(note, I'm asking this question for no particular reason. I'm merely curious)

I've been on Scratch for 2+ years, and over that time I've learned quite the amount about how this website works. One of the things that still doesn't make much sense to me is why kissing, or just the word ‘kiss’,'kissing',etc is considering inappropriate.

Whenever I use either of those words in a comment on Scratch, I will receive a message from the Scratch Team telling me that “Scratch is not a dating website” and show me the comment where I used the word(s). This makes little sense. Even just using the word in the comment will most likely* grant you that message.

I understand this website is targeted at kids eight years and older, and I understand why several things have been censored for the site. But kissing? We aren't even including the more “mature” types of kissing, but just the word, not even describing the action, literally just the word is considered inappropriate.

Everyone's experiences will vary, but when I was eight years old, kissing was a perfectly normal thing. If anything, eight year olds thought kissing was gross, not inappropriate.

I'd also like to point out that, by this definition, harmless things such as a parent/guardian kissing their child on the forehead would be considered inappropriate. Most eight year olds most likely have had that happened to them before, yet apparently it's inappropriate. While I can sort of understand why romantical kissing would be considered inappropriate, this apparently is as well? I honestly see nothing wrong with that, but feel free to correct me if need be. (also, this would not even fit under Scratch's message of “Scratch is not a dating website” since how does a parent kissing a child on the forehead count as dating?)

Free free to correct me on this as well, but no where in the Community Guidelines or the Terms of Use does it mention anything about Scratch not being a dating website (which apparently includes any type of kissing). The only thing that comes remotely close to it is 3.1.4 in the Terms of Use section of the guide of the same name.

I'm not arguing that all types of kissing should be allowed on Scratch, I understand why it isn't, but perhaps we need to look at the context of the action before deeming it all inappropriate?

*I don't recall how many times I've used the word “kiss” in a comment, but I know for a fact that I have received that message 3 times for using those words in a comment. You might not receive the message every time, but considering that I almost never use that word without getting the message, it feels like it gives you it every time.

the lame answer here that you wouldn't like, is probably “kissing might not be inappropriate in all aspects of real life, but it's inappropriate on scratch.” kind of like how asking your real-life friends for their emails is perfectly fine in real life, but it's inappropriate to ask other scratchers for their emails on the scratch website.

ideally context is considered when doing moderation. but, truth be told, there are so many inappropriate uses of kissing that occur on scratch that i wouldn't be surprised if the scratch team decided to do some sort of blanket ban on using the word. i'm not saying that they did, but it may be reasonable to believe that the scratch team is erring on the side of caution when finding a comment that references kissing, dissuading scratchers from using the word “kiss” in an attempt to prevent their comments from possibly escalating (whether it's in that same thread or elsewhere).

Well, the filter Scratch uses can't detect context, so they probably figured that there was enough inappropriate uses of the word “kiss” that it would warrant a ban. (Similarly, you can't use the word that means “chaos” because it's also the name of a social platform.)

Wow yeesh that's very long. The best way to describe it is that whenever a word has more than one meaning and scratch thinks it's the word using it's inappropriate meaning.
Take discord for example. Discord could be an MLP (My little pony) character, a could be disagreement between people, or a chatting place for older people.
Scratch could have thought it was mentioned as a chatting place and that's why it's removed.
Same thing for kissing. Kissing could be like a normal parent kissing their child goodnight, a regular thing a wife or husband do (on the cheek), or something romantically inappropriate.

Crispydogs101 wrote:

Wow yeesh that's very long. The best way to describe it is that whenever a word has more than one meaning and scratch thinks it's the word using it's inappropriate meaning.
Take discord for example. Discord could be an MLP (My little pony) character, a could be disagreement between people, or a chatting place for older people.
Scratch could have thought it was mentioned as a chatting place and that's why it's removed.
Same thing for kissing. Kissing could be like a normal parent kissing their child goodnight, a regular thing a wife or husband do (on the cheek), or something romantically inappropriate.

That's not a bad point, I can understand that being the case, but it's slightly annoying that certain words will always grant a muting/special message/ban when not used in the questionable context. I understand that Scratch's filter can't detect context, and it would be difficult (and probably expensive) to make it so, but it really would be a useful feature.

-AMETHYSTQUEEN- wrote:

Crispydogs101 wrote:

Wow yeesh that's very long. The best way to describe it is that whenever a word has more than one meaning and scratch thinks it's the word using it's inappropriate meaning.
Take discord for example. Discord could be an MLP (My little pony) character, a could be disagreement between people, or a chatting place for older people.
Scratch could have thought it was mentioned as a chatting place and that's why it's removed.
Same thing for kissing. Kissing could be like a normal parent kissing their child goodnight, a regular thing a wife or husband do (on the cheek), or something romantically inappropriate.

That's not a bad point, I can understand that being the case, but it's slightly annoying that certain words will always grant a muting/special message/ban when not used in the questionable context. I understand that Scratch's filter can't detect context, and it would be difficult (and probably expensive) to make it so, but it really would be a useful feature.

I can agree that Scratch muting filter is not perfect. But the best way is when you get muted for that same reason and you click the “think this was a mistake?” Button on the mute message.

-AMETHYSTQUEEN- wrote:

Crispydogs101 wrote:

Wow yeesh that's very long. The best way to describe it is that whenever a word has more than one meaning and scratch thinks it's the word using it's inappropriate meaning.
Take discord for example. Discord could be an MLP (My little pony) character, a could be disagreement between people, or a chatting place for older people.
Scratch could have thought it was mentioned as a chatting place and that's why it's removed.
Same thing for kissing. Kissing could be like a normal parent kissing their child goodnight, a regular thing a wife or husband do (on the cheek), or something romantically inappropriate.

That's not a bad point, I can understand that being the case, but it's slightly annoying that certain words will always grant a muting/special message/ban when not used in the questionable context. I understand that Scratch's filter can't detect context, and it would be difficult (and probably expensive) to make it so, but it really would be a useful feature.

To train an AI to do so would be tough, it would be difficult to code, and than theres the server side issues, not to mention misfires.

Crispydogs101 wrote:

I can agree that Scratch muting filter is not perfect. But the best way is when you get muted for that same reason and you click the “think this was a mistake?” Button on the mute message.

Wait, that exists? Had no idea about that.

medians wrote:

Crispydogs101 wrote:

I can agree that Scratch muting filter is not perfect. But the best way is when you get muted for that same reason and you click the “think this was a mistake?” Button on the mute message.

Wait, that exists? Had no idea about that.

Yup

I mean you already know how scratch deals with things like this, I agree with you on what you said, but nevertheless scratch will always be like this.
Not every site has perfect moderation, but scratch seems to have worse restraint than every other site. But they are a non-profit organization website, so they don't pay anyone for moderating which may or may not be the reason why It's really bad.

marcopoIo wrote:

Not every site has perfect moderation, but scratch seems to have worse restraint than every other site.

this is because this website is targeted towards all ages, in particular young kids, so the scratch team has to be strict about this sort of thing.

marcopoIo wrote:

But they are a non-profit organization website, so they don't pay anyone for moderating which may or may not be the reason why It's really bad.

that's not true, all moderators are paid.

medians wrote:

Crispydogs101 wrote:

I can agree that Scratch muting filter is not perfect. But the best way is when you get muted for that same reason and you click the “think this was a mistake?” Button on the mute message.

Wait, that exists? Had no idea about that.

It's only on 3.0 pages. (At least I think - it looks 3.0-y and I remember people saying that but I don't think I've ever gotten muted on a 2.0 page.)