Note to Campers: It would be truly appreciated if you didn’t stalk this forum as we use it to plan surprises and activities, and it will just ruin the experience for yourself. SWC is based on an honor system: we trust you to act honorably ^^

So, welcome to the official Scratch Writing Camp leader forum for the session of March 2022!

There was an ocean of amazing apps this session. And I mean this to say that there were literally so many. It was really difficult to come down to a final decision, but in the end we’re confident that the fifteen people we’ve chosen and each and every co-leader that comes after deserves this position and fought very hard to earn it – so give yourselves all a pat on the back, you’ve bested the competition and rose to the top <333
We know you’ll do great this session and hopefully learn a lot along the way <33 To newcomers, welcome to the leading community, and to returners, welcome back!

Important: Please read through this entire thread before going to choose your co-leaders!

Co Leaders

~ You can choose one or two cos - however, keep in mind that the current cap for campers is 500 and that your cabin will probably have around 30 people. If you're interested in choosing three cos, please let us know why and we'll clear that decision with you.
~ Don’t ask more than two cos at a time unless you've cleared the decision with us to choose three cos; you might have to reject someone, which would be sad.
~ Please note that some people will be sharing co-leader apps a day or two after the deadline, as we’ve given these prospective co-leader apps extensions (though to be clear, only co-leader apps can be given extensions).
~ Go through all the apps you can and don’t just choose the people who remixed first/are your friends. Also remember to base your choice on answers over design - answer quality is far more important!
~ Don’t rush – there are a lot of apps this time around and all of them deserve equal recognition. There is no shortage of amazing people to choose as your co-leaders.
~ The apps chosen for co don't need to be “extremely polished and mature” – similarly, co-leaders don't have to have that much experience. It would be great to open up opportunities for the “fresh faces” if a leader feels comfortable with that. You might find that someone who is new to leading can have a lot more to offer.
~ Don’t choose two people together just because they ask to be together.
~ Remember timezones! Similar timezones will be good for you if you want to do lots of planning (e.g. in-cabin activities/storyline) with your cos. Very different timezones will prevent word counts building up and potentially keep your cabin more active overall. However, it’s up to you and your priorities - either is fine, but choose wisely ^^
~ Cos advertising their apps to leaders is 100% banned; don’t choose them, and let one of the Hosts know straight away. There’s also a more ‘subtle’ way where people say ‘hi, congratulations on becoming leader!’ and then turn the conversation towards co-leader choices. We would advise against choosing based on that, but it’s more of a blurred line and quite hard to discourage.
~ On asking your cos to join your cabin, remind them to wait until at least ten hours have passed after leaders are announced before accepting your invitation, in case they get other offers from leaders in different timezones.
~ When your co(s) have responded, send them the link to this leader forum (preferably in a private place) and ask them to delete the comment once they’ve seen it ^^

You have until January 30th to choose your co leader/s! Please take your time and think carefully about your choices.

Cabins & Leaders

We saw exemplary answers and creativity in the apps of the leaders we chose. And finally, here they are:

-JadeFox- - Mystery
Luna-Lovegood-LOL - Fanfic
bIxez - Dystopian
26friedland - Thriller
Stormy_Brook - Non-Fi
Sunclaw68 - Fairy Tales
-PeachiiStxr- - Horror
-everIasting - Mythology
-faerylights - Real-Fi
-redredrobin- - Poetry
Rey_venclaw - Sci-Fi
opheliio - Adventure
Mydoggiedaisy - Contemporary
-seiun - Fantasy
macaroni–penguin - Hi-Fi
*This list is in no particular order!*

Cabin Descriptions and Plans (Important!)

After you’ve chosen a color (scheme) and theme for your cabin, feel free to start setting it up! You do not have to tell us what your theme is, but to tell us your cabin colors below would be appreciated ^^
(Note: Cabin colors and themes are simply aesthetic choices and they won’t change anything about the actual cabin! They help in creating thumbnails, cabin-related graphics, and potentially your cabin’s pages in the SWC memory book.)

