Scratch

So you're new to the forums? Here's a few things that I hope will help 

Contents:

1, The Forum Catergories.
2, Post & Threads
3, BBC Code & Signatures
4, Reporting/Flagging & Things to avoid doing
5, Moderators (of doom?    ) & end.
6, New Scratchers.

(Scroll down until you see the big number that goes with what you're looking for    )


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The catergories

You will notice that the front page is divided into different sections, I will explain each of these and what there used for.

Announcements

Only the Scratch Team itself can make new topics here, but as the name suggests, they make announcement's such as the next Scratch's release, new ideas for the site etc:

You can reply to these topics though, as the Scratch Team are usually looking for opinions.

New Scratch Members

Pretty self explanotory, if you are new to Scratch, feel free to say hi to all the freindly members. A lot of us will help you get used to Scratch and help you start your Scratching 

Show and tell

Have anew project? Want everyone to know about your work? Post it here, but remember:

This is only for announcing things on Scratch! Sometimes the occasional new website or other something pops up here, the moderator's will soon move these to the corect place.

If you have something else to announce, feel free to try one of the Inspiration & more.

FAQ

Once again, you can't create your own thread here.

If a question is asked repeatedly, it will most likely be added here. If you want to know something, try looking here before creating your own thread    The asnwer may already be here.

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All About Scratch: Want to know something about Scratch? Stuck on a project? Try asking here.

Troubleshooting: Have a problem with Scratch? Did your computer explode when you clicked the green flag? Report it here 

Now, these two are slightly different. There is sometimes confusion over where something fall under.

It's simple. Is it a bug, error, mistake that definetly shouldn't happen. Then use the Troubleshooting topic.

Stuck on a project? you don't know something? All About Scratch is your answer.

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Advanced Topics

Want to know some very advanced coding? Interested in knowing something very hard/advanced?

Post here. This topic is usually filled with pretty complicated things though, if your new to Scratch, some thing may be difficult to understand.

But there are many discussuions here, feel free to join in 

Sensor Boards

The sensor boards are related to the sensor's in Scratch. Such as the microphone functions, light detecting and more.

Scratch is only compatible with these devices, it cannot provide you with the functions unless you get these for your computer.

Educators

This was used for discussing the teaching aspects of Scratch, but it is moving to scratched.media.mit.edu

Inspiration and more

A lot of things go here, but they must be inspirational and lead to a point. The Inspiration and more is now split into four sections to make it slightly more organised.

These are:

Collaboration - Scratcher's can make projects together here which is useful if there's something your not particularly good at or your looking to try a different sort of projects. A collaboration can be something like one person codes a sprite and another draws it, or one Scratcher makes part of a project, then another Scratcher adds to it and so on..

Requests - Slightly different from collabs. Scratcher's can request things like artwork/music etc: for their own projects. Although since you're requesting, being rude isn't very helpful. (Note: I'm not sure if this is 100% correct DX So if anyone can add/change this, please let me know?)

Project Ideas - Pretty self explanatory. You can look for project ideas here. So if you have no inspiration, try checking out a few other Scratcher's ideas and you may be able to make another project.

Miscellaneous - There's a line between TBG and Inspiration here. This place is for threads that aren't exactly related to Scratch, but also aren't games. Things like a new game, something random (but hopefully not spam), a poll, artwork etc: Try to use your own judgement on whether the thread your making is a game or not when posting here since there have been confusions on this in the past  .



There we're a lot of Text-based games in the old inspiration and more, but they now belong here http://scratch.mit.edu/tbgforums



You may have noticed the language topics too.

Please post only in the language used there, but the threads are mainly all that was mentioned above, mixed into one.

Feel free to help the members of another language if you know how to speak that language.

There's also Translating Scratch, and Other languages.
Both are mainly for discussing/translating new languages for Scratch.

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Archived Forums

These are past forums that are now locked, you are able to look back at the topics here, but you can't add anything new.

Any topics that are locked usually get moved here, currently there's 5.

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Posts/threads

Posting is the term used for saying something. I have posted this, anything you type is called a post.

A thread is the term for a topic withing a topic. This is a thread, and so are all the topics on the forums.

If you are looking to create your own thread. Look to the top of a normal (not locked or Admin only) topic, and then click "Post new topic". You can then type your message into a large block and give it a name at the top. However, make sure your thread is in the correct place and actually has a point. A thread can be spam if it's something like "OMG! I LOVE COOKIES!" with the message inside being "Yes, I do."

To reply to a thread, simply scroll to the bottom and type your message there. If there is no box, the threaad is locked.

Locked?

Locked is the term for when a topic is closed.

A locked topic will be grey and can only be viewed. You cannot post in a locked topic.

Topics are locked if:
A) The person who created the thread asks for it to be locked by saying something like. "Can a moderator lock this?"
B) It has gone completely of topic, full of flaming and no longer contribute's to the Scratch Forums.
C) Necroposted. Hardly ever happens, but if a very old and uneeded thread is Necroposted, it is generally locked to prevent other users bumping it up.


