ATTENTION: THIS TOPIC IS MONTHS OLD, BUT I CAME BACK TO TRY AND EDIT IT AFTER WHAT RECENTLY HAPPENED WITH TRENDING, SO THINGS MAY OR MAY NOT MAKE TOTAL SENSE TO YOU BECAUSE I'M NOT A CLASS A ESSAY EDITOR.




(Note, I will keep editing this post until it makes more sense, so that's why people may be getting confused after seeing other comments)

Dear Scratch Team:

People who keep putting hard work into their projects keep getting unfairly banned for a limited amount of time because of mass reporters who see it on trending, to the point where it's getting annoying, this happens to nearly every scratcher who gets a project onto the first page of trending, however, if you remove the function of a project getting unshared for mass reporting, people will use it as an advantage and post inappropriate projects and (somehow) get it onto trending, where you¹ would have to see it themselves, and thousands of Scratchers have already seen the project. Even if taken down, its thumbnail can remain seen on trending from hours to DAYS.

So, instead of sticking with the causes of the above, this is why I propose to you to remove trending, that way, no one will be ruining the time of an innocent Scratcher, or getting exposed to inappropriate content, and if no one is happy about the new update, so be it, there's now no problem to deal with about the trending feature, because it's gone. To replace trending, a few Scratchers (or Scratch Team) could feature groups of projects in different categories, such as games, art, animations, etc, that way, more people at a time could get popular instead of just 5.You¹ would be picking what comes to our screens, not popularity, so if there's an inappropriate project proposed to get featured (the only way to get popular), You¹ would take care of it. This is how It would look: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1115166745

If anyone wants me to elaborate, say so.

I also made this topic for user feedback to see if people agree, one reason I didn't use Contact-Us, this isn't harming a dear Scratcher, so it's more necessary to have on the suggestions forums.

No. We do not need this.

my support goes to limiting projects to one report per day, so “mass reporting” cant happen

cake__5 wrote:

(#3)
my support goes to limiting projects to one report per day, so “mass reporting” cant happen

mass reporting is actually useful in some cases (taking down inappropriate content.) else we wouldn't have the autotakedown bot at all.

8to16 wrote:

cake__5 wrote:

(#3)
my support goes to limiting projects to one report per day, so “mass reporting” cant happen

mass reporting is actually useful in some cases (taking down inappropriate content.) else we wouldn't have the autotakedown bot at all.

mass reporting is how many people got banned for no reason.

mass reporting is how projects get taken down cus some guy hated it.

mass reporting leaves a net negative on scratch.

one of my first accounts (edit: waaay back, just after 3.0s release) got permanently banned because of, guess what, mass reporting.

mass reporting, if kept, will slowly kill scratchs popularity due to banning everyone away.

8to16 wrote:

cake__5 wrote:

(#3)
my support goes to limiting projects to one report per day, so “mass reporting” cant happen

mass reporting is actually useful in some cases (taking down inappropriate content.) else we wouldn't have the autotakedown bot at all.

That's why mass reporting won't be removed, instead, trending will.

I don't know if I agree, removing trending completely would just make mass reporters mass report the featured page. Plus, you said ST could replace trending with hand picked projects. And I'm not sure if I trust ST's taste in what they would hand pick.

Do you think “What the Community is Remixing” and “What the Community is Loving” should be removed for the same reason?

CooIGaIaxyGamer wrote:

I don't know if I agree, removing trending completely would just make mass reporters mass report the featured page.

Featured projects cannot be “mass reported”; the Scratch Team ensures this before featuring projects.

cake__5 wrote:

8to16 wrote:

cake__5 wrote:

(#3)
my support goes to limiting projects to one report per day, so “mass reporting” cant happen

mass reporting is actually useful in some cases (taking down inappropriate content.) else we wouldn't have the autotakedown bot at all.

mass reporting is how many people got banned for no reason.

mass reporting is how projects get taken down cus some guy hated it.

mass reporting leaves a net negative on scratch.

one of my first accounts (edit: waaay back, just after 3.0s release) got permanently banned because of, guess what, mass reporting.

mass reporting, if kept, will slowly kill scratchs popularity due to banning everyone away.

That is a misconception, please stop spreading false information

ST will NEVER ban someone for no reason. Many people get banned for a reason, but they forget that they're on a children's website. Often, when you hear about people being banned, they don't want to admit fault at all. Have you ever considered that anyone who tells you that they got banned is biased to their own side?

