Eng:New Scratcher Status

The New Scratcher status is the title given to a Scratcher who has just recently joined the Scratch Website.

They traditionally introduce themselves to the Scratch Community in the Welcoming Committee Studio and the New Scratchers forum.

History
The New Scratcher status was put into action in order to stop spam and troll attacks that had been attacking the Scratch Forums in June 2010. Originally, images were disabled to stop attacks, because that was what the attacks primarily contained, but many users argued and the New Scratcher status was put into action. The New Scratcher status gave many limitations that the Community Moderators and Scratch Team did not believe spammers and trolls would bother working around.

MyRedNeptune, a Community Moderator, jokingly said New Scratchers are manually upgraded to Scratcher status if they are, "nice and cute and don't flame too much." In the actual procedure however; users are automatically selected if they meet certain requirements, at which point they receive a notification with a button to become a Scratcher.

Users must be active on the main site to gain Scratcher status. There have even been New Scratchers with over 600 posts.

To be promoted, a New Scratcher must be active to some degree around most parts of the site, along with some other requirements. They are notified to become a Scratcher by an alert in their messages, at the least 2 weeks, but usually around 1 month. When they accept a notification, as an invitation to become a Scratcher on their profile page, they get the Scratcher status.

New Scratcher Restrictions
Below is a list of limitations as named in a forum thread:
 * Cannot post images
 * Cannot post clickable links (unless they are to pages on the Scratch Website)
 * They have the 120 second rule, rather than the 60 second rule, on the Discussion Forums
 * Cannot use cloud data
 * Have to wait 30 seconds between comments (details)

These restrictions were applied to reduce spam and troll attacks.

Requirements for becoming a Scratcher
To become a Scratcher, you need to:


 * have a few shared projects.
 * have been on Scratch for a certain amount of time (at least 2 weeks, but usually 1 month).
 * be active on the website. This is a big part of becoming a Scratcher.
 * have some comments and forum posts. (This isn't necessary, but it does help.)

New TBGers
Likewise, if a user had joined the Text Based Games Forums for the first time, they would have obtained New TBGer status. They became TBGers in the same way, although status in the Scratch Forums and in the Text Based Games Forums were not directly related. New TBGers could not edit or delete their posts, however.

Welcoming Committee
In late 2012, the Welcoming Committee was created to help welcome new Scratchers. When a user registers, they'll see a link to a random welcoming committee project on their My Stuff page. This is shown until they upload their first project. The new user is expected to ask questions they may have in the comments on the project.