The Roblox website maintenance page at the time of the incident.
The 2012 April Fools incident was a compromise of the Roblox website that resulted in the website being briefly taken offline on April 1, 2012. While there was no actual hacking of the website, only an alleged breach of the Roblox admin panel on the testing sites, the incident was widely referred to as such both during and after it occurred.
It is not known who compromised the website on April 1, 2012, and the topic has routinely been the subject of rumors and speculation. David Baszucki responded to the incident in a Roblox blog post the following day, announcing that "Roblox experienced a site issue" the prior evening and some avatar shop items and currency transactions had been rollbacked.[1]
Incident
Users
It is believed the incident began when Pheedy and are17 were promoted to moderators and used their newfound authority to unban Minish and Dignity, two users who had been banned since 2009.[2][3] Then, due to an alleged breach in the Roblox admin panel, "large amounts of Robux" were granted to several accounts by an unauthorized party; those accounts then traded the Robux to unsuspecting users in return for their limited items.[1] Copies of rare limited and off-sale items were created in the process.
- qman1245 obtained the Dominus Empyreus, Domino Crown, Ban Hammer, and the administrator badge.[4] Their account was later terminated.
- EXFamous obtained #16 Dominus Frigidus[5] and #59 Ghostwalker. These items were removed from their inventory on April 2, 2012, but reinstated by Roblox Support on April 5.[5] Their account was terminated some time after 2016.[6]
- Advir was compromised and obtained the Dominus Empyreus and the Domino Crown.[7][8] Their account was later terminated.
- coolboy10000 sold their #1 Darkheart for 6,000,000 Robux to Minish, as discussed on a Let's Make a Deal forum thread.[9] They also obtained the Domino Crown.[10] The sale was rollbacked on April 2, 2012.[11] coolboy10000 was terminated around May 30, 2012.[12] The #1 Darkheart was later awarded to AlexValentinoCrown for bug reports. AlexValentinoCrown was terminated on August 16, 2018; however, due to a Roblox support system exploit, the account was renamed to roblox_user_24118 and briefly restored on February 15, 2024.[13]
- A user named McNoobster was mentioned on some of the site banners made during the incident. Their account was terminated on April 2, 2012.
- A user named Proscribe was mentioned on the final site banner made during the incident. Proscribe is notable for being one of the only people to capture and share footage of the incident while it was happening. The YouTube video titled "The horrid April Fools joke of 2012 on ROBLOX. ( Hack )" was uploaded on April 2, 2012, and has accumulated over 1,000,000 views.[14] Their account was terminated on April 2, 2012.
Stickmasterluke wearing the "c:" face as seen in a video of a player visiting the Roblox website during the 2012 April Fools incident.
A couple Roblox staff accounts were compromised:
- The official Roblox
account was compromised, making a few forum replies[15] including the now-deleted "we wil giv bak dah bux yo". - The account of Roblox administrator ReeseMcBlox was compromised during the incident. Some of her posts were changed to extremely inappropriate comments.
- Moderator Chro's account was compromised. Some of their posts were changed to extremely inappropriate comments.
- Administrator Stealth Pilot (now ScorpioPilot) was compromised during the incident and subsequently terminated. He was unbanned in October 2018.
During the incident, Stickmasterluke 
went online and equipped the c: face which had just been released and was solely granted to him; it is not known if his account was compromised.
1dev2's account was allegedly compromised at the time of the incident, when many items were added to their inventory and their avatar was changed several times. This led to a moderator deleting 1dev2's account. 1dev2 may have briefly been granted access to their account some time after the incident, when they uncopylocked their game "Welcome to the Town of Robloxia".
Gallery
Catalog items
The catalog during this incident.
The "c:" face seen on the catalog shortly after release.
During the incident, prices of hats in the catalog dropped tremendously, and hats were constantly released on the official Roblox account. These hats came from Roblox's catalog backlog and were not ready for release.[1] As a result, when Roblox brought the catalog back online, many of the items were taken off-sale and had their names modified.
The first item released by the unauthorized individuals was a classic face named "c:" for 100 Robux. Stickmasterluke 's account was granted a copy, and anyone else who tried to buy it received an error message. Other faces released include a duplicate "c:" face, a face named "hai guize derp", and a limited unique face called "Derp Face". Both the "c:" faces have been changed to unrelated faces, however the original image assets can be retrieved on the Roblox website.
