Allow the GM to delete a line in the chat text

This function would be very helpful.

This is literally the easiest feature in the world to implement. Unironically, the fact that this feature isn't in yet is so bafflingly stupid. Roll20, add this. We've been wanting it for 9 God Damn Years.

+1

Charlie V. said: This is literally the easiest feature in the world to implement. Unironically, the fact that this feature isn't in yet is so bafflingly stupid. Roll20, add this. We've been wanting it for 9 God Damn Years. Even if it was one of the hardest things to implement, they have 9 years to add something so crucial to gaming, clearly the people who work for R20 aren't gamers and have never actually used R20 to play or GM, otherwise they'd of seen the need for this and adding such a basic QOL function a long time ago.

This feature has been on our radar but passed over in favor of other major features or updates, and poses some interesting technical and moderation-based issues. I think we’ve found a solution that will satisfy the needs in this thread and finally get this work out into the world, so I’m moving this thread’s status from Researching and into Queued.

Ashton said:  I think we’ve found a solution that will satisfy the needs in this thread and finally get this work out into the world, so I’m moving this thread’s status from Researching and into Queued. So does "queued" mean we'll see this solution by 2025 or??? Not trying to sound sarcastic, but this has been "being looked into" for years, so I'm understandably dubious as to it being implemented in a timely manner.

moderation issues? not really. meanwhile I've been using other VTTs and am glad.

This would be useful for erasing an accidental test of a surprise monster's ability. I would restrict it to GM control, to reduce chances of PC harassment. I.e., someone saying or whispering something abusive, then erasing and denying it. Or better, deleting it from the chat log, but not the chat archive.

I mean....FACEBOOK can do it, my phone can do it, you can do this in ANY bbs or blog or discussion group or..... Really, how hard could it be?  And when it's so desired by so many?

Teresa N. said: Really, how hard could it be?  And when it's so desired by so many? Pretty sure it's less of a programming/complication issue, and more of a legal issue. For example, someone sending violent threats, or making sexual advances on a minor during a game on R20, or just straight up being an arsehole and then being able to easily delete the evidence. {Maybe like, not on the devs logs, but enough to keep their gaming group from being able to see it.} Since we log into their servers and use their platform, there's some legal liability they're on the hook for in regards to misuse of by people. {Which Foundry neatly avoids by it being a program the user hosts their own private server on} That said, they still could let the GM just flag messages as whispers rather than outfight delete them, but like others have mentioned, the developers aren't gamers themselves, and have no real clue how useful this kind of thing is to a GM, or they would of given it to us as part of R20's core features when it first launched.

I work on accounting software professionally and you can't delete entries in that world either, but there are lots of ways that you can keep old/undesired entries from being visible and getting in the way of normal usage. The easiest way to do this is to add a "deleted" or "visible" flag to entries and then when they're removed you just set the flag. You then set up the chat as a "view" on this data that only shows applicable entries.This keeps the data around for any legal reasons you might have and accomplishes the desired result asked for here.i suspect that their solution is actually really similar to this.

Well, at least it's progress, as slow as it may be. 

I definitely need this feature. Sometimes i am working on maps, monsters and handouts and as i am about to log out of Roll20, to my surprise I see a few messages that I accidently sent to chat that I think must have happened while i was editing character sheets and had no intention of sending to chat. If my game prep session lasts long enough this seems inevitable.

Literally 7 years later... 

Given it another 7 and we might see it go from "queued" to implemented, but I wouldn't put money on it. 

TerroX said: Greg said: -1, I don't think this is a good idea - I vote against it. The chat log should be an inviolate record of happenings. No one - DM or not - should be able to tamper with that. What is said or done should never be able to be concealed - it should be there as a matter of public record. Wow, lol ? "Lol" all you want - but that is right. Allowing people with GM access to conceal or alter the recorded history is a terrible idea.

keithcurtis said: This would be useful for erasing an accidental test of a surprise monster's ability. I would restrict it to GM control, to reduce chances of PC harassment. I.e., someone saying or whispering something abusive, then erasing and denying it. Or better, deleting it from the chat log, but not the chat archive. Right, because we can always trust all GMs to never abuse their power ? No.

How is this not already a feature? it is infuriating that the only option when you accidentally click on an ability of an upcoming NPC  is to clear the entire chat log. I am moving to foundry after i finish this campaign. This is beyond ridiculous. 

Why are people comparing this to accounting software and bringing up legal records? These are games for pity's sake! If a problematic player is abusing the chat and a private talking-to doesn't fix the issue, screen-shot the offending text before deleting it then boot them! If you don't trust your GM to play fair, find a different GM!  I regularly delete the chat record in my game due to entries that get created with erroneous clicks, non-game related bs and things that get posted publicly while I'm working on the game between sessions. I would much rather keep a running live log of the game and being able to edit out such extraneous postings would allow that.

