I don't know if anyone feels the same way but… the page when you get blocked feels very passive aggressive.



Especially the part when it says “Give as much detail as you can.”; Why does that line feel like its challenging me? Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

Also, the part when it says “we can tell”, feels… ominous. How…? Like how the heck do you know that i got hacked? When I got first got banned, (yes, i got banned before, in the past, i will admit it.), I remember it just feels like it someone is watching over me. It makes me feel, well, afraid.

And don't know if anyone notices it, but i feel like this whole page was written by someone angry which is kinda weird considering that this website is for ages 8 and up. I don't think kids around that age would know how to respond to stuff like this.

I feel like this page needs an upgrade. it shouldn't be like this. it should be like the little warning message boxes that are much more relaxed. and, well, professional.



I dunno. I feel like as of writing this, i feel like its kinda silly, I wanted to see how everyone feels about this, and perhaps, suggestions on how to make this ban page slightly better.

I would say it's more serious than passive aggressive. It takes a lot of missteps for a user to be banned, so at that point they know what they're doing and don't deserve to be treated extra nicely. It's very straightforward and gets its job done.

SkyCedar wrote:

don't deserve to be treated extra nicely.

Considering that this site is for kids, I disagree. I don't think kids would know how to respond. when a grown adult tells them “give as much detail as you can”.

I feel like it would be more plausible that well, should detect that the site notices that the user is a kid and would tell them, “if you don't know what to do, then ask a parent or guardian for help”

It's written in serious and somewhat formal language to make it very clear that you've done wrong. Formal and professional language regularly sounds passive-agressive when it isn't, just because of how foreign it is to many people.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

(#3)
I don't think kids would know how to respond. when a grown adult tells them “give as much detail as you can”.

The site is targeted for people eight and up: younger users can use the site, but they aren't pandered to. Assuming English is their first language, which it should (but by no means always is) be if the site is set to English, they should be able to understand what that means. I certainly could.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

how the heck do you know that i got hacked?

There's a lot of data used behind the scenes to make logging in, posting comments, changing p@sswords, etc work smoothly and securely. For example, the ST knows the IP address—the address, sort of like a road/mailing address, for a computer on the internet—of whoever did any of those actions, as well as everything else the user does. If the IP has a strange location—why the heck is an account that only has had activity in the western United States suddenly have a password change from Somalia—it tips them off that it was a potential hack. Tie that with other datapoints, and potentially a notable change in account behavior, and it becomes clear when an account was hacked.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

it should be like the little warning message boxes that are much more relaxed. and, well, professional.

Having dealt with actual professional language for ticket contestations, college communication, job applications, etc., I can assure you that the ban page uses more professional language.

Both images you post are about the same in tone. Like kkidslogin says, the page is being polite, but firm. If the ban message was trying to be overtly polite then there would be an awkward tone clash; you've done enough wrong to have restrictions placed on you but the language wouldn't match the depth of your misdeed. It's probable they have a child psychologist on staff who would be able to corroborate this.

If you don't want to feel talked down to in any case I'd advise just not doing things that get you banned.

wilsoncooper wrote:

bruh, if you need to ask a question, use the “Questions about Scratch” forum

there’s no need to say that in big text. Anyways, I’ll report this topic to be moved to questions about scratch

GratefulGamer9398233 wrote:

wilsoncooper wrote:

bruh, if you need to ask a question, use the “Questions about Scratch” forum

there’s no need to say that in big text. Anyways, I’ll report this topic to be moved to questions about scratch

… this thread was requested to be on suggestions.

It was on questions about scratch.

Something like this has come up before- I think the ultimate answer was that it was better to be more professional than friendly, especially on a ban page. As SkyCedar has said, it takes a pretty bad thing (or a couple of bad things) to get you banned. I'm pretty sure 8 year-olds wouldn't get into that much trouble (though, anything is possible). Even so, they'd probably give their device to a parent when shown the ban page.

I think another point that came up was that it was professional but also straight-to-the-point and easy to understand. Being a little more friendly might confuse some people, and potentially make them think they've done nothing wrong.

