Miscellaneous Forums

elfin8er

Scratcher

From: PA

Registered: 2015-01-20

Posts: 244

Guidelines for the New Miscellaneous forum

The New Miscellaneous forum is a place for members of the Scratch community to discuss things that don't quite fit in the other forums. It's up to everyone who posts in Miscellaneous to help keep things friendly and respectful.

As with all parts of the Scratch community, we ask that Scratchers follow the guidelines described in the Scratch Community Guidelines.
We would like to specifically emphasize that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harmful language, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, and religious discrimination. Offenders will be harshly warned or banned without warning.

In addition:

Don't create topics that have a strong likelihood of creating arguments (i.e. Trolling). This includes topics about religion, politics, conspiracy theories, etc. If we feel a topic or post is disrespectful or 'flamebait,' we will close or remove it.

Don't feed the trolls There’s an old saying that goes “It takes two to tango.” It means that for something like trolling to keep going, it needs people to feed the trolls - with angry responses or long threads discussing the issue. As long as the community’s focus is on whatever is inappropriate or controversial, then it is likely to continue.  So please do not post links or have discussions about sites that are inappropriate or disrespectful.  We will remove or close all threads and posts related to these discussions.

Keep discussions on topic. If a thread gets derailed, help get it back on track. 

Don't spam  Make sure that your posts are making a useful contribution to the discussion. Don't clutter things up with extra images, smilies, spaces or words like "inb4close" that don't contribute to the discussion.  If you do not find a thread interesting - don't post in it. New topics that you create should be focused on a single subject and invite an interesting discussion.

Don't misquote anyone.

Only link to sites that are appropriate for all ages - and that are monitored to make sure that they stay that way.  External forums and chat room sites often have little to no monitoring and should be avoided.

Don't post about stuff that's too intense for younger Scratchers, such as severe mental pain, suicidal thoughts, or self-harm. Do get help. Check out this post for links to resources and people who can help.

Scratch On!

April

Princess de jure

From: Oregon

Registered: 2015-01-20

Posts: 131

Website

Re: Guidelines for the New Miscellaneous forum

Note: As this forum is still evolving and growing, so are its guidelines. This thread will also serve to keep track of official stances on certain rules, as interpreted by the Scratch Team.

Since this is no longer connected with Scratch, I propose that we get rid of the "on-topic" requirement for posts. Misc. is about just hanging out and discussing things and if a certain discussion topic strays from the original post's topic, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. And likely, it won't really disrupt flow of conversation because typically, any particular topic will slowly veer "off-topic". But just because it's off-topic, doesn't mean that it's not worthwhile. It's just how like in real life people typically don't talk about the same thing for hours and hours: instead, they let the conversation ebb and flow and one topic will usually lead to another.

I think it's okay if threads go somewhat or fairly off-topic, but I think there should still be focus on the topic of a thread and also no threads created without a central topic. But discussion beyond a topic (esp. if somehow related, even if only tangentially).

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Sometimes the Cat