I am wondering about this and i suggest that 80% of st members have comments turned off for whatever reason

so people can't tell them about reportable stuff there

portalpower wrote:

so people can't tell them about reportable stuff there

i think that is correct, i saw most comments on st profiles that they are telling all about reportable stuff and they should just use the report button or something.
<3 By @5xsavvy

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

Alphysse wrote:

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

thats another answer.

I think its the combination of portalpower and alphysse said and I also think that its for not being spammed with messages. You know how much messages griffpatch has.

Cheddargirl explains it great here.

Well, this one is interesting. I would say it varies from member to member, but I'm going to go ahead and take a deeper look into it, since they almost all appear to ignore comments.

Please note well that I am not a Scratch Team member. I tried to imagine stepping into their shoes and imaging all those comments. I observed plenty of them, and made some educated conclusions.

The only one who I know is the most active in keeping up with their comments is @Za-Chary*. Even he closes them whenever he feels that it is getting spammy or attacked by trolls. In fact, he even did that a few nights ago.

He, however, does appear to have less responsibilities than some of the other moderators (for example, he once claimed he can't control the spam filter, but I know that @Paddle2See* can, since he's once commented that he was going to make a change in the filter when something appropriate accidentally got censored).

Since @Za-Chary* has less responsibilities, maybe that changes things. Maybe that's why he's more active.

But wait up! Some of the more popular ones respond, like @ceebee*! Well, I think you've almost got me there, but keep in mind that this is a general observation, not the exact same reasoning behind their social activity. Some act differently than others.

Of course, not all users who have as many responsibilities will leave comments open. Well, maybe we should take a deeper look into it.

Some Scratch Team members do keep their comments open, but only reply to important things. Why is this?

Well, we can't answer this question until we answer this one – why don't most Scratch Team members reply to comments?

Well, most Scratchers who do this are not familiar with the rules against publicly sharing that info. They just see a Scratch Team member and seem to think that they are the ticket to solving their problems.

But that doesn't answer the other question – why do some Scratch Team members only respond to important things? For example, if a user says “hi”, it's usually ignored. Why is that?

Well, from what I've seen, when ST members only respond to important things, and not things like “hi”, it makes it more clear that they won't respond, so that means that less users talk to them. As a response, they get less replies.

Please note again that I might not be a Scratch Team member. In fact, I am not 100% sure why they do this. However, I fear that saying “Hey, how come you guys don't ever talk or reply?” could come across as disrespectful, and I don't think it's the best idea to take that chance.

Take a look at their comments, though – it all adds up. These guesses are heavily built upon observations, but what I said makes sense with every comment section. If you've got another opinion, I'd appreciate it if you said it – I'm interested in others evaluating true and false in my post here.

Super_Scratch_Bros20 wrote:

-snip-

I like reading long posts. That's a good post. I also like writing long posts. Let's write one now.

Most of us don't respond to comments for various reasons, which usually boils down to the idea of “Responding to profile comments is not necessary for our job, and we are too busy with our jobs to answer comments regularly.” Yes, I am someone who tries to answer comments regularly, because I believe it is helpful for Scratchers to have a Scratch Team member that they can look up to. And, plus, I enjoy it. I think that's why @ceebee responds to some comments — she certainly doesn't reply to all of them.

As mentioned above, I do have less responsibilities on the Scratch Team than most others. Heck, I don't even have that many responsibilities in real life. (Yes, there is school, but I always make time for that, and never prioritize Scratch over school.) That's why I have a lot of time to respond to comments, while others might not.

I'm not really sure if it's correct, however, to state that some Scratch Team members only reply to “important” comments. If you want the hard truth, nothing commented on a Scratch Team member's profile should be considered “important.” Anything which is so important that a Scratch Team member must know should be sent through the Report button or through Contact Us. If a Scratch Team member responds to what looks like “important comments,” then they are likely just responding to whatever comments they have time to assist with at the moment.

However, there are several reasons why other Scratch Team members close comments or simply don't respond. Having responded to lots of comments on my profile, I know exactly what these reasons are. (I mean, I haven't really asked anyone, but I know of plenty of reasons why comments might not get responded to.)

It can get a bit repetitive. I admit it is a little tiring responding to all the comments which simply ask “Hi, how are you?” It is also mundane to direct lots of users to the Propose Projects to be Featured studio or the Bugs and Glitches forum as needed. Most frustrating of all is trying to answer the questions that I can't give answers to. No, I don't know how Trending works, or when it will get “fixed.” No, I can't tell you why your good Scratch friend was banned. No, I can't formulate a good reason for why this thing is allowed, but this other thing is not. It's very frustrating for me when I get lots of questions that I can't help others with, precisely because I have failed to help them.

Our profiles are not places to report things. We have lots of useful systems in place on the website. To report inappropriate content, use the Report button. To get your account unblocked, use the appeals system. If your project was automatically removed, just wait for it to be reviewed. If those don't seem to be working, or there is another private matter you have, use Contact Us. A Scratch Team member's profile should not be used for any of those things — I would only say a profile is best for simple questions that could even be asked in the Questions about Scratch forum.

