Scratch

Steppenwulf - first off, thanks so much for your care and concern for Scratch!  Explaining the tone of the Scratch community to new Scratchers is really helpful - especially when it's done in a way that's friendly and not confrontational.

This is a cool idea! So when someone logs in for the first time, they'll have 1 message already. It could have added benefits of introducing them to how the messaging system works.

Let's think about what it might say...
How about something like:

"Welcome to the Scratch online community! Feel free to make a new Scratch project and share it to the website so others can view, download, and remix it. Please help keep the Scratch community a friendly place by commenting constructively on other Scratcher's projects. Remember, the Scratch website is used by children of all ages. If you have questions about what's appropriate to share, check out our Terms of Use. Thank you and Scratch On!"

I think mentioning flaming / trolling might be a little premature, since some Scratchers who are new to online communities won't know what those words mean yet.  But maybe there are other ways to ask community members to avoid feeding the trolls - projects maybe?

Lightnin wrote:

Steppenwulf - first off, thanks so much for your care and concern for Scratch!  Explaining the tone of the Scratch community to new Scratchers is really helpful - especially when it's done in a way that's friendly and not confrontational.

This is a cool idea! So when someone logs in for the first time, they'll have 1 message already. It could have added benefits of introducing them to how the messaging system works.

Let's think about what it might say...
How about something like:

"Welcome to the Scratch online community! Feel free to make a new Scratch project and share it to the website so others can view, download, and remix it. Please help keep the Scratch community a friendly place by commenting constructively on other Scratcher's projects. Remember, the Scratch website is used by children of all ages. If you have questions about what's appropriate to share, check out our Terms of Use. Thank you and Scratch On!"

I think mentioning flaming / trolling might be a little premature, since some Scratchers who are new to online communities won't know what those words mean yet.  But maybe there are other ways to ask community members to avoid feeding the trolls - projects maybe?

You're right. I had forgotten that even I didn't know what trolling or flaming meant until a few months after I joined Scratch. I guess projects would be a better way to show them what trolling is, and to ask them not to partake in it.

I can't make one today or this weekend, because I'm going to be swamped    I asked Scratchers in the Requests forum if they could make one.

And about your welcome message, I think it's great 

Last edited by steppenwulf (2010-03-12 16:42:24)

I love this idea! 

And I'm glad the Scratch Team saw it. 

Thanks everyone    I too hope it becomes a reality soon.

Great idea! New users often don't look at the ToS, so this will help a lot.

Also Lightnin, that message looks good. You might want to mention something about remixing, because some people get confused over what it means.

  Here is the Don't Feed the Trolls project that soup made that he was too lazy to link to lol

Last edited by steppenwulf (2010-03-15 11:39:53)

i flagged someone for something really inaprpiat and i feel really awful about it and i did it for good reason( it had the worst cuss in it) and it got taken down but i feel guilty 

Lightnin wrote:

Steppenwulf - first off, thanks so much for your care and concern for Scratch!  Explaining the tone of the Scratch community to new Scratchers is really helpful - especially when it's done in a way that's friendly and not confrontational.

This is a cool idea! So when someone logs in for the first time, they'll have 1 message already. It could have added benefits of introducing them to how the messaging system works.

Let's think about what it might say...
How about something like:

"Welcome to the Scratch online community! Feel free to make a new Scratch project and share it to the website so others can view, download, and remix it. Please help keep the Scratch community a friendly place by commenting constructively on other Scratcher's projects. Remember, the Scratch website is used by children of all ages. If you have questions about what's appropriate to share, check out our Terms of Use. Thank you and Scratch On!"

I think mentioning flaming / trolling might be a little premature, since some Scratchers who are new to online communities won't know what those words mean yet.  But maybe there are other ways to ask community members to avoid feeding the trolls - projects maybe?

How about also having a link to something explaining what remixing is. Like:

...download, and remix it. If you don't know what "remix" means, click here...

schusteralex2 wrote:

Something semi-relevant, sometimes I'm looking through the "Surprise" channel and see 2 year old inappropriate projects. I flag them, but it's kind of depressing to see how those projects made it so long without being taken down. I don't do it to look for those projects intentionally, but they are so blatantly bad it's painful. I do find some great projects by doing this, for example, the recently featured project Sudoku was suggested by me and I found it in surprise, but the extreme amount of innapropriateness there is overwhelming. On a side note, I know flagging a project makes it so you can't see it, but does it hide it for other users??

Flagging a project doesn't hide it from other users unless it's been flagged a lot before (which would trigger the community censorhip cover until an ST member comes around to review the project).

There's a lot kids who think inappropriate music is okay so long as the project content is okay. There have been some Scratchers who have uploaded good projects with inappropriate music, and I guess people are much too afraid to flag them or don't really care, especially if the Scratcher is popular or well-known. It's something that has to change around here. 

I do wish the guidelines were a little more detailed. Not that I've ever personally had a problem, but someone could definitely read them and still not know whether a particular project was OK.

schusteralex2 wrote:

cheddargirl wrote:

schusteralex2 wrote:

Something semi-relevant, sometimes I'm looking through the "Surprise" channel and see 2 year old inappropriate projects. I flag them, but it's kind of depressing to see how those projects made it so long without being taken down. I don't do it to look for those projects intentionally, but they are so blatantly bad it's painful. I do find some great projects by doing this, for example, the recently featured project Sudoku was suggested by me and I found it in surprise, but the extreme amount of innapropriateness there is overwhelming. On a side note, I know flagging a project makes it so you can't see it, but does it hide it for other users??

Flagging a project doesn't hide it from other users unless it's been flagged a lot before (which would trigger the community censorhip cover until an ST member comes around to review the project).

There's a lot kids who think inappropriate music is okay so long as the project content is okay. There have been some Scratchers who have uploaded good projects with inappropriate music, and I guess people are much too afraid to flag them or don't really care, especially if the Scratcher is popular or well-known. It's something that has to change around here. 

I was referencing some projects with blatant explicit content, not just inappropriate music, but sexual references and possibly offensive religious superiority. I rarely use the audio anyways so I don't notice the music so much, but I've seen some extremely disturbing projects.

For those cases, if the Scratcher is not well known, then it sometimes goes unnoticed.