Here you can find a list of things to include in your cabin description!
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/531202970/
More important things, as the list has yet to be updated with these:
There are new word updating systems in place this session, put into detail in this project. https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/564931660/ Please take a look at this and decide what system your cabin will be using with your co-leaders!
It would be greatly appreciated if you could include a link to the suggestion forum at https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/514261/?page=1 as well <3
We also expect you to put this in your cabin descriptions (as well as go by it yourself): “If you need to post writing in the forums, PLEASE LIMIT YOURSELF TO ONE WRITING THREAD AT THE VERY MOST! All stories/writing threads should go in the Things I’m Making and Creating forum; all Cabin Announcements, SWC ideas/suggestions, or anything generally explaining what SWC aids/does should go into Show and Tell; and all Leader forums/discussions should go in Show and Tell and/or Collaborations.”

Quick note on cabin plans: Make sure that your unique plans/activities for your cabin don't go against the scratch guidelines ^^’ In past sessions I've seen a few people say things about kah()oots, bloo()kets, skribbl().io, out of()context, or even blank()slate, but all of those have the potential to get you or your campers reported or worse. Please enforce that unmoderated chat, or even unmoderated inputs, are not allowed – as easy as it would make cabin bonding </3

Another note on adding main cabin points: We will update points by the same system we used last session by adding activities in a project’s comments. (more information to come)

Cabin Wars

As we’ve seen in previous sessions, cabin relationships/plotlines are super cool, and friendly competition really encourages motivation and activity (+ makes it more fun for everyone involved). Keep this in mind when you’re choosing your allies, neutrals and enemies ;D

Maximum amount of Allies: 5
Maximum amount of Neutrals: N/A
Maximum amount of Enemies: 5

- As always, allies and enemies are not compulsory. If you don’t want to have them, that’s fine!
- Don’t pressure anyone into being an ally/enemy of your cabin.

Schedule

You can post in the leader forum with any daily or weekly ideas, or questions you might have about these activities - or put them in the suggestion forum at https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/514261/?page=1 !
If you'd like to be on the daily/weekly team this session, please contact @whiteandblackcat on her profile. You can do the same if you're interested in making a workshap

Host Schedule:
(Dates are in UTC)

Leader apps: January 1st - Birdi
Choose leaders: January 17th - Birdi, with input from Kat, Bakie and Honey
Leader thread: January 17th - Birdi
Main cabin: January 24th - Birdi
Camper apps: February 1st - Birdi
Sort campers: Kat, Alba, Birdi, Bakie, Honey & sorting team
Finish a draft of the daily schedule - Bakie & daily team
Backup campers: Kat Word wars: March 7th - Honey
Writing competition: March 15th - Honey
Results: April - Birdi

Memory Book

The amazing team of Poem(PandasCodingGames), Elle(-everIasting) and Faer(bIxez) is running the SWC memory book this session! If you want to get involved, hop on over to this thread: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/572538/?page=1#post-5949306

Drama

I have the veto rights to this thread, meaning I have the power to stop any arguments (or at least the discussion of them). Please keep drama of all sorts out of this thread - it clogs up the forums and could be humiliating for people involved.

For an updated official SWC rules list and leader guide, please see the post directly below this one or visit this link.
It details what to do in the case of suspicious word counts, drama, reserves, adding proof, and much more. Please refer to it as much as you can.

ALSO: please don’t ask for a summary of what has happened in the leader forum while you weren’t online. It clogs up the forum and leads to spam + people repeating themselves. If 50 pages have appeared overnight or something and you really need a summary, contact someone who was online then personally ^^

Other Stuff

If you quote a long post, remember to snip!

We are no longer notifying people for camper signups this session, so there is no need to offer to do that. However, promos are something we’re looking into bringing back this session. We’d encourage every leader to make a promo – though it isn’t mandatory for co-leaders.

If something unexpected comes up and you will be forced to engage in a long* period of inactivity, contact me or another (co)Host so we can sort things out.
*a week or more
If you have to step down or be inactive for a long period of time, make sure to transfer studio host to one of the other leaders in your cabin.

If you are a co-leader and your leader goes inactive, please contact a Host to sort that out. If they forgot to transfer studio host, you can create a new studio with updated word counts (as accurate as you can get them) and move the cabin to that studio.

We still don't have judges for the writing competition! If you are interested in judging, contact me on my profile.

Special thanks to all the current and past hosts, including @Sunshine_the_Rainbow who continues to actively give us input, as well as the amazing @caramelize and @Chromesthesia ^^ And another thanks to @-Alocasia for some of the writing in this post.

And that’s it. Congratulations, thank you, and let’s get started <3

- Birdi

Rules list (leader guide)
Written by Honey, Kat, and myself ^^

If you believe any of these rules shouldn’t apply / should apply differently for a specific case (e.g. adding a daily when this guide says not to), take it to the hosts (not the leader forum please)! We’re happy to deal with edge cases and/or disputes on an individual basis.


