Major new features

• Super Safe Chat
• Aggressive moderation of images when Under 13 mode on
• COPPA compliance
• Custom skyboxes & time of day property added
• Forum and Image Moderator Badges added
• Some FireFox/Mozilla support added
• Fancy new badges page
• Improved profile editing

Super Safe Chat

A lot of parents are uneasy about letting their kids play on the internet unsupervised. Online chat is a big issue – while we can and do filter chat for profanity, and respond to all user reports of inappropriate chat, there is no way to filter all offensive chat as it is occurring. The problem is one of filtering intent. In order to completely lock down our chat system to make something that we think is totally safe for young kids, we have introduced a templated chat system loaded with pre-approved messages. Players with SuperSafe chat mode on will only be able to hear messages sent from other players using the templated chat menu.

Under 13 Mode

Coupled with Super Safe Chat, Under 13 Mode lets parents truly make Roblox safe for kids aged 4-124 (our avowed mission statement). When a user is operating in Under 13 mode, we gaurantee that they will only see uploaded images that have been already approved by moderators.

COPPA Compliance

Roblox, the site and the game are now 100% COPPA compliant. Interested parents can read about what we do to protect children on our site.

Skyboxes and Time of Day

If you check out Crossroads, you will see the new Skybox and Time of Day features that we have added to the game. Custom skyboxes are still rough around the edges, but we will have them be insertable from the Toolbox in the next release.

L = game:service(“Lighting”)

while true do

—– increment the time of day and then wait for a while

L:SetMinutesAfterMidnight(L:GetMinutesAfterMidnight()+1)

wait(1)

end

Until then, if you put the above script in your level, you will at least get some nice time of day effects, including stars, sunrise and sunset.

Image and Forum Moderator Badges

We have added two badges that grant admin-like powers in the forum and in our image moderation queue. These badges will be occasionally offered to longtime users with sterling community service records on Roblox, as we need more volunteers. They are offered by invitation only, so don’t bother asking. Our first deputies are MrDoomBringer and FFJosh.

FireFox / Mozilla Support

Thanks to Matt’s efforts, the website now looks a lot better in FireFox and other Mozilla browsers. FireFox users have no way to launch the game from within the browser – they will need to select “Play Roblox” from their Start menu to get in-game. But it’s a start.

Fancy New Badges Page

As we get more badges in the system, we’ll be adding more tabs.

Improved Profile Editting

The profile edit page now looks better and has some additional options.

– Telamon