Hey all, just me here with a question. As you may know, according to the Community Guidelines (https://scratch.mit.edu/community_guidelines), Scratchers are to keep personal info private. However, within this category falls “links to unmoderated chat.” Such a website would include a certain website that I personally use to keep in touch with gaming communities. The reason I'm not mentioning this specific platform (starts with D and ends with D cough cough) is due to the fact that many of my friends and even users I did not know previously have been banned for just simply saying the name of the platform. I understand that the rules forbid this and the community of Scratch is on the younger side (the chat platform has an age restriction of 13+), but is it really necessary to ban a user for just saying the name of a platform, an action that doesn't harm anyone? I think this needs to be reconsidered for future situations; many enjoyed using Scratch and creating content but now they have no way to continue that.

Discord.

There, I said it. The Scratch Team does not ban those who say “Discord”. After all, “discord” is a real English word that is inherently not inappropriate. Generally the Scratch Team bans users who invite others to or share their Discord information, but if you don't think you did that yet you got banned, use “Contact Us” to ask the Scratch Team about it.

The Scratch Team will not ban users who say the word “discord” as it can be used in other ways rather than the website. You can get banned for sharing links to your chat or server (sorry I don't use the site so I don't know entirely what it's called).

Isn't Discord also the name of an mlp character or something like that?

Okok just to clear things up, I was not saying people get banned for saying the word, logically that would be foolish. However, I have been warned and my messages deleted for mentioning it in the form of “disc”; some other people have been IP banned (i.e GreatLemon), others warned several times. It seems like the Scratch Team is overly sensitive to this topic; if they want to protect the younger side of Scratch, it is already covered as the age limit is higher than 3/4 of the people here haha

MidoriyaCat wrote:

Okok just to clear things up, I was not saying people get banned for saying the word, logically that would be foolish. However, I have been warned and my messages deleted for mentioning it in the form of “disc”; some other people have been IP banned (i.e GreatLemon), others warned several times. It seems like the Scratch Team is overly sensitive to this topic; if they want to protect the younger side of Scratch, it is already covered as the age limit is higher than 3/4 of the people here haha

First off, please do not speak about a certain user being banned.

Second, okay, that makes more sense now. Still, the ST needs to protect the younger side, even if there aren't a lot of young users, that doesn't gurantee that there aren't any at all.

MidoriyaCat wrote:

I understand that the rules forbid this and the community of Scratch is on the younger side (the chat platform has an age restriction of 13+), but is it really necessary to ban a user for just saying the name of a platform, an action that doesn't harm anyone?

To make a long story short: you're not supposed to link or promote unmoderated chat on a website open to all ages, doing so can land you into some legal trouble. That's why some comments like just asking someone if they own a Discord account or saying that you're more active on/moved to Discord can end up warranting a notification or block - it makes you look like you're promoting moderated chat services to underage users, and that's a big no-no.

Okie, I kinda understand why that happens, but I was recently made aware of another website (Dribbble) that people are being blocked or warned for saying or posting links to their graphic design work on it. I see how Discord could be harmful to the younger community, but seriously? Unless you are really searching for it, inappropriate content really is non-existent on the platform. Please explain :c

MidoriyaCat wrote:

Okie, I kinda understand why that happens, but I was recently made aware of another website (Dribbble) that people are being blocked or warned for saying or posting links to their graphic design work on it. I see how Discord could be harmful to the younger community, but seriously? Unless you are really searching for it, inappropriate content really is non-existent on the platform. Please explain :c

Eh? Dribbble is not on the list of blacklisted or greylisted sites for mods to watch out for (unless it's being used to promote something in a commercial/commission sense, or if you're just circumventingly using it to purely chat instead of showing off artwork).

Za-Chary wrote:

Discord.

There, I said it. The Scratch Team does not ban those who say “Discord”. After all, “discord” is a real English word that is inherently not inappropriate. Generally the Scratch Team bans users who invite others to or share their Discord information, but if you don't think you did that yet you got banned, use “Contact Us” to ask the Scratch Team about it.

You didn't really answer his question, you don't ban people who say discord because you don't allow people to say discord. discord is a website that you don't own, i get that you want to keep a good reputation, but that's not your reputation, it's discords.