Many people are getting banned, because the community guidelines are not clear. This is why I'll rewrite them. I understand that the Scratch Team want to keep them short and sweet, but we need a better explanation of what is and is not allowed.


Respect other people
Everyone on Scratch should feel included no matter their backgrounds, interests or skill level. When you post something on Scratch, (or anywhere else on the internet) remember that anybody no matter who they are, can see it.

Things that are disrespectful
-Hate on other Scratchers or a community- Disagreeing is okay, but respect people who have different views on things than you do.
-Posting comments in order to hurt or bully others- Remember that everyone has feelings. Some easier to hurt than others.


Make things age-appropriate
Scratch is designed for kids aged 8-16, but people of all ages use Scratch. Make sure what you post is appropriate for all ages to view.
Whether it be discussion forums, projects or comments.

Thing that are inappropriate for Scratch
-Violence- if a project has cartoony violence like getting hit in the face by dodgeballs or something, it's okay. But if it has violent weapons (guns knives etc.) it cannot be posted.
-Gore- This means any blood or anything that has been left in an extreme form of violence is not okay. A tiny bruise or a tiny cut or anything like that is okay. Again, if it's something like getting hit in the face by dodgeballs, a red face is okay. Just don't add excess gore.
-Swearing or talking about inappropriate things- Do not even censor bad words, because the language is still inappropriate for younger members of the community. If you don't think the language is appropriate for Scratch, then don't use it.
-Adding warnings on inappropriate projects. This is still not okay to share, because people could ignore it and carry on viewing the project.

Don't share personal information
Putting your first name or your age is okay, but some things should be kept private, in case somebody tracks you down.

Things to keep private
-Passwords- Do not give your password to anyone, except your parents or guardians at home. Do not give it to friends or strangers, seeing as they can log into your account and delete everything on it.
-Your last name- People can use it to find information about you online and with websites that can find out about your ancestors, they can find out about your family too.
-Links to unmoderated chat Links to livestreams, texting, videocalling or anything like that should not be put on Scratch, seeing as anyone can see it.
-Hometown/address/school name- People can use this to track you down to your location and harm people. Only share your country or your state on Scratch.
-Links to social media- We must remember that we have to be 13 at least to use social medias and that Scratch is designed for people aged 8-16.

Youtube rules
-Only put the link to your Youtube channel if it only has appropriate content.-
-No links to livestreams- Like mentioned before, links to unmoderated chat are not allowed on Scratch.
-Don't mention when you're streaming- It still counts.

Making alternative accounts
Making alternative accounts are okay, but there are some

Allowed uses
-Testing-
-Collaboration-
-Accounts for other type of projects-
-Roleplaying-

Disallowed uses
-Getting fame- Making multiple accounts to follow the main account.
Good-hand Bad-hand accounts Using one account to not follow the community guidelines.
-Follow-all accounts- An account that follows as many people as possible and says things like ‘'When I follow 1k people, I will share the link to my main account. You may guess my main until then.’'

Scratch for fame
Advertising and ‘follow for follow’ is only allowed on accounts if the user gives permission. You can use the ''Show and Tell'' section of the discussion forums page to advertise projects as well.
Remember, Scratch isn't about fame. It was designed to teach people coding.

Be honest
Do not pretend to be other Scratchers, spread rumors or otherwise, trick the community.
-Do not spread rumors about other Scratchers-
-Do not make alternative account just to like and favourite your projects-
-Do not share projects of the purpose to crash the Scratch website-
-Do not constantly reshare projects to beat the trending-glitch-

Reporting
If you ever come across a project, comment, profile, studio, forum page or class that contains inappropriate content, please click ‘'Report’' and tell the Scratch Team what is inappropriate. Reports are anonymous to people outside the Scratch Team, so be careful of what you report. If something receives a large amount of reports, the Scratch Team will unshare it to be reviewed.
-Do not tell a Scratch Team member on their profile, seeing as it counts as gossip-
-Do not mass-report or false-report anything-
-If you can't solve the issue with the report button, please use https://scratch.mit.edu/contact-us/

This is what I wrote so far. Please comment some suggestions.

ngl I don't think threatening with prison is a good idea for a kid's website…

-Valtren- wrote:

ngl I don't think threatening with prison is a good idea for a kid's website…

Juvy does exist but I'll remove that. Thanks for the advice.