I'll move this over to the Questions about Scratch section for you - that's a better fit for this kind of topic

Lol this topic is just gonna be moved back and forth by the mods
(its now been moved from questions to suggestions to questions)

GlitchyZorua wrote:

(#1)
Especially the part when it says “Give as much detail as you can.”; Why does that line feel like its challenging me? Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

They need to know as much information as possible to help your case. That's why they ask for it, because otherwise appeals would be super vague and wouldn't give the ST much to work with.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

(#1)
Also, the part when it says “we can tell”, feels… ominous. How…? Like how the heck do you know that i got hacked? When I got first got banned, (yes, i got banned before, in the past, i will admit it.), I remember it just feels like it someone is watching over me. It makes me feel, well, afraid.

They probably have some way to tell which devices or locations you logged in from, like if the bad content came from a completely new IP address or one used by other people who have gained access to other people's accounts in the past.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

(#1)
And don't know if anyone notices it, but i feel like this whole page was written by someone angry which is kinda weird considering that this website is for ages 8 and up. I don't think kids around that age would know how to respond to stuff like this.

First of all, kids (especially 8-12 years old) would likely be following the Scratch guidelines anyway, because they're really easy to follow, especially for kids.
Secondly, kids 8-12 generally won't have their own email address and would have signed up using their parent's email address. To appeal requires an email address, such as the one the account was created with, which brings me to my third point. If a young child somehow gets banned off Scratch they should tell their parents and ask for guidance on what to do.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

(#1)
I feel like this page needs an upgrade. it shouldn't be like this. it should be like the little warning message boxes that are much more relaxed. and, well, professional.

You aren't wrong here, and maybe it'll be something that finally comes when they finish upgrading those pages to 3.0.

Sorry I am like 2 days late to answering but my opinion is that it is not to bad (I kind of laughed at “Dont play the I was hacked card”… ST what? “you wont trick me with your ”I got hacked") But it is kind of annoying because it obviously will take a while to get a response on an appeal, which is fair enough. When I got banned it was a year ago for participation in using a version of Scratch that you can work with others on. (Which is funny because NOBODY ELSE in my team was banned for it, and I didn't even spread the link… (but then again, multiuser projects do TECHNICALLY have the add comment feature to abuse) And younger me was sad about it but after the ban was extended I was back in a week. That is my experience with getting banned, and the second worst part tbh was seeing 100 notifications (and I don't even get studio mail) that I couldn't see. The worst part is the fact that you cannot even go to your projects, so if it is permanent, just lost all your unshared work.

My only suggestion for the ST would be unrealistic, but I feel that it would be good to have more information on why it was bad. Probably only works for a few cases like mine because they already covered it with comments, which I believe they show the ones that got you banned.
I don't have the full screenshot, its cut off, but mine didn't even list the correct reason

The issue was the possibility of abusing the add comment feature in the editor for communication. There was a possibility we were gonna give phone numbers or whatever junk it thought we were doing, but we didn't maybe it could at least mention that

Also by saying that I want it to give more information on why it was bad, I am not being like that kid on QaS who wanted a list of banned words, because in my case that type of thing was not rlly the issue lol
I do think this is an interesting topic tho

SimonCheeseburger wrote:

Sorry I am like 2 days late to answering but my opinion is that it is not to bad (I kind of laughed at “Dont play the I was hacked card”… ST what? “you wont trick me with your ”I got hacked") But it is kind of annoying because it obviously will take a while to get a response on an appeal, which is fair enough. When I got banned it was a year ago for participation in using a version of Scratch that you can work with others on. (Which is funny because NOBODY ELSE in my team was banned for it, and I didn't even spread the link… (but then again, multiuser projects do TECHNICALLY have the add comment feature to abuse) And younger me was sad about it but after the ban was extended I was back in a week. That is my experience with getting banned, and the second worst part tbh was seeing 100 notifications (and I don't even get studio mail) that I couldn't see. The worst part is the fact that you cannot even go to your projects, so if it is permanent, just lost all your unshared work.

