to a large number of bots that spam the comments.
Semi-reimplementation[]
When UGC hats were being rolled out in August 2019, creators were given the choice to enable or disable comments, meaning some marketplace items would now allow comments.
Discontinuation[]
On March 26, 2024, Roblox disabled the ability to comment under all assets on the Roblox website. This affected marketplace items and remaining development assets that were still displayed on the Roblox website instead of the Roblox Creator Hub. This was due to them mostly being used for spam and unconstructive comments. Comments were supposed to be removed from the Roblox website on April 9, 2024, but were ultimately removed on April 23, 2024.[1]
Spam[]
Spam is an infamous element in the comments. The most common spam comments are variations of these types: "The person below me ___", "This is a weird glitch", "/e free", anti-spam spam, โthis is an official message from robloxโ, โI JUST GOT ROBUX FROM THIS WEBSITE!โ and "voice changer".
Bugs[]
- If a user posted the comment "$`" (a dollar sign followed by a backtick), it would post the comment twice, the second comment being in the first.
- After the disablement of comments on the Roblox website in early 2024, reporting comments was disabled. Attempting to report a user would result in an Error 400 being returned despite the report button still being displayed.
References[]
- โ Roblox (2024, March 26). "Deprecating Comments for Marketplace Items". From DevForum. Archived from the original on March 26, 2024.