they also need to make sure they understand the posts before closing, i've seen paddle close 3 topics due to misreading and not looking into it)

Bump

I don't think saying report or use contact us has a point
They should at least say more, i never have checked my email so I can't use contact Us
Plus, when it says use contact us I says scratch team action but it might be mass reported.
Some examples of what they should day instead
Instead of saying to use contact us, say ‘sorry for experiencing this, we will have a look and if you need more information, use contact us
Instead of saying report whatever it is, look into the situation and update the user
Dupes should ne the same
Lists they should keep lists open if its above 5 things, otherwise that would spam the forums
Guides I don’t see the problem with it.
They only close about 20 topics per day so they should have time

LP372 wrote:

I don't think saying report or use contact us has a point
They should at least say more, i never have checked my email so I can't use contact Us

I don't think it's the Scratch Team's fault that you don't check your email. The easy solution to this is to check your email.

LP372 wrote:

Instead of saying to use contact us, say 'sorry for experiencing this, we will have a look and if you need more information, use contact us
Instead of saying report whatever it is, look into the situation and update the user

What if the particular moderator closing this thread does not know the full story? (This is especially relevant when the OP only says something like “someone is bullying me” rather than giving specific usernames — which is good, because they're not supposed to name names in the forums — but using Contact Us is a good opportunity to give specific names.)

LP372 wrote:

Lists they should keep lists open if its above 5 things, otherwise that would spam the forums

A thread with a list of 10 suggestions would have its conversation be somewhat chaotic. The discussion would not be centered on a specific suggestion, which makes it harder to follow.

LP372 wrote:

Guides I don't see the problem with it.

Some time ago there was some drama over folks who were making too many unnecessary guides. Making guides tends to clog up the forums, prevent those who need specific help from actually getting that help.

LP372 wrote:

They only close about 20 topics per day so they should have time

Moderators do way more during the day than just close forum topics.

Za-Chary wrote:

LP372 wrote:

I don't think saying report or use contact us has a point
They should at least say more, i never have checked my email so I can't use contact Us

I don't think it's the Scratch Team's fault that you don't check your email. The easy solution to this is to check your email.

LP372 wrote:

Instead of saying to use contact us, say 'sorry for experiencing this, we will have a look and if you need more information, use contact us
Instead of saying report whatever it is, look into the situation and update the user

What if the particular moderator closing this thread does not know the full story? (This is especially relevant when the OP only says something like “someone is bullying me” rather than giving specific usernames — which is good, because they're not supposed to name names in the forums — but using Contact Us is a good opportunity to give specific names.)

LP372 wrote:

Lists they should keep lists open if its above 5 things, otherwise that would spam the forums

A thread with a list of 10 suggestions would have its conversation be somewhat chaotic. The discussion would not be centered on a specific suggestion, which makes it harder to follow.

LP372 wrote:

Guides I don't see the problem with it.

Some time ago there was some drama over folks who were making too many unnecessary guides. Making guides tends to clog up the forums, prevent those who need specific help from actually getting that help.

LP372 wrote:

They only close about 20 topics per day so they should have time

Moderators do way more during the day than just close forum topics.

i dont even know my email i think i have one tho

Some people here really need to hear this:
Scratch Team doesn’t sit in their office chair all day closing topics. They do MUCH more. That’s just all *you* see. There’s so much going on in the backround, server fixes, bug fixes, moving topics, answering emails, looking at reports…. I suggest you read this

starlightsparker wrote:

(#47)
Some people here really need to hear this:
Scratch Team doesn’t sit in their office chair all day closing topics. They do MUCH more. That’s just all *you* see. There’s so much going on in the backround, server fixes, bug fixes, moving topics, answering emails, looking at reports…. I suggest you read this

Yeah, this is true but it's not the whole story. They could be doing a lot more. Just look at the Scratch open-source code, they don't make a lot of changes. They're keeping up with their daily tasks, sure, but they're not doing a lot (visibly) beyond that.

I dunno, maybe they could be working on some massive change behind-the-scenes (Moving to scratch.org?) or something like that. You never know. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, but it looks like they don't do as much as they maybe could.

scratchusername40 wrote:

starlightsparker wrote:

(#47)
Some people here really need to hear this:
Scratch Team doesn’t sit in their office chair all day closing topics. They do MUCH more. That’s just all *you* see. There’s so much going on in the backround, server fixes, bug fixes, moving topics, answering emails, looking at reports…. I suggest you read this

Yeah, this is true but it's not the whole story. They could be doing a lot more. Just look at the Scratch open-source code, they don't make a lot of changes. They're keeping up with their daily tasks, sure, but they're not doing a lot (visibly) beyond that.

It's typical for adults to work full-time, which is 40 hours a week. Assuming that someone is productive during all 40 hours, that's pretty good. Could they be working more? Sure, in theory, they could work 60 hours a week, or even like 120 hours a week if we're being completely theoretical. But there are many problems with that, including complications like mental health, overtime pay, family matters, travel time, sleeping, eating, doctors' appointments, etc.

Unless your claim is that the Scratch Team barely does any work at all (i.e. you are claiming that full-time Scratch Team members are actually working less than 40 hours a week), I don't think it's reasonable to say that the Scratch Team could/should be doing more work. If they are working 40 hours per week already, that is good — working more may have undesirable effects.

