Blocked accounts and new accounts

-Multinia-

As you know, if an account breaks the Community Guidelines, the Scratch Team can choose to either send an alert or block the account for a period of time or until an appeal is sent. When an account is blocked, its user becomes unable to do anything on the website as long as they are signed into it. However, because this only affects the account they broke the Guidelines with, a user can simply create a new account and continue wreaking havoc.

My suggestion is this: If a user gets one of their accounts blocked, they should also become unable to create any new accounts until their original one is unblocked. This can be done by checking email addresses; all Scratch accounts have a corresponding email address that is visible only to the owner of the account. One can make as many accounts as they want/need under the same address (for instance, I have this account as well as six others, too). However, if someone with a blocked account attempts to make a new one under the same address, it should be denied.

I believe adding this function could help prevent a good bit of rule-breaking, as some alt accounts are made for the sole purpose of still being able to post comments even after being blocked.

Last edited by -Multinia- (April 15, 2019 16:55:03)

54329

Hi there! This is a nice idea, but users can make multiple email addresses easily (I have like 75 gmail accounts).

The Scratch Team has actually already come up with an idea for the issue you shared above - IP ban. When a Scratch Team Member bans a user's IP Address, it makes it so that the user can't make any new accounts on said computer/phone. People tend not to have that many of those, so their options would be very limited when making a new account to “troll.”

So, I guess no support since this problem is already solved a different way.

venyanwarrior

Support. I use scratch at my school, and there have been occasions where the whole network is blocked because someone got banned and made new accounts, and then got them banned, which led to an IP ban. It was eventually lifted, but I don't know why. Having this email ban system would definitely help prevent this situation.

-Multinia-

54329 wrote:
The Scratch Team has actually already come up with an idea for the issue you shared above - IP ban.

Well, my idea was to block a specific email address rather than an IP, but

as you wrote:
This is a nice idea, but users can make multiple email addresses easily (I have like 75 gmail accounts).

So, yeah, I suppose it's not the best idea.

-Multinia-

venyanwarrior wrote:
Support. I use scratch at my school, and there have been occasions where the whole network is blocked because someone got banned and made new accounts, and then got them banned, which led to an IP ban. It was eventually lifted, but I don't know why. Having this email ban system would definitely help prevent this situation.

That, on the other hand, is a good point. I use Scratch all the time at school, sometimes when I should be working, so if an IP ban happened there, then following your logic, some other people who use Scratch at the same school could end up also getting blocked despite not having done anything wrong.

imfh

What about users who use their parents email? You don't want to get siblings blocked too.

I don't think the Scratch Team wants to block large amounts of users at schools and things. That could be why the ban was lifted.

Email ban might a useful tool for the Scratch Team, but it should not be a replacement of IP ban.

infinitytec

No support because IP banning is in place and it is easy to make email addresses.

ihgfedcba

infinitytec wrote:
No support because IP banning is in place and it is easy to make email addresses.

Isn't it also easy to use free VPN proxy IPs?

jseeli

Semi-Support. Because

Even if we IP Ban a user and their email, You could still get around by creating another email which is not hard to do so. And anyone can use a VPN proxy and bypass the IP Ban

We could kind of fix this by requesting users below a certain age to specify their Parent's Email ID. So, if anyone creates a new account, it should not let them create as the Parent's Email ID is associated with an account which is blocked

StrangeMagic32

jseeli wrote:
We could kind of fix this by requesting users below a certain age to specify their Parent's Email ID. So, if anyone creates a new account, it should not let them create as the Parent's Email ID is associated with an account which is blocked

We already have the first part, and maybe the second part could help, but not 100% sure.

imfh

ihgfedcba wrote:
infinitytec wrote:
No support because IP banning is in place and it is easy to make email addresses.
Isn't it also easy to use free VPN proxy IPs?

Yes it is. However, it is easier for a non technical person to get many email addresses than to get many ips.

If someone was intentionally trying to interfere with Scratch, it wouldn't be hard to get a massive number of emails to create accounts with. The Scratch Team could have trouble blocking from the email if the massive number was created on a legit mail provider which some real Scratchers used.

With IPs on the other hand, there already established tools for handling this kind of thing. If someone managed to get a massive number of IPs, the Scratch Team could probably use a temporary range block to prevent further abuse.

I would bet that the Scratch Team already uses email to some extent. However, using emails in place of IPs would encourage people to use different emails removing a way for the Scratch Team to identify accounts such as these.

ResExsention

imfh wrote:
the Scratch Team could probably use a temporary range block to prevent further abuse.

There's also the possibility of someone physically bypassing the IP, by going to a different place.

-Multinia- wrote:
My suggestion is this: If a user gets one of their accounts blocked, they should also become unable to create any new accounts until their original one is unblocked. This can be done by checking email addresses; all Scratch accounts have a corresponding email address that is visible only to the owner of the account. One can make as many accounts as they want/need under the same address (for instance, I have this account as well as six others, too). However, if someone with a blocked account attempts to make a new one under the same address, it should be denied.

Use throwaway emails. It isn't really hard to make another email or to use a dedicated service to create 10 minute emails, which is pretty difficult to stop but ok.

I think blacklisting common throwaway email providers could help.

ihgfedcba wrote:
infinitytec wrote:
No support because IP banning is in place and it is easy to make email addresses.
Isn't it also easy to use free VPN proxy IPs?

VPNs and proxies are different, aren't they?

VPNs are encrypted but proxies aren't.

—

So OP, support. Would certainly stump the person (especially if it doesn't indicate that they're using the same email), and may discourage getting around bans (“we magically know you're banned”).

Last edited by ResExsention (Jan. 11, 2020 14:31:18)

M1mikyu

codebird123 wrote:
when green flag clicked
ban all accounts on scratch
the jake0007k_alt bug has not been discovered by the scratch team it has been first discovered by me it is a domino effect that is deleting all the accounts on scratch and it was created by jake0007k_alt

The user seemed to have recovered their banned account through a bug??

pokemonlover_arceus

oof

Last edited by pokemonlover_arceus (Aug. 25, 2020 10:13:18)

Greninjaaa

WHAT! nonononononononononononono. My gf got blocked on scratch so many times and the only way i can talk to her is on scratch and bc of covid theres nothing u can do

_RareScratch2_

Support, but dont replace IP-ban with it

Mikki_Bear

What does “this account was banned because it was going around another block”. I don't really understand. I was banned twice because of this

Mikki_Bear

when green flag clicked
say [ban every mean person on scratch] for (2) secs

JPOWERPUFFGIRLS

True story (not exact wording though
There was once a user with a rude username

Someone wrote:
The ST is gonna block you

Rude username user wrote:
I have a main account :P

Me wrote:
You know they can block your email

Ruse usernamed user wrote:
I'm using a different email

me wrote:
You know they can ban your IP, then you and any of your siblings (If you have any) won't be able to access the site]

Conversation wrote:
*ends*

Anyway, blocking account with the email account is workaroundable by using a different email, yes you could use IP instead, to the expense of the innocent users using their internet

Last edited by JPOWERPUFFGIRLS (Oct. 20, 2020 14:44:05)

p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-

Greninjaaa wrote:
WHAT! nonononononononononononono. My gf got blocked on scratch so many times and the only way i can talk to her is on scratch and bc of covid theres nothing u can do

If you can both use scratch, you should be able to email/text

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