Tips for building safe social repls

Replit has transformed coding into a social activity through its multiplayer feature, which allows users to write and review code together. However, these social features carry an inherent risk of exposure to spam, abusive language, and other forms of abuse.

The most effective approach is to consider Safety by design from the design stage. For apps with messaging features, rate limiting and filtering should be introduced to prevent repetitive or harmful messages. It's also a good strategy to provide features that block unwanted communication, or, if the service targets minors, to restrict direct messages (DMs) and only allow public group chats.

It's also important not to reinvent the wheel by leveraging tools that already exist. Instead of building a list of profanity from scratch, you can utilize already-shared bad words list libraries, content moderation, and URL filtering libraries available in various languages such as Python, PHP, and Javascript.

Finally, clear Behavior guidelines should be established and enforced. Users should be explicitly informed of the rules so they know what is allowed and prohibited, and this can start with simple rules like Discord's code of conduct, which includes maintaining civility, prohibiting hate speech, and banning NSFW content.