Adding words

What counts

• Roleplay - however, roleplay comments that follow the format of “‘<dialogue>’, <name> <‘said’/synonyms>” do not count if they are roleplaying as themself. As a guideline, the person should be in character somewhat rather than just speaking as themself (although an exaggerated character that represents themself is fine), and around ⅓ or so of the words should be outside of dialogue (description of actions etc) (it’s okay to eyeball this)
  
• Fictional writing
  
• Non-fictional writing
  
• Literary journal entries
  
• Writing in another language - if you’re unsure on how many words to add because the language counts writing in a different way (e.g. character counts in Chinese), Google Translate it to English and use that word count. We hope that this will be close to the number of words it would be in spoken language, but if you have a different suggestion, please let us know!
  
• Schoolwork - essays, assignments that include literary/analytical writing (such as worksheets requiring analysis of parts of a novel) but not note taking or non-literary writing such as writing out maths problems
  
• Giving critique (but only the words they wrote! If they gave 1000 words of critique but 300 of those were quotes of the original writing, add 700 words)
  
• Stream of consciousness writing
  
• Vents/rambles
  
• Formal emails
  
• Words from comics
  
• Scriptwriting/dialogue
  
• Original songwriting
  
• Vents/rants
  
• Project/studio descriptions
  

As a general rule, if it contains the person’s original ideas, it counts.

What doesn’t count

• Notetaking
  
• Texting, commenting, etc.
  
• Copying another person’s writing
  
• Translating
  
• Writing thing out from memory / copying things out (e.g. copying out a textbook, lyric spam)
  
• Nitrotype/Typing site words
  
• Lists
  

Needing proof

• Ask for proof if someone adds an unrealistic amount of words. This is at your discretion for the most part, but if someone is adding 5k+ in a day, you should ask for at least partial proof and definitely an outline on what their words came from. If someone is writing a ton, even if they’re adding reasonable amounts at a time, you should still ask for proof. Don’t add their words until they’ve given proof/an outline and if they refuse entirely or don’t give sufficient proof/explanation (at your discretion, or you may check with the hosts privately), don’t add their words.
  
• Strongly encourage your campers to outline what their writing was about when adding words - do not let them add unexplained words frequently or in large blocks! (a sufficient outline could look like: “365 words were from an english worksheet, 1946 were from working on my novel, 568 from the daily, 2868 from working on an essay the past week”)
  
• If a camper (or leader) is uncomfortable sharing proof for writing, that’s okay! Exceptions to giving proof (even for large blocks of writing) can be provided on an individual basis and they will have better luck getting one if they cooperate and are willing to give partial proof and detailed explanations/descriptions on what they’ve written. Other solutions to this can include giving a leader/host proof in a discreet location (on scratch of course - this could be editing an old forum post or putting it in a comment inside an old project).
  
• Feel free to nitrotype race someone if they say their WPM is high enough that it is plausible they wrote that much (please don’t use other typing race sites that have a chat as they’re not allowed on Scratch). WPM isn’t sufficient proof to add the words though.
  
• Do your best to ask for proof soon after they comment rather than waiting till the end of camp. If you don’t feel confident that you’ll be able to deal with the situation at that time, ask one of the other leaders of your cabin or the hosts in a discreet location (far down in profile comments, on a project, etc. - not in the leader forum)
  
• If you’re not sure what to do, please ask the hosts in a discreet location! Do not post anything about it in the leader forum, as the situation should be kept as private as possible and we don’t want to spread drama.
  

Reserves

• Reserves are any words collected and added in large blocks after they are written. Their purpose is to make it easier to add words in blocks (e.g. saving handwritten writing until the end of camp to count up or adding roleplays in chunks).
  
• If a person didn’t have access to scratch, their words don’t count as reserves even if it has been more than a week since writing
  
• Only up to 10k words can be added at a time, whether or not they give proof or a description of their writing, because it’s an unfair strategy to bank up large amounts of reserves
  
• Reserves are still subject to proof rules!
  

Dailies

• Dailies must be submitted before they end in UTC, even if the daily hasn’t changed in the main cabin description yet.
  
• Campers and leaders are expected to give all required proof for weeklies and dailies, and it must be submitted on time to earn points.
  
• Proof must be provided on Scratch, and all writing must be Scratch appropriate if you need to provide proof for it.
  
