Help keep the site friendly. Scratchers are encouraged to keep their projects and comments friendly and appropriate for all ages and report anything that is mean, insulting, too violent, or otherwise disruptive to the community. Scratchers are discouraged from engaging in fights, spreading rumors about other Scratcher’s behavior, or otherwise responding to any inappropriate content. -Treat everyone with respect. Scratchers are unique in their own way, and they are encouraged to share things that are important to them. It’s never OK to attack a person or group’s identity or be unkind to someone's background or interests. -Be safe: keep personal and contact information private. For safety reasons, Scratchers are discouraged from giving out any information that could be used for private communication, in person or online. This includes sharing names or usernames, phone numbers, addresses, hometowns, or links to websites with private chat functionality. -Give helpful feedback. Scratchers are reminded to say something that they like about projects and offer suggestions in a kind, not critical, way. Scratchers are encouraged to keep comments respectful, avoid spamming or posting chain mail, try new things, and learn from others. -Embrace remix culture. Remixing is building upon someone else’s product to make a unique creation. Remixing is a great way to connect with the Scratch community, and Scratchers can use anything they find on Scratch in their projects as long as credit is provided to the people whom it belongs to and a meaningful change was made to it. -Be honest. It’s important, to tell the truth when interacting with others on Scratch, and remember that there is a person behind every Scratch account. Spreading rumors, impersonating other Scratchers or celebrities, or pretending to be seriously ill is disrespectful to the Scratch community. 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 receive consequences from the Scratch Team. Flame Wars Main article: Flame War 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.[1] Religion and Politics Religion and politics are allowed to be put into projects so long as they are not disrespectful.[2] “ 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.[3] ” – 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).[4] ” – Lightnin, Scratch Team at MIT Always Give Credit When using or getting inspired by another user's creation, you should always give credit. If you are remixing, there will automatically be a message underneath the project saying that it is remixed. However, it is typically assumed that you will give credit in the Notes and Credits as well. Advertising Browser Extensions and Userscripts “ We want to announce today that we’re shifting our policy related to browser extensions, userscripts, and other similar external software. We’ve decided that, for safety reasons, we are no longer going to allow these to be advertised on Scratch. ” – ceebee, Scratch Team, Nov 30, 2017[5]
scratch is the world's most popular coding community for kids. Millions of kids around the world are using Scratch to program their own interactive stories, games, and animations—and share their creations in an active online community. In the process, they are learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively, while also learning important mathematical and computational ideas. In the past year, more than 20 million people created projects with Scratch. (For information on who has contributed to Scratch, see the Scratch Credits page.)