ST LITTERLEY asks you to EMAIL them if you don't understand why a project got taken down. If you don't understand why you got banned, then ASK

trying to find that one essay about mass reporting but I can't :(

Za-Chary wrote:

Do you think “What the Community is Remixing” and “What the Community is Loving” should be removed for the same reason?

No

CooIGaIaxyGamer wrote:

I don't know if I agree, removing trending completely would just make mass reporters mass report the featured page. Plus, you said ST could replace trending with hand picked projects. And I'm not sure if I trust ST's taste in what they would hand pick.

it's also a possibility for Scratchers to choose what projects to get featured themselves, ST would just check the projects before featuring them.
#8 already answered the first half of the question.

Magudragon wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

Do you think “What the Community is Remixing” and “What the Community is Loving” should be removed for the same reason?

No

Why not? Those two rows are based on popularity/community, similarly to Trending. What do you think is different about those rows that Trending does/doesn't have?

Za-Chary wrote:

Magudragon wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

Do you think “What The Community Is Remixing” and “What the Community is Loving” should be removed for the same reason?

No

Why not? Those two rows are based on popularity/community, similarly to Trending. What do you think is different about those rows that Trending does/doesn't have?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something at this point considering the fact that you are a ST member, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but trending is just how many views a project gets. “What The Community Is Loving” shows how much people appreciate a project, which Is helpful if a good project didn't get featured, and “What The Community Is Remixing” is completely different, It helps a lot of trends, awarnesses of a specific event, or even object show signups get attention. I'm worried if too many features are removed, the website will just become dull, and what made it's community special would fade away.

Magudragon wrote:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something at this point considering the fact that you are a ST member, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but trending is just how many views a project gets. “What The Community Is Loving” shows how much people appreciate a project, which Is helpful if a good project didn't get featured, and “What The Community Is Remixing” is completely different, It helps a lot of trends, awarnesses of a specific event, or even object show signups get attention. I'm worried if too many features are removed, the website will just become dull, and what made it's community special would fade away.

I see, so let's summarize what everything is about:

• “What the Community is Loving” is based on how many loves a project gets.
  
  
• “What the Community is Remixing” is based on how many remixes a project gets.
  
  
• Trending is based on how many views a project gets. (I think… technically nobody knows for sure.)
  
  
• All three of these are algorithmically-based, in the sense that currently nobody hand-selects projects to be placed in these sections.
  

To summarize your main point, then: loves show that someone actually liked a project, and remixes show that someone was interested in building upon the project. Both rows therefore have “good” projects (on average) because the community decides what is considered “good” or “remix-able.” On the other hand, you are concerned about Trending specifically because it is based on views, as if someone views a project then that doesn't necessarily mean they think it's “good.” Does that sound correct?

(In other words: you are not necessarily concerned with the fact that Trending is algorithm-based, but just that its algorithm is based on the wrong metric, is that right?)

Za-Chary wrote:

Magudragon wrote:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something at this point considering the fact that you are a ST member, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but trending is just how many views a project gets. “What The Community Is Loving” shows how much people appreciate a project, which Is helpful if a good project didn't get featured, and “What The Community Is Remixing” is completely different, It helps a lot of trends, awarnesses of a specific event, or even object show signups get attention. I'm worried if too many features are removed, the website will just become dull, and what made it's community special would fade away.

I see, so let's summarize what everything is about:

• “What the Community is Loving” is based on how many loves a project gets.
  
  
• “What the Community is Remixing” is based on how many remixes a project gets.
  
  
• Trending is based on how many views a project gets. (I think… technically nobody knows for sure.)
  
  
• All three of these are algorithmically-based, in the sense that currently nobody hand-selects projects to be placed in these sections.
  

To summarize your main point, then: loves show that someone actually liked a project, and remixes show that someone was interested in building upon the project. Both rows therefore have “good” projects (on average) because the community decides what is considered “good” or “remix-able.” On the other hand, you are concerned about Trending specifically because it is based on views, as if someone views a project then that doesn't necessarily mean they think it's “good.” Does that sound correct?

(In other words: you are not necessarily concerned with the fact that Trending is algorithm-based, but just that its algorithm is based on the wrong metric, is that right?)

I don't think so, I think the idea of “Trending” on paper is perfectly fine, but I want it gone because of the limitations of Social media, if we want to be more fair to a Scratcher's hard work, we have to eliminate the obstacles, I bet Scratch Team can't control mass-reporters actions, and Mass-Reporting can be a useful tool in a lot of cases, if used by the right people,

removing mass-reporting is something like punishing an entire class because one classmate blew up the bathroom with an ice pack, and the teacher, or the students, didn't know who did it.