• Photos of writing are fine for proof if it’s done on paper.
  
• If people have queries about a daily and no hosts or members of the daily team are online to clarify, use your discretion to come up with a solution.
  
• Extensions for dailies are unavailable as there really isn’t any point in granting them given the low point value and short timeframe of dailies.
  

Weeklies

• Weeklies must be submitted before they end in UTC, even if the weekly hasn’t changed in the main cabin description yet.
  
• Campers and leaders are expected to give all required proof for weeklies and dailies, and it must be submitted on time to earn points.
  
• Your writing for sections of weeklies requiring proof must be safe for scratch. We don’t provide exceptions to giving proof for having writing unsafe for scratch.
  
• If a camper (or leader) is uncomfortable sharing proof for a weekly, they should contact the hosts or their leader as early as possible. Exceptions to giving proof can be provided on an individual basis and they will have better luck getting one if they let us know early (as opposed to simply refusing to give proof when trying to add their weekly). Other solutions to this can include giving a leader/host proof in a discreet location (on scratch of course - this could be editing an old forum post or putting it in a comment inside an old project).
  
• Proof must be provided on Scratch.
  
• Photos of writing are fine for proof if it’s done on paper.
  
• If people have queries about a weekly, try to wait until a host or member of the daily team can clarify (although feel free to use your discretion for minor details)
  
• Extensions for weeklies can be granted on an individual basis. Campers should let the hosts know as early as possible and they can discuss it with us from there.
  

Point adding edge cases (dailies & weeklies)

• Submitted late but proof is complete and last edited before deadline: Yes
  
• Submitted on time but didn't give proof until after the deadline: Yes, however bonus points for giving proof should not be added.
  
• Submitted on time but didn’t give word count/cabin/other needed information until after deadline: Yes
  
• Did a task wrong but fixed it after deadline: No, although exceptions can be made if they commented over 6 hours before the deadline and weren’t online between the time a leader pointed out their mistake and the deadline. Contact a host if this happens.
  
• Added words for the task in their cabin but commented in main cabin after deadline: Yes
  
• Finished the task on time but forgot / didn't know to comment in the main cabin until after the deadline: Make sure the camper knows this should not occur again! Points for the task(s) can be added provided there is proof it was completed on time, but if there is a large number of activities (>3 or so), contact hosts to confirm.
  

If you are still in doubt or think a different outcome should occur, talk to the hosts - we will deal with these on an individual basis. Please ask on one of our profiles, not in the leader forum.


Writing competition

• Writing competition entries must be submitted on scratch - which means they must be safe for scratch.
  
• More information about writing competition extensions will be provided at the writing competition’s release but as a guide, campers should contact a judge before the writing competition closes asking for an extension, giving a reason and the length of the extension they’d like. The judges will decide from there.
  
• Collaborative entries are allowed. They can only be worked on by two people and if the writers are in different cabins, any points they earn will be split between their cabins.
  
• Despite the fact that you can add words written in comics, you cannot submit a comic as a writing competition entry due to the use of images over words to present important events, but you can submit a comic script.
  

Word wars

• Proof of winning a word war isn’t necessary - it’s an honour system.
  
• Proof of words for a word war isn’t required but it’s encouraged. This is up to the two campers warring - usually they agree whether or not to provide proof after. However, a camper can ask for proof if their opponent’s word count is extremely inconsistent with their WPM.
  
• You don’t need to check the comments of the word war project to make sure they actually won one.
  
• Word wars must be added the day that they’re won. Exceptions can be made if their opponent replies late.
  
• In a war between a person who has already won that day and someone who hasn’t, the person who hasn’t can still earn points if they win.
  
• A person can only win one word war a day (the day resets at midnight UTC). You do not have to wait 24 hours between wars.
  
• A person can keep warring that day if they lose a war.
  
• A person who’s won a war can continue warring that day for words but they won’t be able to add points again until the next calendar day UTC.
  

Who can add points?
In the main cabin, only leaders can add words by default. However, sometimes (such as when we get behind on point adding) the hosts will allow co-leaders to opt into being able to add words. If you notice this happening and are willing to help add words, ask Honey, who runs the point adding system! They’ll add you to their point adding script, which will allow you to begin adding words.

It isn’t required to help add words as a leader but it’s expected that co-leaders who volunteer to add words contribute to main cabin word adding and help us stay caught up.


