sealifefriend wrote:

TheAnomalousPseudo wrote:

-Kryptonite- wrote:

Not a trend. Scratch will ban as it is against the guidelines of “manipulating the community”. And talking about serious health concerns like @nedliclan* did will end up being banned. As it “scares tiny kids”.

*RIP Ned, she passed away last year in April

Please don't name and shame…

True, you shouldn't name, but that's not shaming

Yes, that is not shaming in my opinion, but even naming is sometimes frowned upon.

The old “Be Honest”:

old community guidelines wrote:

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

That seemed pretty good to me. But now we have the phrase “remember that there is a person behind every Scratch account” which would make more sense in the Help keep the site friendly paragraph.

And the phrase “or otherwise try to trick the community” has been removed and replaced with “or pretending to be seriously ill”. Maybe it’s a good example of what they meant by not tricking the community but why take out the “don’t trick the community” phrase?

Adding “pretending to be seriously ill” doesn’t even make sense given that the main goal of the Scratch Team appears to be the dissemination of Scratch. Do they want parents, and teachers, and school board members to read the community guidelines and worry about what kind of community we have on Scratch? This phrase is not listed as an example, it’s a direct prohibition. What is an outsider supposed to think about our community if concern about people pretending to be seriously ill is so great that it has to be explicitly prohibited in the general guidelines?


The Scratch team should really hire an outside consultant and ask them to review the community guidelines and make sure that they are general, that they present the community in a positive light, and are something that an eight-year-old can read, understand, and agree to.

If there is some issue with people pretending to be ill just to gain popularity then it would be better to explain and handle it in a well worded announcement.