(Some Scratch Team members already work extra outside of these 40 hours to keep the site running…)

Za-Chary wrote:

(#48)

scratchusername40 wrote:

starlightsparker wrote:

(#47)
Some people here really need to hear this:
Scratch Team doesn’t sit in their office chair all day closing topics. They do MUCH more. That’s just all *you* see. There’s so much going on in the backround, server fixes, bug fixes, moving topics, answering emails, looking at reports…. I suggest you read this

Yeah, this is true but it's not the whole story. They could be doing a lot more. Just look at the Scratch open-source code, they don't make a lot of changes. They're keeping up with their daily tasks, sure, but they're not doing a lot (visibly) beyond that.

It's typical for adults to work full-time, which is 40 hours a week. Assuming that someone is productive during all 40 hours, that's pretty good. Could they be working more? Sure, in theory, they could work 60 hours a week, or even like 120 hours a week if we're being completely theoretical. But there are many problems with that, including complications like mental health, overtime pay, family matters, travel time, sleeping, eating, doctors' appointments, etc.

Unless your claim is that the Scratch Team barely does any work at all (i.e. you are claiming that full-time Scratch Team members are actually working less than 40 hours a week), I don't think it's reasonable to say that the Scratch Team could/should be doing more work. If they are working 40 hours per week already, that is good — working more may have undesirable effects.

(Some Scratch Team members already work extra outside of these 40 hours to keep the site running…)

Yeah, I get this, I'm sure they're working full-time (they've said they get woken up from sleep to deal with spam bots and stuff), it's just that we don't see a lot of those effects externally. Which gives the impression they aren't working a lot.

Bumping this because it happened again here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/727489/?page=2

You cant close a topic without even reading what it is, this moderator closed a topic without even bothering to give a slightly coherent reason why, just a generic “uhhhhhrm eu cant say bad wurds on scwatch ” That wasnt even the point of the topic

Absurdly common Scratch L

This whole discussion provides such a great insight into how parts of Scratch's community are able to become so radically anti-ST. I think Za-Chary made by far the best post here, good enough that the topic should probably just close:

Za-Chary wrote:

Recent responses suggest that the OP's suggestion would not be effective since Scratchers are often not willing to accept/consider the reasons given to them.

Ultimately I think the Scratch Team's complete lack of transparency and efforts that come off as trying to avoid or censor backlash are the trigger, but the underlying immature attitudes of certain active sects of Scratch's community are the root cause.

It's a little sad to read through stuff like this because there are genuine ways the Scratch Team can be criticised but the most vocal criticism of the moderation is just “BUMPED, THERE WAS ANOTHER MODERATOR POWER TRIP” in response to a random mistake that's probably still better than 99% of forumers when it comes to reading the posts. Like, if you want a moderator power trip to have an outrage about, criticise the way the numerous “revert to blue” suggestions were handled and the subsequent closing of the custom theme colours topic and pushing of presets, not a little mistake with no bad intent behind it.

I support the suggestion itself on its own (that the Scratch Team should be more clear in their responses) and I additionally support the ST allowing more open discussion about their actions, but definitely not the community-verus-ST attitudes expressed by mutliple people in this topic.

dzje wrote:

good enough that the topic should probably just close

Uh… you clearly also deserve a award for missing the entire point of the topic.

5_g wrote:

dzje wrote:

good enough that the topic should probably just close

Uh… you clearly also deserve a award for missing the entire point of the topic.

I am very much aware of the point of this topic lmao, saying the topic should close is a joke. Maybe try picking out one of the serious sentences instead - in case you didn't notice them, they're quite numerous.

I'm assuming from the lack of response to the rest of my post that you didn't read it, so to summarise, while the suggestion itself is reasonable and a lot of responses the ST give are unreasonable I can't possibly support the disrespect and ignorance of the average anti-ST user.

starlightsparker wrote:

Some people here really need to hear this:
Scratch Team doesn’t sit in their office chair all day closing topics. They do MUCH more. That’s just all *you* see. There’s so much going on in the backround, server fixes, bug fixes, moving topics, answering emails, looking at reports…. I suggest you read this

i mostly agree with this, but i just want to point out that the forum moderators aren't the people fixing bugs and the servers, that's the dev team.

5_g wrote:

Bumping this because it happened again here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/727489/?page=2

You cant close a topic without even reading what it is, this moderator closed a topic without even bothering to give a slightly coherent reason why, just a generic “uhhhhhrm eu cant say bad wurds on scwatch ” That wasnt even the point of the topic

Absurdly common Scratch L

just woke up to this and it's a damn injustice. i honestly think they just glanced at the title and immediately typed out that rejection. i don't know how you could possibly misinterpret it that bad if you actually read OP.

when I am deleted ::hat control
ask (join (join [what the hell does ] (when I am deleted ::hat control)) [ do?]) and wait
create clone of [Stage v]
delete this project ::control
stop [eh, a few] sounds ::sound

when I am deleted ::hat control

create clone of [Stage v]
delete this project ::control
stop [eh, a few] sounds ::sound

Yes, it would be nice if all problems could be solved in the forums. But that's not the way it works. Moderation issues are private and need to be handled by private communication with the team members that handle that area. That's why those kinds of topics are directed to Contact Us. Other issues also fall outside the scope of what the forum moderators can respond to - so often the Contact Us channel is the better choice.

At this point the primary value of the forums is to provide a space where Scratchers can help other Scratchers. If you are looking to talk to the Scratch Team about most complex issues you are better off going though other channels. An exception to this is the Bugs and Glitches area which still serves a valuable function collecting information that Engineering can use to fix code problems with the site.