Faces
| Name | Image | Cost | Description | Current Name | Current Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Derp Face |  |
5 Robux | N/A | ||
| c: |  |
100 Robux | Gotta luv dah cutie face c: | Dr. Smyth Face |  |
| c: (2) | |
N/A | dat face | Manlier Face |  |
| hai guize derp |  |
N/A | N/A | Honey Face |  |
Hats
Banners
Banners were added to the top of the website and frequently changed color and displayed questionable content. Many of the banners contained references to internet memes, while others mentioned specific Roblox users. In chronological order, all banners are below:
| Color | Content |
|---|---|
| Red | Hi, we are having issues with our publishing system. Hang tight yo! |
| Red | Bro chill we get it |
| Red | Yo dog y'all need to chill it |
| Red | Do A Barrel Roll |
| Red | thank you minish for messing up the economy. nub. |
| Red | these aren't the droids you're looking for! |
| Red | Go out and buy some peanut butter yo |
| Red | You put the peanut butter in the potato and stir it all up |
| Red | jaredvaldez4 best builder on roblox kthxbai |
| Red | WHO IS IT 1x1x1x1, Dignity, Minish, Jared, The Admins? The World May Never know :o |
| Red | minish is climbin in yo windows. snatchin yo people up. |
| Red | WII GUNNA FIN WII GUNNA FIN U |
| Red | Oh you like these headers? Tell me how you've always been such a fan |
| Red | OMG lik srsly becky? |
| Red | JOIN BUILDERS CLUB! ITS FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! |
| Red | Yo RT stop yo ranting homies |
| Red | Haha these are so funny lets go spam the forums about them :D |
| Red | is anybody here besides minish a huge chris brown fan?? |
| Red | Remember kids tell your parents to vote for Ron Paul |
| Red | Playing roblox is always better then going outside! |
| Red | Yo gonna give a shout out to the homies in dah hood |
| Pink | pink. it's my new obsession. pink. it not even a question. |
| Red | Abcedfghikjlmnoqprstuvwzyx |
| Red | SKRILLEX BANGARANG WUBWUWBWUBWUWBWUB |
| Orange | I'm the annoying orange banner. AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA |
| Red | NO TOMATO IS ALWAYS BEST SILLY ORANGE |
| Blue | minish is a stupid noob. nah not rly |
| Pink | remember kids trust anyone with your password |
| Orange | APRIL FEWLZ |
| Pink | Ten bux says we do roll back on today |
| Pink | hai itz pheedy mcnoobster and minish and we taken over |
| Pink | McNoobster in dah houze |
| Pink | McNoobster!!!!!! |
| Red | Proscribe stop posting your gonna get proscribed BROOOOOOO |
Gallery
Aftermath
Former administrator Briguy9876 (now BrianReddus) tweeted that this incident was not a prank by Roblox.
Roblox staff brought the website offline on the evening of April 1, 2012; it returned online during the late evening. The site test admin panel was updated and the catalog remained unavailable until the following evening.
In a Roblox blog post published by David Baszucki on April 2, 2012, he announced that "Roblox experienced a site issue the evening of April 1st..., and they took the site offline". He 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."[1]
Some catalog items and currency transactions were audited and rollbacked, and Baszucki estimated the rollbacks occurred in fewer than 0.01% of Roblox accounts.[1] Some items were updated with new pricing, while other items were taken off-sale. The "c:" item was changed to Dr. Smyth Face and was temporarily made available for purchase after April 2, 2012.
In a 2017 Reddit comment about the incident, former Roblox moderator Gordonrox24 stated: "It was nothing... You won't see it happen again".[16]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Baszucki, David (2012, April 2). "Site Issue Resolved". From Roblox Blog. Accessed July 22, 2024. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022.
- ↑ (2009, May 13). "Minish?". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ (2009, September 13). "Dignity". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ Augment (2012, May 29). "@Ppl who don't know their facts about April 1st". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 EXFamous (2012, April 3). "Telamon If You Read This... I just message Roblox. You guys didnt give me back my dominus.". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ (2016, August 16). "EXFamous". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ Advir (2012, April 1). "GOT A DOMINO CROWN". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ Advir (2012, April 1). "Wait..I have Domino Crown and Dominus Empyreus". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ coolboy10000 (2012, April 1). "MINISH, #1 DARKHEART!???". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 28, 2024.
- ↑ Merely [@MerelyRBLX] (2012, May 2). "coolboy10000 was "given" a Domino Crown by one of the people who broke in the admin panel. http://roblox.com/User.aspx?ID=620761" [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ coolboy10000 (2012, April 2). "Enjoy your cash while you can". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 28, 2024.
- ↑ coolboy10000 [@cb10kRBLX] (2012, May 30). "Terminated...." [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ Roblox Trading News | Rolimon's [@Rolimons] (2024, February 15). "AlexValentinoCrown has been unterminated with 37.7M In Value, Including Two Lord Of The Federations" [Tweet]. Twitter.
- ↑ Bluedarkness826 [@Bluedarkness826] (2012, April 2). The horrid April Fools joke of 2012 on ROBLOX. ( Hack ) [Video]. YouTube.
- ↑ (2013, February 4). "Roblox". From Roblox Forum Archive. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.
- ↑ Reddus, Brian (2017, December 10). "What was the April Fool's Hack of 2012?". From Reddit. Reddit. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024.