My only suggestion for the ST would be unrealistic, but I feel that it would be good to have more information on why it was bad. Probably only works for a few cases like mine because they already covered it with comments, which I believe they show the ones that got you banned.
I don't have the full screenshot, its cut off, but mine didn't even list the correct reason

The issue was the possibility of abusing the add comment feature in the editor for communication. There was a possibility we were gonna give phone numbers or whatever junk it thought we were doing, but we didn't maybe it could at least mention that

Also by saying that I want it to give more information on why it was bad, I am not being like that kid on QaS who wanted a list of banned words, because in my case that type of thing was not rlly the issue lol
I do think this is an interesting topic tho

Could you be more clear on your opinion of the suggestion?

floofycat4436 wrote:

SimonCheeseburger wrote:

Sorry I am like 2 days late to answering but my opinion is that it is not to bad (I kind of laughed at “Dont play the I was hacked card”… ST what? “you wont trick me with your ”I got hacked") But it is kind of annoying because it obviously will take a while to get a response on an appeal, which is fair enough. When I got banned it was a year ago for participation in using a version of Scratch that you can work with others on. (Which is funny because NOBODY ELSE in my team was banned for it, and I didn't even spread the link… (but then again, multiuser projects do TECHNICALLY have the add comment feature to abuse) And younger me was sad about it but after the ban was extended I was back in a week. That is my experience with getting banned, and the second worst part tbh was seeing 100 notifications (and I don't even get studio mail) that I couldn't see. The worst part is the fact that you cannot even go to your projects, so if it is permanent, just lost all your unshared work.

My only suggestion for the ST would be unrealistic, but I feel that it would be good to have more information on why it was bad. Probably only works for a few cases like mine because they already covered it with comments, which I believe they show the ones that got you banned.
I don't have the full screenshot, its cut off, but mine didn't even list the correct reason

The issue was the possibility of abusing the add comment feature in the editor for communication. There was a possibility we were gonna give phone numbers or whatever junk it thought we were doing, but we didn't maybe it could at least mention that

Also by saying that I want it to give more information on why it was bad, I am not being like that kid on QaS who wanted a list of banned words, because in my case that type of thing was not rlly the issue lol
I do think this is an interesting topic tho

Could you be more clear on your opinion of the suggestion?

sorry for being all over the place…

I think that they should give a better description of the ban… ik unrealistic

GlitchyZorua wrote:

I don't know if anyone feels the same way but… the page when you get blocked feels very passive aggressive.



Especially the part when it says “Give as much detail as you can.”; Why does that line feel like its challenging me? Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

Also, the part when it says “we can tell”, feels… ominous. How…? Like how the heck do you know that i got hacked? When I got first got banned, (yes, i got banned before, in the past, i will admit it.), I remember it just feels like it someone is watching over me. It makes me feel, well, afraid.

And don't know if anyone notices it, but i feel like this whole page was written by someone angry which is kinda weird considering that this website is for ages 8 and up. I don't think kids around that age would know how to respond to stuff like this.

I feel like this page needs an upgrade. it shouldn't be like this. it should be like the little warning message boxes that are much more relaxed. and, well, professional.



I dunno. I feel like as of writing this, i feel like its kinda silly, I wanted to see how everyone feels about this, and perhaps, suggestions on how to make this ban page slightly better.

Idk why its like that… just scratch team's ways of designing the site I guess

GlitchyZorua wrote:

Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

yes it should, adequately. if a user getts banned they have to show they are responsible enough to return

FWGcats wrote:

GlitchyZorua wrote:

Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

yes it should, adequately. if a user getts banned they have to show they are responsible enough to return

fair enough I would say I agree with that

GlitchyZorua wrote:

Especially the part when it says “Give as much detail as you can.”; Why does that line feel like its challenging me? Appealing shouldn't be a challenge, last i checked.

Asking the user to be detailed in their response isn't a challenge. After all, it's not saying “Write 10,000 words or we will ip ban you”. Being detailed is important so whoever is reading the appeal knows what exactly happened and isn't just given “Plz unban me”.

GlitchyZorua wrote:

Also, the part when it says “we can tell”, feels… ominous. How…? Like how the heck do you know that i got hacked? When I got first got banned, (yes, i got banned before, in the past, i will admit it.), I remember it just feels like it someone is watching over me. It makes me feel, well, afraid.

The ST cannot see who is using your device, so they cannot tell for certain if you got hacked or not. I assume it is clear whether someone got hacked or not by looking at what got the user banned, and that is what ST is referring to. I do understand this phrase could be confusing, especially for younger users who might not understand that the ST cannot see you through your computer, but “we can tell” doesn't mean “We are watching you from your walls”. It is also important to tell users that saying “I got hacked” when you clearly didn't isn't going to work, so they don't do it.

Ok, well, I am gonna close this conversation here, because there is alot of great points here. I still feel like that there are more problems with the ban page, but I'll save that for another forum post later.