Greg said: keithcurtis said: This would be useful for erasing an accidental test of a surprise monster's ability. I would restrict it to GM control, to reduce chances of PC harassment. I.e., someone saying or whispering something abusive, then erasing and denying it. Or better, deleting it from the chat log, but not the chat archive. Right, because we can always trust all GMs to never abuse their power ? No. I would like to re-tell my story from the previous page of the time one of my players accidentally pasted their password into the chat and sent it. People make mistakes. DMs accidentally send something that reveals a monster ability. People paste and hit send on the wrong thing because of habit. We should be able to fix that. Not everything is a court of law or accounting software. You can erase your posts from the Roll20 forums. You can erase your posts on Discord. I can't think of a single social media site where you can't erase your posts. You can white out a paper. You can cut out parts of a paper. This is a normal feature that has existed for as long as humanity has been recording information and it shouldn't only have "purge everything" as a solution. Which does exist, by the way, so your sulking doesn't even make sense, because a DM with bad intentions can just clear the entire chatlog right now as it stands.

This feature is so crucial as it sometimes happen in preparation, that you accidentialy hit an attack for example and it is shown in the chat – and whoops the players the what's coming in the next session! Needs to be implemented asap!

The moment this feature comes into effect is the moment I can actually run Text-based games in Roll20. 

Teller said: The moment this feature comes into effect is the moment I can actually run Text-based games in Roll20.  Given it's been being "looked into" for 7 years, and "Queued" for 3 months, there's a fair chance you'll die of old age before it actually gets implemented.  ;)

meanwhile every other system already has this basic mandatory feature (and more!) that the achaic backbone of roll20 will only have once their market share drops to 10%. well done team.

TerroX said: meanwhile every other system already has this basic mandatory feature Not just every other .vtt system, but virtually every other chat program in existence  lets you delete/edit messages.    I'm baffled why they've been dragging, {and continue to drag,} their feet on implementing something so incredibly basic

Hey guys, if it's my funeral day and the delete chat system still not implemented... I ain't coming.

Hey folks! Very exciting, long-awaited update: t his feature is going through QA at the moment. I don't have a firm timeline, but when it's been fully tested (we're doing some refactoring at the same time), we'll get it on Production ASAP. I've got some screenshots to share: Hiding a message from the GM perspective (dark mode): Message is hidden from the GM perspective (dark mode): Unhiding a message from the GM perspective (light mode): Hidden message from Player perspective (dark mode): I can also answer the moderation questions above: This is a GM-only feature, but you will be able to hide players' messages. However, an admin can see any hidden message in the chat log and chat archive if moderation issues come up. Super excited to be delivering this after so long, and as part of our push to  deliver 5 of the top 10 most voted suggestions this year ! Thank you all for your feedback along the way! 

Woohoo! :-)

Ashton said: Hey folks! Very exciting, long-awaited update: t his feature is going through QA at the moment. I don't have a firm timeline, but when it's been fully tested (we're doing some refactoring at the same time), we'll get it on Production ASAP. I've got some screenshots to share: Nice, this solution is pretty close to ideal, one small inquiry: When viewing the chat archives (as GM) if we turn on the "hide whispers" option, will this also hide the hidden messages? (asking because between each adventure I export the session logs as pdf's for players to have a easy reference/archive of the recent sessions.)

Silveressa -  Oh, good question! That answer is made a tiny bit complex by "whisper" versus "hide," so let me walk you through it: You know this part, but for onlookers: I, the GM, all of my monsters to whisper their rolls to me. Those appear in the chat archive for the GM, and can be hidden by clicking "hide whispers" or "hide GM rolls" in the chat archive. New functionality: I can hide a roll or message sent by me (the GM) or my players. These show as hidden in the chat archive until I unhide them, and are not currently filtered away by "hide whispers" or "hide GM rolls." I'll include a screenshot for clarity. Filtering out hidden messages is something we could definitely do in the future, though, if that's requested functionality! Chat archive with whispers hidden filter applied and a hidden message in the chat:

This is a GM-only feature, but you will be able to hide players' messages. However, an admin can see any hidden message in the chat log and chat archive if moderation issues come up. Legit question here, why it have to be hide message and not just straight up deleting the message? and from the player perspective part, can we like have the "this message has been hidden"  to be a little more transparent or maybe completely hidden? maybe some "completely hide" option for both GM and Player to hide all the hidden message label? So it's not visible, but the information is still stored for proof, if things like legal problem, ex:  abuse is your guys concern. It's kind of sucks to see all the hidden message label especially if there's many mistake made like action spamming due to connection problem or just simple human error, and I play in some text only session, quite a bummer to see that label between dialogue or important monologue due to typo or others. Just a suggestion, can't believe it actually happen, nice.