My point is, even if these “Mass Reporters” are an organized group, if we found them, new people would still mass report, related to the group, or not, but if we took away mass reporting stopping it entirely, it would be a downgrade for the Scratch Community, so if we want to promise the Scratch community a total-welcoming place to share their ideas, we should have more projects featured instead, since as you said, featured projects cannot get mass-reported., however, I know for a fact “What the Community is Loving and remixing” will be endangered to mass reporting next, possibly taking this problem back to square one

If you accept my idea, I understand if “What the Community is Loving and remixing” has to be removed, then Scratch could be even better if their removal is handled correctly.

Magudragon wrote:

however, I know for a fact “What the Community is Loving and remixing” will be endangered to mass reporting next, possibly taking this problem back to square one

If you accept my idea, I understand if “What the Community is Loving and remixing” has to be removed, then Scratch could be even better if their removal is handled correctly.

Right, so my original question goes back to this: why remove Trending and not “What the Community is Loving and Remixing,” if the concern is the “mass reporting” that follows? I'd say that “mass reporting” exists with both.

On removing “What the Community is Loving and Remixing”: there are actually a couple of benefits of these rows on the front page that Trending doesn't satisfy, which perhaps decreases the amount of “mass reporting” in these rows when compared to Trending. First, both rows only contain 20 projects each (many of which must be scrolled through to see), whereas Trending contains much more than 20 (at least 16 of which are visible just by visiting the page). Second, on average I would say that these rows are “less popular” than Trending, so perhaps “mass reporting” doesn't occur quite as much there. So, if Trending had to be removed, it would make sense to remove it but not these front page rows.

Yes, removing Trending would technically reduce mass-reporting, but it would also reduce the amount of interesting projects being shown to Scratchers. That would be bad for viewers, the ones looking for entertaining projects, and creators, who will be less motivated to make good projects.

I also feel that replacing Trending with what is essentially another Featured Projects row is not a good idea for the Scratch Team, since it's just redundant and would introduce a new burden to Scratch's over-worked moderators.

Perhaps a better solution is just to link to the Featured Project History studio on the front page.
That way, more than just 20 projects can get popular by being featured, and the Scratch Team doesn't have to maintain 2 methods of being featured.

Also, mass-reporting wouldn't work on these featured projects, right?
In the event that one of the 5 Scratchers incorrectly approves a project to be featured when it's actually inappropriate, mass-reporting wouldn't work on that project, which is a serious moderation issue.

Magudragon wrote:

(#13)
Maybe I'm misunderstanding something at this point considering the fact that you are a ST member, […]

Za-Chary was a Scratch Team member a few years ago, but not anymore.

trending be like:

Za-Chary wrote:

Right, so my original question goes back to this: why remove Trending and not “What the Community is Loving and Remixing,” if the concern is the “mass reporting” that follows? I'd say that “mass reporting” exists with both.

On removing “What the Community is Loving and Remixing”: there are actually a couple of benefits of these rows on the front page that Trending doesn't satisfy, which perhaps decreases the amount of “mass reporting” in these rows when compared to Trending. First, both rows only contain 20 projects each (many of which must be scrolled through to see), whereas Trending contains much more than 20 (at least 16 of which are visible just by visiting the page). Second, on average I would say that these rows are “less popular” than Trending, so perhaps “mass reporting” doesn't occur quite as much there. So, if Trending had to be removed, it would make sense to remove it but not these front page rows.

Okay then.

I might be wrong but I think mass reporting is quite a non-issue, and lots of people just blame all their problems on it. Everyone has a friend who was somehow banned from mass reporting and knows of popular projects lost forever to mass reporting.
When a project gets reported by lots of people it is reviewed by moderation to make a decision on whether or not it is actually breaking the GCs. Therefore, projects aren't lost forever from false reports. Perhaps the trending projects you noticed got removed actually were removed for a reason that you didn't know about.
Even if I am wrong about mass reporting not being an issue, removing trending would redirect it to the front page, and then to popular projects, and then to just regular projects, etc… You'd have to remove the report feature altogether in order for mass reporting to be stopped, especially if you are alluding to secret underground Scratch reporting groups targetting popular projects existing.
If you are noticing certain people organising mass reports, then report them or use contact us. ST themselves will also be able to see if it is a false report.