A lot of hidden rules can be found only in the Announcements forum and The Announcement Directory, which could confuse a lot of Scratchers because not all of them visit the Announcements forum, which could lead to a lot of Scratchers getting banned without knowing the rule exists. To solve this issue, I suggest clarifying that these hidden rules exist and stating where are those rules in the Community Guidelines

Here's a mockup of my idea:


In my opinion, this could make moderation easier because more Scratchers will understand the rules. But at the same time, it could make the Community Guidelines look a little unprofessional. Feel free to share your thoughts by replying on this post.

There is the event that someone forgets to update the Announcements Directory with a new rule, but that's not much of a counter-argument since the Scratch Team could just try to remember to do that.

As for your specific suggestion, I think it would be more appropriate to move your proposed sentence to the bottom of the Community Guidelines, rather than the top. I think the sentence itself is not unprofessional, but the fact that it is current at the top makes it unprofessional.

There are some downsides to blindly linking to that sticky, though. Some of the topics in that section seem to be outdated and/or irrelevant.

• For example, Updates to Following and Followers, which merely states that some information about Followers was changed (in 2014!), and in particular it doesn't describe any rules. It might be a little confusing for a newcomer to come here and read that a “rule” is that the Followers page was updated …
  
  
• New Terms of Use and Privacy Policy is another one. Aside from the fact that it was also “updated” in 2014, the OP of that thread is a little too short, and doesn't really emphasize everything that needs to be emphasized. The OP suggests that the Terms of Use can be summarized as “Be nice, everything you share can be remixed, and don’t upload projects made with modified versions of Scratch.” (That last one seems a little out of left field; why emphasize that over any other rule in the Terms of Use?)
  
  
• Trademark and the Scratch online community is also not that great. Aside from also being from 2014, this doesn't really talk about any rules. It reads more like opposition to a DMCA complaint, much like how a Scratcher would complain about their project getting taken down by the Scratch Team. That seems pretty unprofessional and should not be a rule listed, especially not directed from the Community Guidelines. What example would we be setting for Scratchers if they see that an “official rule” is a former Scratch Team member complaining about a project being removed?
  

I think those are the only 3 examples. The rest seem fine. And sorry for the long post, I just wanted to emphasize that your suggestion is very very good, I just think a few of these links could stand to be removed before a link to the Announcements Directory could reasonably be added to the Community Guidelines.

bump

Eason_9 wrote:

bump

…you're not even going to respond to my suggestions?

Za-Chary wrote:

(#4)

Eason_9 wrote:

bump

…you're not even going to respond to my suggestions?

Can't think of a response right now

Za-Chary wrote:

This point was earthen by an evil kumquat

Perhaps they could may a new sticky dedicated to important updates not otherwise in the AD, and newer updates, as it is also a. Bit outdated