Hey everyone,

I think we've all noticed that many people are getting banned recently. And I think the ST has valid reasons for this, but the issue is that people didn't know what they were doing was wrong. This is because the Community Guidelines are very short and brief, and they don't list everything that you can get banned for. So… I decided to make a new version of the Community Guidelines, where it goes into more detail about each section. This way people will have no excuse for not knowing that they did something wrong.

I've heard the ST say that the reason the Community Guidelines are so short is to make it fast to read. But in my opinion, it's better to have clear guidelines that are slightly long, instead of not knowing what's okay and what's not okay to do on Scratch. I kept the original guidelines, but I just went into more detail after each section by listing specific things.

I think that it should show the original Guidelines with like a dropdown thing for each one. Then when you click the dropdown, it will list all the extra information about what's okay and what's not okay. I'm not sure if it would list the whole thing when you first join Scratch, because it would be a lot longer to read. So you can tell me if you have any ideas about that! Also PLEASE tell me if I have inaccurate information on what I wrote, I'm pretty sure everything is correct but I'm not 100% sure.

So here are my Revised Guidelines! The original stuff is in black, and the stuff I added is in red, which would be in the dropdown section.


Revised Community Guidelines
By @willowmint-


We need everyone’s help to keep Scratch a friendly and creative community where people with different backgrounds and interests feel welcome.


Be respectful.
When sharing projects or posting comments, remember that people of many different ages and backgrounds will see what you’ve shared.

These things are NOT okay:
- Showing hate to a certain person or community on Scratch.
- Threatening or making someone feel unsafe or in danger.
- Posting comments with the intent of hurting or bullying someone.
- Swearing or talking about inappropriate things- if you don’t know if it's appropriate for Scratch, then don’t say it.
- Putting excess blood or gore in a project.
- Adding warnings to an inappropriate project- This still is not okay to share.
- Please avoid making manager chats in studios, because it can lead to bullying.

But it is okay to disagree with a belief in a respectful way. Disagreeing and hating are very different things.
Respect people who have different political views than you!


Be constructive.
When commenting on others' projects, say something you like about it and offer suggestions.

- Be kind and positive, because everyone has different skill levels.
- Spamming (posting the same message many times) is not okay for Scratch, because it is annoying and many people don’t like it.
- Follow for follow is allowed, unless the other person tells you not to.


Share.
You are free to remix projects, ideas, images, or anything else you find on Scratch – and anyone can use anything that you share. Be sure to give credit when you remix.

- You must change or add to the project when you remix, so it isn’t identical to the original project.
- You must give credit when using other Scratcher’s work.
- You may not tell people not to remix your projects.
- Remember that everything you post is free for everyone else to use! If you disagree with this, then don’t use Scratch.


Keep personal info private.
For safety reasons, don't give out any information that could be used for private communication - such as your city/town, real last name, phone number, address, email address, or links to social media sites or websites with unmoderated chat.

- You should not give away your Scratch password to anyone.
- You can have a shared account only with immediate family members (siblings, parents, etc.), but not friends or extended family members.
- Do not meet online (eg. video call, livestream) or in real life with a Scratcher who you don't know.
- Do not give links to websites with private messaging or unmoderated chat.
- You may not advertise browser extensions or userscripts.
- You may give out either your age or your birthday (eg. January 1st) , but NOT both.

Rules about Youtube:
- You may share your channel if your videos are appropriate for Scratch.
- When giving links to Youtube videos, use the Discuss Scratch video player (https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/youtube/VIDEO-ID-HERE) and make sure your video is appropriate for Scratch.
- Do not give links to livestreams or mention when you’re streaming, because this counts as unmoderated chat.


Be honest.
Don’t try to impersonate other Scratchers, spread rumors, or otherwise try to trick the community.

- Do not gossip or spread rumors about other Scratchers.
- Do not make alternate accounts just to love and fave your projects for the purpose of getting on top-loved or top-remixed.
- Do not share projects with the intent of crashing the Scratch website.
- Do not reshare projects with the intent of beating the trending system (trending glitch)


Help keep the site friendly.
If you think a project or comment is mean, insulting, too violent, or otherwise inappropriate, click “Report” to let us know about it.

- It is your responsibility as a Scratch user to report people who are breaking these guidelines.
- Do not tell a Scratch Team member about it on their profile, because this counts as gossip. Just report or use https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/contact-us/ to contact the Scratch Team, if someone/something is causing issues that can't be solved with the report button.
- Please do not report projects that don't break the Community Guidelines.


Scratch welcomes people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities.



Okay so those are my Revised Community Guidelines! Please tell me if there's anything else I should add. So far the only problem with my suggestion is it would make the Guidelines much longer… But still I think that's better than having unclear Guidelines.

I hope you will consider this suggestion, because I think it will really help everyone to be clear on the rules of Scratch. Thank you!

Please also add about the fact that you aren’t allowed to privately communicate (e.g. a zoom call, live streams etc) with other Scratcher that you don’t know in real life.

bananaandchoc1 wrote:

Please also add about the fact that you aren’t allowed to privately communicate (e.g. a zoom call, live streams etc) with other Scratcher that you don’t know in real life.

Good idea! I'll add that in

Nice! Add that no links to PM websites are allowed, maybe list off websites that arent allowed?

mtech22 wrote:

Nice! Add that no links to PM websites are allowed, maybe list off websites that arent allowed?

Oh yeah that's a really good idea, I can add that in. I probably shouldn't make a big list of websites though, because then people would search up those websites and they might learn about inappropriate websites through that

Awesome job! I love it!

i love it boi

willowmint- wrote:

You may share your channel if your videos are ONLY Scratch-related.

Incorrect. You can share your channel if your videos are appropriate.

The only problem is I see many informal parts. For example, say “alternate accounts”.

Change “zoom” to “video call”. We don't want scratch's guidelines to advertise a company

Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I will add that to my post

Bump!

Very good. I support.

secretagent123 wrote:

Very good. I support.

Thanks man!

My suggestion: Add discord into the unmoderated chat examples. Many people are wondering why discord isn't allowed.
Support! I used to be very blur with the rules. More clarity is better.

Byron_Inc wrote:

My suggestion: Add discord into the unmoderated chat examples. Many people are wondering why discord isn't allowed.
Support! I used to be very blur with the rules. More clarity is better.

Good idea, I'm just hesitant to do that because then kids who didn't know about Discord might search it up. Like personally, I didn't know about Discord until I heard people on Scratch talking about that it wasn't allowed
So I don't want to make like a big list of websites because there could be inappropriate stuff on them. I don't consider Discord or YT that bad, so that's why I put YT on the list, but I know Scratch will even censor the word Discord. So probably they consider it a very bad website.

I would recommend adding something saying not to Falsely Report Projects.

Edit: I would request for a sticky but I don't know how

Wyan100 wrote:

I would recommend adding something saying not to Falsely Report Projects.

Edit: I would request for a sticky but I don't know how

Yeah, like “Please do not report projects that don't break the Community Guidelines.”

Wyan100 wrote:

I would recommend adding something saying not to Falsely Report Projects.

Edit: I would request for a sticky but I don't know how

Great idea, I'll add that into the Reporting Section!

Bump!