This suggestion, while not being exactly similar, is close enough to be considered a dupe.
To keep the discussion in one place, please continue discussing here. Perhaps you can add your ideas to that topic by creating a post, and the OP will add it to their suggestion.

sadly what you wrote is too thorough; a community thrives best when there are concise/few listed rules that are still unequivocally unambiguous
for example, the st's stance on birthdays is a non-existent made up rule since the rule about personal information states the following:

For safety reasons, don't give out any information that could be used for private communication, in person or online

the scgs state that the information released cannot be information that can be used for private communication, and sharing your birthday, can't really be used for private communication

but, i digress. rules work best when they are concise and when they are unambiguous with no margin for error

Banana

Why do I feel like this is way longer than the other one? This would be way too specific and a lot harder to read for someone. But there is ToS so that can be one thing.

Either way it is good but I think it can be a lot less complex.

I think it’s to long.most kids (since scratch is for 8 - 16) would probably get bored of reading it since it’s so long
Not everyone but some might.so it might not really help all that much.

banana439monkey wrote:

for example, the st's stance on birthdays is a non-existent made up rule since the rule […] the scgs state that the information released cannot be information that can be used for private communication, and sharing your birthday, can't really be used for private communication

You conveniently missed the part of the Community Guidelines that explicitly states "Be safe: keep personal and contact information private.“ Birthdays are considered personal information. Thus the birthday rule ”exists“ and is not ”made up."

sushi_cat_110 wrote:

Many people are getting banned, because the community guidelines are not clear.

The problem with this line of reasoning is that Scratchers are often warned against doing something via an alert the first time they do something wrong. They usually only get banned if they continue to do that thing.

As an example, let's suppose that I had no idea that you could not mention browser extensions on the Scratch website. So I tell someone about a browser extension, and get alerted as a result. No worries — now this alert is my chance to read and understand the policy against browser extensions. If I listen to the alert, I will not post any more browser extensions and so I will not get banned for it. If I don't listen to it and I keep posting browser extensions, then I'll get banned. But the key here is that I would only be banned if I continued to advertise browser extensions after being told not to do that.

The browser extension policy is arguably not clear from the Community Guidelines, yet my point is that no one will just get banned right away for posting one browser extension. So I don't think the “ambiguity” of the Community Guidelines is directly causing others to be banned — the problem lies within those who choose not to listen to alerts.

(The other problem is that no matter how clear you try to make the Community Guidelines, there will always be something missing. This is evident in the fact that you do not mention browser extensions at all in your mockup.)

Prince_Wolf1 wrote:

I think it’s to long.most kids (since scratch is for 8 - 16) would probably get bored of reading it since it’s so long
Not everyone but some might.so it might not really help all that much.

Long reading passages drive me insane so that can be another thing. It can drive some people insane with long things to read and bore them to sleep.

Hey, um, there is this problem with the links on Scratch. When I try to see a remix someone made, it doesn't load. It's getting annoying and I want to see what people create. If the Scratch Team could fix this, it would be HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!! Thnx! =\

Dialga_Guy428 wrote:

Hey, um, there is this problem with the links on Scratch. When I try to see a remix someone made, it doesn't load. It's getting annoying and I want to see what people create. If the Scratch Team could fix this, it would be HIGHLY APPRECIATED!!! Thnx! =\

if you have an issue, please create a new topic for it instead of posting on unrelated ones.
anyway, the remix was probably just unshared.

The guidelines are meant the be read and understood by children. They're not intentionally vague and most scratchers never violate them even by accident. They could be updated purely because it's been a while, but that's a decision for the scratch team to make, not us.

I think the rules are clear enough. The only thing that frustrates me is that - like other online services - Scratch calls the rules that it enforces community guidelines as if you don't always have to follow them when, in fact, you do.

I think compared to the actually community guidelines, this one isn't as professional/well written.