Scratch

I'm over 14 and my parents are happy for me to run, however I live in England. Would that make a difference? Are there requirements on country as well as age?

Wolfie1996 wrote:

Toasty wrote:

I'm over 14 and my parents are happy for me to run, however I live in England. Would that make a difference? Are there requirements on country as well as age?

Nope - as a matter of fact, I live in England, too 

me toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ahh Forgot to say  ...

I know why some of you are up in arms about the speech and find it really annoying, even upsetting that you can't be a Moderator. Most of you have been hyped up and exited about the Fall Elections and now you cant run!? DONT worry. Some of you seem to think that it's the end of the world. If you REALLY want to be a Moderator, you would wait for the next elections. If you get so annoyed, are you really the RIGHT person for the job?

Think about that guys and gals 

FlexiStudio wrote:

Ahh Forgot to say  ...

I know why some of you are up in arms about the speech and find it really annoying, even upsetting that you can't be a Moderator. Most of you have been hyped up and exited about the Fall Elections and now you cant run!? DONT worry. Some of you seem to think that it's the end of the world. If you REALLY want to be a Moderator, you would wait for the next elections. If you get so annoyed, are you really the RIGHT person for the job?

Think about that guys and gals 

People are annoyed because a lot of them would have to wait years to possibly run, not months, but years. Like penguinsrock said, people that might have been good moderators might get bored of Scratch while waiting to turn 14 and leave.

There isn't anything we can do about these age restrictions overall, but how about we share some opinions and stories anyway? It'd be nice to hear what everybody thinks and let others know how we feel rather than just keep opinions in - Alot of us are doing so and that's good, even if nothing will change. 
EDIT: This is what made entirely motivated to run this time, but now I'm accepting that I can not run for this election, and I'm going to try to stay interested in Scratch and run when I'm older. This still means alot to me illusionist. 

Penguinsrock wrote:

illusionist wrote:

Penguinsrock wrote:

Is it? I thought that they would stay a mod for atleast 4 months, and choose if they would want to keep going. And do you really think so? Be honest, it's OK.

I really do.

I have been watching you as a member for a long time now, you did excellent as a curator, you interact well with others, you are very friendly, helpful, honest...

You don't know how much that means to me.    Personally - I've noticed many changes from last year this one. I've been looking at the qualities of the people I [so-called] hated in my classroom. Infact - One of them is a friend now.

From here: http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=36061&p=2

Last edited by Penguinsrock (2010-10-03 11:29:01)

coolstuff wrote:

Penguinsrock wrote:

There isn't anything we can do about these age restrictions overall, but how about we share some opinions and stories anyway? It'd be nice to hear what everybody thinks and let others know how we feel rather than just keep opinions in - Alot of us are doing so and that's good, even if nothing will change. 
EDIT: This is what made entirely motivated to run this time, but now I'm accepting that I can not run for this election, and I'm going to try to stay interested in Scratch and run when I'm older. This still means alot to me illusionist. 

Penguinsrock wrote:

You don't know how much that means to me.    Personally - I've noticed many changes from last year this one. I've been looking at the qualities of the people I [so-called] hated in my classroom. Infact - One of them is a friend now.

From here: http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=36061&p=2

That may be so, but that was far before we were aware of the age limit, I believe.

It was, just explaining my thoughts. 

Lightnin wrote:

After long consideration, we've made some changes to the Scratch Community Moderator's program.

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Community_Moderators

Candidates must now be 14 years or older and have their parent's permission to become a mod. As a result of these changes, Dazachi and Illusionist will be retiring after the upcoming elections. We're grateful for all they've given to the Scratch community.

The elections will be delayed as we're working on a new voting system to ensure fairness and legitimacy. We will make another announcement about the elections on Oct. 14, and hope to hold them soon after.

Scratch On!

Why fourteen?

coolstuff wrote:

GameHutSoftware wrote:

Lightnin wrote:

After long consideration, we've made some changes to the Scratch Community Moderator's program.

http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Community_Moderators

Candidates must now be 14 years or older and have their parent's permission to become a mod. As a result of these changes, Dazachi and Illusionist will be retiring after the upcoming elections. We're grateful for all they've given to the Scratch community.

The elections will be delayed as we're working on a new voting system to ensure fairness and legitimacy. We will make another announcement about the elections on Oct. 14, and hope to hold them soon after.