SkyRZ5 -  Thanks! We're hiding the message instead of deleting it for moderation reasons and to provide context to players if a message was visible, they saw it/reacted to it, and then the message was hidden after it was viewed. It also provides the GM a tool to reveal information for a limited amount of time rather than visible or not visible (whispered). We're looking forward to finishing it up and getting it released!

Ashton said: SkyRZ5 -  Thanks! We're hiding the message instead of deleting it for moderation reasons and to provide context to players if a message was visible, they saw it/reacted to it, and then the message was hidden after it was viewed. It also provides the GM a tool to reveal information for a limited amount of time rather than visible or not visible (whispered). We're looking forward to finishing it up and getting it released! Cool! Can't wait to see it got implemented, hope it goes smooth for you guys in the backend.

Ashton said: SkyRZ5 -  Thanks! We're hiding the message instead of deleting it for moderation reasons and to provide context to players if a message was visible, they saw it/reacted to it, and then the message was hidden after it was viewed. It also provides the GM a tool to reveal information for a limited amount of time rather than visible or not visible (whispered). We're looking forward to finishing it up and getting it released! Like SkyRZ5, I'd rather not have the chat archive cluttered with "This message has been hidden" notes. I second their suggestion for an option for the GM to leave out that notification. I understand the need for a moderator to be able to see all of the edits, but I'd rather my players not be made aware of ALL my mis-clicks and other such errors :) That being said, I'm happy to see that this function is being added, even with the public edit notification!

Look forward to the update Ashton n_n Rick A. said: Like SkyRZ5, I'd rather not have the chat archive cluttered with "This message has been hidden" notes. I second their suggestion for an option for the GM to leave out that notification. I understand the need for a moderator to be able to see all of the edits, but I'd rather my players not be made aware of ALL my mis-clicks and other such errors :) That being said, I'm happy to see that this function is being added, even with the public edit notification! I would recommend a /talktomyself   macro and just put that thing on your Hot bar of macros. Every time I enter the game during the week to plan things, I toggle this on. When you leave/reload the game all messages while it was on get removed from the log.

Unfortunately, this really, really isn't good enough.  Why would I use Roll20 for text-based ttrpgs when I can fully edit, modify and delete text entries in Discord? Now I am going to have to be stuck running games in Discord text-wise for years because you guys think this is a fix and we are going to have to start an entirely new request to get the feature we actually want. In what universe can Discord have this feature and not suffer from "moderation issues" in the slightest when Roll20 can't? What the heck is going on here? All we want is the ability to freely modify and delete posts in a text chat.

I would recommend a /talktomyself   macro and just put that thing on your Hot bar of macros. Every time I enter the game during the week to plan things, I toggle this on. When you leave/reload the game all messages while it was on get removed from the log. But this only useful when we on prototyping, testing skill and attribute macros. I mean when session started, there's a chance accident happen, due to miss click and connection problem and no guarantee we currently on ttm mode at the moment or even why should we be there all the time, especially if the session is Text based.

That...is not what we asked for.

Ashton said: SkyRZ5 -  Thanks! We're hiding the message instead of deleting it for moderation reasons and to provide context to players if a message was visible, they saw it/reacted to it, and then the message was hidden after it was viewed. It also provides the GM a tool to reveal information for a limited amount of time rather than visible or not visible (whispered). We're looking forward to finishing it up and getting it released! I assume the GM is able to hide messages made by other players as well? Could it be made so the hidden message is minimized/hidden to the GM as well? If the GM and/or a player accidentally spams the chat with multiple long messages, it will only be hidden to the players but still be an eyesore to the GM. If the GM sets hidden messages to be hidden from themselves too, they could get a separate "Look" option if they want to check it without revealing it to the players If a game gets spammed with 30 short messages, and the GM hides all of them, can Roll20 just show one line of "Multiple messages where hidden"? Showing 30 consecutive separate "this message is hidden" would do absolutely nothing to remove the spam. Well, if the "this message is hidden" will be uniform, we could use Stylus to hide all instances of those from ourselves.

Wow such a simple feature and its taken over 7 years to implement since requested?  Very happy its finally coming thank you but I have to agree with poster above I dont want "This message is Hidden" messages clogging up my chat and archive. I play with old friends so there are no moderation issues for us. 

Happy to announce today that we've released this functionality and GMs can now hide a line from chat. We see this as a middle ground between the moderation issues we've encountered as well as the problem: how do I hide this spoiler information from my players?  This functionality is available for all GMs regardless of subscription level. Happy to consider more feedback in another Suggestions & Ideas forum post or via ProductBoard . Closing this thread now and refunding votes so you can vote on other things that are important to you! To answer a few questions above: Andreas - 1. Yes! 2. It is minimized/hidden to the GM as well. For 2-3 suggestions I'll bring these back to the team for consideration on future iterations!