I do not want to encourage these sorts of things being commented on my profile. If I actually listen to these Scratchers and review their auto-censored projects, and ban the users they want me to ban (assuming they deserve it), then word will spread, and they will keep commenting these things. This will certainly overwhelm me, as Scratchers are often impatient and want action taken quickly. It will stress me to no end to believe that my options are either to drop what I'm doing and take care of this thing now now now, or to take care of it later and risk drama spreading on the website.

What stresses me out less is knowing that we already have a place to report stuff — the Report button — and so if anyone comments on my profile to publicly report something, I just delete it. Out of sight, out of mind. No stress on my side. That might sound selfish (Scratchers also have stressors to worry about), but the job of a Scratch Team member is quite stressful already, just by taking care of reports and appeals.

As great as it would be to provide quick service to those who need it, that is ultimately not my job. My job is to sort through reports that were sent using the Report button. There are other Scratch Team members whose jobs are to sort through the appeals they are given, or the Contact Us messages that are sent. Nobody's job is to provide round-the-clock assistance on their profile.

Heck, recently I had some users come on my profile to claim that cleaning up spam on a “famous” Scratcher's profile required “immediate action.” Sure, spamming is bad, and yes, you should report it. But I am sorry, I cannot give mundane spam like this “immediate action.” If I did, then I would feel obligated to act quickly against spam for everyone — why should I favor “famous” Scratchers in this way? Then if I kept doing it, then it wouldn't be spam, it would be disrespectful comments, disrespectful studios… more things to use the Report button for!

I also have Scratchers ask me to review their project that was automatically censored. If I kept honoring requests like this, it would take me a lot of time. Especially awkward with this is if I were to say “yes,” and then discover that the project actually deserved to get censored. Then they would know I reviewed their project and kept it censored… which would prompt even more comments on my profile. These questions should really be going to Contact Us, because we already have that as a system.

All of the above hopefully explains that answering comments on my profile can be very tiring and difficult, even if I do enjoy it at the end of the day. Even more difficult is actually handling reports, appeals, and Contact Us messages. To anyone out there who believes I work hard at this, take how hard you think I work, and multiply it by 10. That's how hard every other individual Scratch Team member works.

So, I guess that might sum up why a Scratch Team member closes comments on their profile. To recap, a Scratch Team member likely closes comments on their profile, or doesn't answer comments, because:

• They don't have time to respond.
  
  
• It is too much stress to maintain and watch profile comments.
  
  
• It is not a part of their job to interact with the community.
  

Personally, I usually leave comments open. Whenever I close them, it is usually for one or more of the following reasons.

• I am getting spammed or trolled en masse. (This almost never happens.)
  
  
• Lots of users are frequently reporting stuff on my profile when they should be using the Report button. (This happens less than you would think.)
  
  
• I am getting overwhelmed by too many messages. (This almost never happens, and only really does when someone else responds to everybody's comments for me. This creates more work for me because not only do I have to respond to them, but I have to make sure that whoever did respond to them was correct. They are often not.)
  
  
• I am busy doing something else and don't want to worry about responding to comments. (This happens a lot, such as for school, or perhaps I know I am going to be out of the house/apartment most of the day.)
  
  
• I am physically ill, and do not have the energy to respond to comments. (This almost never happens.)
  
  
• I have been overwhelmed by answering difficult questions, and no longer have the mental capacity to keep answering at the moment. (Similarly to not prioritizing Scratch over school, I also do not prioritize Scratch over my mental health.)
  
  
• I'm just tired and/or don't want to answer comments on my profile at the moment. (“I don't feel like answering comments right now” is a perfectly fine reason to close comments. I don't always need to have an explanation, nor am I obligated to give anyone an explanation.)
  

I hope this answers your questions. This was a large rant, and I hope I don't regret writing it later.

Their work is on the website and they don't want to be spammed with messages.

@amylaser leaves comments open a lot and Are very helpful with what to do.

Alphysse wrote:

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

The ST members are not all going to school

Do not question the mighty scratch team
This question is already answered by a scratch team member, so should this be closed?

PlatoHero_ wrote:

Alphysse wrote:

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

The ST members are not all going to school

They mean collage and/or gettin exams

They could have multiple reasons

• People are using their profiles for public reporting
  Spamming
  They're doing things and don't want to get distracted by messages
  Or they just don't like talking to people
  

They might turn off comments to avoid the following:

Spamming
Advertising
F4F Requesting

There might be more reasons, but these are usually the main ones.

Hope this helped!
If you have any questions, let me know.

It depends. @Za-Chary closes the comments on his profile because of distractions. @cheddargirl closed hers because it was misused. @Scratchteam is a Scratch Team account, and not checked often. Some close theirs for unkown reasons.

PlatoHero_ wrote:

Alphysse wrote:

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

The ST members are not all going to school

You mean high school

5xsavvy wrote:

PlatoHero_ wrote:

Alphysse wrote:

Probably so that they can focus on their jobs and/or school, without being swept away by a flood of comments.

The ST members are not all going to school

You mean high school

I'm pretty sure a high schooler would not become an ST member.

Usually because people report inappropriate things on their profile.