Hi everyone,

I am wondering if Manager Chat in studios is allowed. My brother got an email from the ST saying that it isn't allowed, and I heard a lot of other people got alerts about it. So it seems like it isn't allowed?

But I am asking because it never says ANYTHING about Manager Chat on the Community Guidelines… Like there is never a section that says you can't do it, so it seems unfair for the ST to be giving alerts about it when people didn't know they were doing anything wrong. So please tell me if you know for sure if it is allowed or not.

If it isn't allowed, then I suggest that the ST should make an announcement about it or add it to the Community Guidelines so people know if they are disobeying the rules. Thanks!

Chat on scratch is not allowed so no

ninjaMAR wrote:

Chat on scratch is not allowed so no

Oh but it is not like a private chat, it is just in the studio description so everyone can see it

I think they are allowed.

willowmint- wrote:

ninjaMAR wrote:

Chat on scratch is not allowed so no

Oh but it is not like a private chat, it is just in the studio description so everyone can see it

Even though anyone can see it, the managers can and delete them. Because of that, private communication is theoretically possible.
Not only that, but managers can edit others' messages, which can lead to lots of problems, like defaming others.

The Community Guidelines are a huge generalisation of Scratch's rules and is more a display of their morale and ideals than an actual rule book, so I don't think stating that “Manager chats in studios are not allowed” in the guidelines would be inline with the rest of what the guidelines say. An announcement could work.

I believe the reason the ST have banned manager chats is that it's much harder to moderate (I'm guessing the ST has access to see edits to studio descriptions but I could imagine those only going back so far) and determine who said what thing. It's a similar case to why cloud chat projects were banned, because those aren't private chat services yet they've also been banned.

wow I have to be quicker with these responses lol

If you are interested in reasons:

Paddle2See* wrote:

Thanks for your feedback on this issue. There are some very real problems with manager chats in the studio description field. While we are not ready to say that all chats in this area should be reported - we do agree that they should be discouraged and reported if you see abusive behavior happening there.

Studios work best when manager positions are only granted to a very limited number of trustworthy people. Please keep that in mind for any studios you create or participate in.

Source

Thank you everyone for your help! So I think I understand now that Manager Chat is allowed if you are being respectful, but it isn't encouraged to be using Manager Chat a lot

willowmint- wrote:

Thank you everyone for your help! So I think I understand now that Manager Chat is allowed if you are being respectful, but it isn't encouraged to be using Manager Chat a lot

When Paddle2See wrote that post, we were still working out our policy on this. At this point, I think we've decided that manager chats in studio descriptions are something that you shouldn't use. As CatsUnited described, it can be (and often is) used to circumvent moderation features, and it's very difficult for us to know what was said, which can hurt everyone involved.