Eng:Scratch Rules

This page documents the various concrete rules of Scratch. These are both things that are frowned upon and things that are punishable by the Scratch Team.

Community Guidelines
The Community Guidelines are the official rules for Scratch as written by the Scratch Team. They are as follows:


 * Be respectful. When sharing projects or posting comments, remember that people of many different ages and backgrounds will see what you’ve shared.
 * Be constructive. When commenting on other’s projects, say something you like about it and offer suggestions.
 * Share. You are free to remix projects, ideas, images, or anything else you find on Scratch – and anyone can use anything that you share. Be sure to give credit when you remix.
 * Keep personal info private. For safety reasons, do not use real names or post contact info like phone numbers or addresses.
 * Help keep the site friendly. If you think a project or comment is mean, insulting, too violent, or otherwise inappropriate, click “Report” to let us know about it.

When a rule is broken by a Scratcher, the Scratcher receives a warning in the form of a message from the Scratch Team. After multiple messages, a user may be banned temporarily, or (in case of a serious offense) even permanently.

Spam
Spam is irrelevant material posted in comments or on the forums. It is bad form to encourage spam. Spam posts should be reported. Common types of spam abuse smileys, _meow_, or are attempts to gain fame by posting links to one's own projects or posting advertisements.

Misusing the Report feature
Reporting for no specific reason or something which follows the Community Guidelines is considered spam, and is frowned upon, as it wastes the Scratch Team's time. If a user does it multiple times, they can get banned.

Flame Wars
Flame wars are unnecessary and hurtful arguments between two or more Scratchers. Flame wars are absolutely not tolerated and can result in bans for the participants. Note that helpful and constructive arguing is allowed, as on the Scratch Forums, but ad hominem attacks are not allowed.

Drama
Drama is unnecessary and is discouraged by many Scratchers. Quitting in order to gain attention is considered drama, as is protesting the ban of another user. Personal problems such as depression and eating disorders do not belong on Scratch. Making multiple accounts and pretending to be new, tricking people into thinking they will receive tons of love-its, and any type of trick that could be hurtful to someone are also drama.

Religion and Politics
Religion and politics are allowed to be put in projects so long as it is not disrespectful. "It's fine to make a project sharing about your faith, as long as it meets the Scratch community guidelines. It's disrespectful to try to change other's beliefs about their faith, or say that your belief about faith is the only acceptable one."

- Lightnin, Scratch Team at MIT

"For one thing - we think people should be able to express their political views in projects (respectfully, of course). It's an important part of how democracy works. Sometimes the discussions go bad and get disrespectful (and not just on Scratch - lots of places)."

- Lightnin, Scratch Team at MIT

Always give credit
When remixing or if you are inspired by another user's creation, always give credit. If you are remixing there will automatically be a message underneath the project saying that it is remixed but it is nicer if you acknowledge the user in the project Notes & Credits section.

Discussion
These rules apply to the Discussion forums.

Necroposting
Bumping outdated, irrelevant, unwanted, or unnecessary topics is called necroposting and is frowned upon in the Scratch Community. Scratchers new to the forums will often unknowingly necropost. However, bumping up old topics to add new, relevant information, or to revive a discussion for a valid reason is not considered necroposting.

Off-topic Discussion
On the Scratch Forums it is frowned upon if a thread goes off-topic as it distracts people's attention from the main post. If a topic branches into another idea, it is encouraged to create a new topic rather than continue on the old one.

Duplicate Topics
It is considered bad form to intentionally post exactly the same topic twice. It is also encouraged to look for older topics about the same thing rather than to create a new topic and split up the discussion. Duplicate topics get closed by the Scratch Team.

Topics not allowed in the "Things I'm Reading and Playing" and "Things I'm Making and Creating" forum sections
"The Reading and Playing forum is a place to discuss books, TV, movies, art, music, or video games that inspire you."
 * Topics focusing on negativity, such as "anti-X". Topics like this have been closed.

- Paddle2See


 * Adult media or mature games
 * Topics about dreams creepypasta, anything that would be inappropriate elsewhere, telling scary stories, and drama-stirring topics.

Naming Names
Users should not use other users' usernames in a negative way, for example "Username did this thing to me." If a user does this their post may be edited by a Scratch Team member to remove the name. Where the name was a message along the lines of [username removed by mod] may appear. If a user is having problems with a particular user, they should report them.

Blockspam
It is frowned upon to overuse the scratchblocks feature. This is considered blockspamming. Often it can become annoying if it has nothing to do with the post. Even if the scratchblocks are used a bit like a Script Poem and the message of the post is conveyed through them it can also be annoying.