Eng:Scratch Mentors

Scratch Mentors was a program put in to replace the ended Community Moderators program. It is known that the program is by invitation from the Scratch Team only, and Scratch Mentors have their own discussion forum. Currently, the Scratch Mentors program is winding down and is not as active as it was before.

Reasoning
"We decided to retire the community moderators program because we want to create a new role with a different focus – less on moderation, and more on helping Scratchers make awesome stuff (both with “Scratch the programming tool” and in “Scratch the community”). As some have already seen from the discussion forum pull down menus, part of the program will be called “Scratch Mentors.” We're working on co-creating it with the first cohort of Scratch mentors now. Part of their role will be focused on supporting other ways for Scratchers to contribute to the community (i.e. helping Scratchers get un-stuck when working on challenging projects, or helping maintain and improve Scratch design studios, for example. ) Becoming a community moderator was a way for a few Scratchers to contribute to Scratch and the Scratch community. Soon there will be many more ways for Scratchers to help out - which is something that Scratchers have told us they want for a very long time."

- Lightnin, on behalf of the Scratch Team

Tasks
It is still quite unknown exactly what the mentors do, but mentor ErnieParke wrote the following:

"Mentors do quite a bit, to be truthful. Primarily at the moment, we give the ST feedback on issues they've been working on. For example, we're currently talking about what Scratch Mentors/Helpers should be. We're also given the dual-responsibility of helping Scratchers, and we work on site-wide projects (SDS's, for example)."

- ErnieParke, October 12, 2013

Publicly Released Projects
On April Fools' Day 2014, the Scratch Mentors and Scratch Team released their first collaboration, which was the day's pranks. Scratch Mentors helped contribute by giving the Scratch Team ideas for the day, creating projects, helping find projects for the featured prank studios, and other various tasks.

On April 22, 2014, the second collaboration between the Scratch Team and Scratch Mentors was released, called the Scripts Team. Scratch Mentors helped by discussing various aspects of the program with the Scratch Team, giving ideas for various aspects of the helper program, thinking of ideas, and creating projects to help with the rollout.

In late 2014, the Scratch Mentors announced an unofficial series of projects with the hint, "??????? ???????". Users had to guess what letters the question marks were to find out the title. On March 26, 2015, it was revealed it was "Scratch Mystery" and the first part was released. The series revolve around the mystery of who kidnapped Scratch Cat as Tera discovers when she arrives for her appointment. The first part can be viewed here.

Scratch Helper Groups
The Scratch Mentors also collaborate with the Scratch Team to create and maintain Scratch Helper Groups. Scratch Helper Groups are a way for normal Scratchers to get involved and help out the Scratch community without having any extra role that they were invited to. There are currently two Scratch Helper Groups active at this moment.

Welcoming Committee
The Welcoming Committee is one of the two Scratch Helper Groups. Although this group was not created by the Scratch Mentors, they help maintain the studio, as most of the mentors curate the studio and keep it running. The Welcoming Committee is an official studio that was created by the Scratch Team in 2012, and it is used to welcome new Scratchers and answer any questions that they may have. You can join by submitting a project to the studio that welcomes New Scratchers and having a curator add it for you. Once your project is in the studio, you are officially a member of the Scratch Welcoming Committee, but becoming a member does not mean you become a curator.

Scripts Team
The Scripts Team is the other Scratch Helper Group which is now retired. It is a studio where anybody can submit a link to their project in the comments of the studio if they need help with scripting in it. A member of the studio will then help them solve the scripting problem. To join, you used to have to make a project that explains how to do something in Scratch, and a Scratch Mentor would review your project and accept you as a member if they thought you would be a good member of the studio. But, the joining process has changed since then. "At the start of this helper group, the Scripts Team member had two tasks: (1) help curate the Scripts Workshop and (2) help Scratchers with their projects. We want to you to continue doing the first task of helping curate the Scripts Workshop. However, in helping Scratchers with their projects, we want everyone to be able to participate in that, regardless if you are a Scripts Team member or not. (We understand that many discussed this point.) Rather than discouraging potential helpers who are not members, we would like to ask Scripts Team members to help Scratchers help each other—in addition to helping Scratchers directly. Think of the role as a “facilitator of helping.” By helping Scratchers help, they can point Scratchers to resources, make additional suggestions, and find people to help answer questions."

- ricarose

Other groups
Another group known as the Extension Developers Group was created as part of an early-adopter program for extensions, this group had private access to the Extension Developer's Forum before it was phased out.

Selection
Currently, not much is known about the selection process other then the fact that members are chosen by the Scratch Team. It is known that once chosen, future Scratch Mentors will receive a comment on one of their projects or their profile page by a Scratch Team member. This comment will ask if the user would like to be a Scratch Mentor, and if the answer is yes, they will become one.

Current Members
Occasionally, a few selected Scratchers will receive an invitation from the Scratch Team asking them if they would like to become a Scratch Mentor. If the user asked accepts, then they will become a Scratch Mentor. At the same time when new mentors are being chosen, the Scratch Team does a check-up with all of the current mentors asking them if they would like to continue having their role. It is a simple checkup done by the Scratch Team, and they just ask if they would like to continue, as well as anything else requested by the Scratch Team. On October 12, 2013, the first three mentors were announced and the program was officially released. The three original mentors that were invited were ErnieParke, LiFaytheGoblin, and P110. In late May 2014, 2 new mentors were chosen. The 2 people that were invited to become Scratch Mentors were dolphingirl36, and EH7meow.

Scratch Mentors Forum
At the top of the main forums is a forum for Scratch Mentors. Like the Moderator Forum, this forum is only accessible by the Scratch Team and Scratch Mentors, but it behaves like a regular forum in the Scratch Forums. Mainly, it is used for discussions about various Scratch programs between the Scratch Team and the Scratch Mentors.

Scratch Helper Groups (forum)
Currently, the Scratch Helper Groups forum is moderated not just by moderators and the Scratch Team, but also by the Scratch Mentors. Along with the responsibility, Scratch Mentors and the Scratch Team are the only people who can post a topic in the Scratch Helper Group forums, but anyone is able to post in this forum.