A locked topic:


An topic with no new posts:


A topic with new, recent posts:



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BBC Codes

You may have noticed things like smilies    and the colour blue.

There's more, to find out how to make them, you can click here


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Signatures

Notice I have a banner at the bottom of my posts? That is a signature, it can be text or an image as long as it is appropriate (Isn't swearing, insulting etc: )

However, currently you can only have a signature after you have been on Scratch for 15 days, this is to help cut down on things such commercial advertising.

To make a signature, click on the button that says PROFILE near the top (next to Search + Forums Home). You will be taken to a menu, click on personality ad you will see a box.

Type your signature in there, but you are limited to a certain size and letters you can type. You can use the BBC codes on the page I linked in Forum Tricks when making a signature.


Click here,


And then here 



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Reporting/flagging

Chrischb wrote a good guide about reporting and flagging a project/thread/post 

For more, click here 

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Some things to avoid on the forums

Spam: Silly Pointless Annoying Messages.

If it is completely off topic and not related, (something like blah blah blah blah). Don't post it     This also includes pointless threads.

Even if the post is on topic, if it has many repeated words or a very large gap, it can get annoying at times and isn't really neccesary.

Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam,

See how annoying that could be? Now imagine it 10x bigger, while it might seem fun to you, other users might not appreciate scrolling half a page to see the next post if all you post is spam, so try to avoid doing it  .

Don't give the spammer what they want 

What does this mean? Well, most spammers will revive a dead thread or make an irrelevant post to completely knock a thread off topic. It is usually ok to tell them they are off topic, but when 50 different people start arguing that a spammer has spammed...

If you believe this person did not know they did something wrong, it is ok to tell them if no one else has yet, but if they already know and have spammed numerous times, it will soon be dealt with 

If it is completely off topic and not related, (something like blah blah blah blah). Don't post it     This also includes pointless threads.

Rudeness: Please don't be rude to other members. if you dislike someone for whatever reason, keep it to yourself. You wouldn't like it if someone repeatedly insulted you.

So in the words of Paddle2see: treat other's as you would like to be treated 

Necroposting

Reviving a dead, unneeded thread can be very annoying. However, if you have something to add to the thread that IS relevant, It's usually ok 

There's also a 2-week rule in this miscellaneous section of the forums which automatically locks a thread if it hasn't been posted on in 2 weeks. However, you can use the report link to request it to be re-opened if you have something important to say.

Topics in Announcements, Show and Tell, New Members, Advanced Topics, and All About Scratch close after 2 months.

Flaming

Flaming isn't very nice and can lead to a topic being locked if things go out of control.

Flaming is when a user shouts and argues with over nothing. An example.

User 1: Do you think I should try making this?
User 2: NO! That's stupid and already been done! etc:

Basically, if your shouting and arguing over nothing, it's a flame. It doesn't have to be an idea, maybe a thread/someone has spammed. If you must object to something, try constructive critiscm instead or speak nicely. Eg:

User 1: Do you think I should try making this?
User 2: Hmm, It's a nice idea, but It has been done before. Perhaps you could try adding this...

For more on what Isn't allowed, Click here.

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The Mods 

So how do the forums keep in order? The moderator's help keep things under control. without them, these forums would probably be an endless void of spam and chaos. They have the ability to move, rename, sticky, delete and lock threads, edit and delete your posts. They pretty much control the forums

The current moderators are:

MyRedNeptune, Cheddargirl, Lanie, JSO, Coolstuff, Illusionist, Wolfie1996 and Dazachi.




Paddle2see, Lightnin and Andresmh are members of the Scratch Team, but they do work around the forums at times and sometimes look into any problems such a Glitches and Bugs, before reporting them if needed.

The rest of The Scratch Team also sorts things sometimes, but I don't know them all 

Lutz also seems to be a moderator who is part of the Pico Team and works around the sensor boards 

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6! (No image yet)

New Scratchers!


Recently a new status was added for new Scratcher Members, "New Scratcher". New Scratchers are upgraded to Members manually if they don't spam/flame etc:. Unlike Members, they don't have access to some of the features.

There are:

1, Editing posts - New Scratchers can not edit the posts they make, so you might want to be careful and check before you hit that Submit button  .

2, Post in Advance Topics, Collaboration or Miscellaneous.

3, Reply to topics they create in the Show and Tell? (Needs checking..)

4, New Scratchers have to wait 17 minutes (instead of 1) before they can post another post.

Finnaly, I hope this helps you on the forums 
It doesn't list everything (yet), but It's a start.

If something is wrong/missing. Please let me know so I can change it 
I'm still editing this. If you have any suggestions, I'll add them.

Also, if there is something you still don't understand about the forums, feel free to ask here and I or somebody else will try and help you 

Last edited by 06dknibbs (2010-06-18 12:50:18)