Scratch On!

Why fourteen?

There are COUNTLESS explanations within this thread; why not take a look?

Do you think somebody could put a summary of all of the explanations in the original post? People might get less upset if they see the reasoning right away.

Last edited by scmb1 (2010-10-03 20:06:20)

fullmoon, and everyone else who wholeheartedly agrees with this rule, read my post buddy.

Last edited by Usatt1337 (2010-10-03 21:04:53)

fullmoon wrote:

scmb1 wrote:

Do you think somebody could put a summary of all of the explanations in the original post? People might get less upset if they see the reasoning right away.

...This sort of knowledge takes years of antisocial behavior to accumulate 

So you're saying you have to have been or be antisocial to know about computers and the Scratch interface? I doubt they're antiscocial at all xD I have general knowledge about computers and know alot about the Scratch interface and I'm not antisocial at all 

steppenwulf wrote:

fullmoon wrote:

steppenwulf wrote:

So you're saying you have to have been or be antisocial to know about computers and the Scratch interface? I doubt they're antiscocial at all xD I have general knowledge about computers and know alot about the Scratch interface and I'm not antisocial at all 

The antisocial bit was a joke!

Please excuse my inability to sense jokes xD

Of course! Some things just can't be communicated very well over these great Internets. But my point is, you don't get good at computers without being enthusiastic about them. Sometimes this manifests itself in spending a beautiful summer day hunched over a laptop trying to SSH into your toaster or something.

I got yelled at by a mod again. 
Anyway, this topic got closed, and I was told to keep the discussion here, so I will:

Do I agree with this? Nope. I'm just posting the reasons why because I saw somebody ask for one.

1. If there are things like Pornography on Scratch, people below 14 may not be able to handle it.

2. Users need to be mature ( Even though I could list several people who I feel are mature enough)

3. Younger Scratchers may not understand the commitment required for this job.

4. They will have to spend lots of time on Scratch, which is a concept that younger Scratchers may not understand.

5. The scratch team is scared that they will see a lot of the spam they saw over the summer, and they don't feel a younger person would know how to handle it.

6. If the Scratch team lowers it to twelve, there will also be more innapropriate Scratchers than there are at fourteen.

7. Sometimes, spammers and others will attack mods directly, and the scratch team feels that younger scratchers will not be able to handle that.

In short, the Scratch team just does not feel that younger people will understand the job or what to do in many situations.

Do NOT yell at me for these. I did not make any of these up- most of these are stated from the Scratch team or other Scratchers that think logically.

I hope this will clear up some things.
-12three-

scmb1 wrote:

fullmoon wrote:

scmb1 wrote:

Do you think somebody could put a summary of all of the explanations in the original post? People might get less upset if they see the reasoning right away.

The reasoning is basically this. Once you're fourteen, it's likely that you have some experience with the Real World, in other words, you have probably had some responsibility in a job, or with siblings, or something. You have started high school, and you know what it's like to interact with people who may not like you, or are different from you. You have enough general knowledge that you won't embarrass yourself or other community members. Your spelling is pretty good, And You Don't Type Like This. And importantly, you won't be seriously scarred by some of the more disturbing stuff the internet has to offer. You are good with time management. And, since this is a programming website, it's sort of implied that you have enough knowledge of Scratch itself (and maybe other languages) to help people out. Notice that all of our current moderators, such as Coolstuff, JSO, and Wolfie, actually know their way around the Scratch interface, the Scratch website, and computers in general. This sort of knowledge takes years of antisocial behavior to accumulate 

So even if you're a friendly, knowledgable person (and most of the under-14 candidates are/were) it seems pretty reasonable to limit the job to people who are closer to adulthood, in other words, 14+.

That is a great explanation, but it wasn't what I was asking. I am in agreement with the new requirements and I am 16, so I definitely know what it is like to be 14 or older. I was just recommending that somebody (like Lightnin) put a summary of the reasoning on the very first post so people will be a little less likely to explode.    This is for the sake of the angry 13-and-unders and the mods who are going crazy explaining it over and over. Sorry for being unclear. 

Well, I'm in the process of writing a topic - which should be ready for posting in a week or two - that will potentially clear up the responsibilities of moderating for everyone to see.