Arguments and drama

• If disputes between campers in your cabin occur, try to deescalate the situation but make sure to also contact a host. Please don’t bring this to the leader forum as we don’t want to spread drama!
  
• Periodically campers leak the leader forum link. Don’t panic if this happens! Delete any instances you can find if possible, but don’t freak out in the leader forum. It’s not a great idea to mass-report their comments to delete them as this can lead to alerts from the ST, but if the comments can be considered spam then feel free to report them. There’s not much we can do about this - you can try asking the camper not to in case they didn’t know the forum is leader only, but in most cases they’ll just be a troll. It’s not the end of the world if this happens, as most campers will honour our trust system and stay out of the forum.
  
• If a camper posts in the leader forum, respond and ask them kindly to not follow or stalk the leader forum. If they’re spamming or posting irrelevant things, ignore them and report their posts.
  
• If a random person posts in the leader forum (e.g. blockspam or something unrelated to SWC), don’t respond! They likely won’t see the response and it just makes more mess for the ST to clean up. Simply report the post(s) and explain that the post was unrelated/spam/in the wrong place.
  
• If campers in your cabin get in fights with campers from another cabin, go to the hosts and also notify the leaders of the other cabin. Of course, report any offensive material you see as part of such an argument (e.g. projects calling people to report a specific user or people speaking badly about others).
  
• If campers become defensive or accusatory when you’re talking to them (perhaps asking for proof or refusing to add words), do your best to be firm with them and stay calm! Go straight to the hosts in a discreet place as well.
  
• If campers take things too far (e.g. friendly rivalries/competition or joke trash talking other cabins go too far and become hurtful), remind the campers involved that rivalries and competition are pretend and only exist for fun. Ask them to be mindful of the intended playful nature of these rivalries and respectful of other campers and leaders’ feelings. You can also link this tone indicators project if you find it applicable.
  

FIRST BESIDES BIRDI

first leader??

SECOND AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
WHOOPS THIRD

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH AAHrweHTahESHAKLFJKARHEA AORSFRSJFAIJLDA
apologies im just slightly excited

AAAA FOURTH WELCOME WELCOME GUYS <33

AHHHH HI LUNAA AND VIII AND LIOOO AFHSHRAHFSDFD IM SO EXCITED

Ahh I’m so excited! Thank you <33

AHHHH who else freaked out lol thank you birdi! <33

TYSM TYSM TYSM IM SO EXCITEDDDDDD CONGRATS EVERYONE <33

26friedland wrote:

AHHHH HI LUNAA AND VIII AND LIOOO AFHSHRAHFSDFD IM SO EXCITED

LJJJJ HIII

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

AHHHH who else freaked out lol thank you birdi! <33

i freaked out the most i think i've ever freaked out

26friedland wrote:

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

AHHHH who else freaked out lol thank you birdi! <33

i freaked out the most i think i've ever freaked out

What cabin did you get?!

EEEEY GUYS CONGRA0TS : DDDDDD

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

AHHHH who else freaked out lol thank you birdi! <33

*raises hand* MEEEE

AYYY THIS IS EXCITINGG

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

26friedland wrote:

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

AHHHH who else freaked out lol thank you birdi! <33

i freaked out the most i think i've ever freaked out

What cabin did you get?!

Fanfiction! All those nights on A03 at 2Am finally paid off B) /j

-PeachiiStxr- wrote:

What cabin did you get?!

thriller :D

-everIasting wrote:

AYYY THIS IS EXCITINGG

IKRRR

Quick note for all of you <33 In the past we've had difficulty staying on-topic (and excitement is totally fine!! Everything we've got so far is great) in this forum, but as fun as it is, we expect you not to go off into tangents about curly fries and blueberry pie (just to provide an example heh) - you can do that as much as you want on profiles and in cabins ;D But anyway, congratulations everybody and best of luck choosing cos!!

On that note, I'd like to (possibly? no pressure) co-lead this session as well ^^' Here's something of an app? Or the most important answers, if anyone would like to have me as a co-leader. I'm Birdi, PST, and I love writing, reading, biking, photography, and environmentalism ^^ I'd be able to dedicate about two hours on average every weekday (some days one hour, and worst case scenario maybe 10-30 minutes just to check in), and almost the entire day on weekends where I am unburdened by other plans ✨ I've led three times before, and I've co-led twice before as well, and I consider myself a quite accomplished leader hehe - you can ask me on my profile if you'd like <3