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- This article is about the Scratch website blocking policies. For other uses, see Blocks (disambiguation).
A ban, also known as a block, is when the Scratch Team decides to disallow a user or IP address from accessing the Scratch Website and the Scratch editor. Bans are issued when users behave inappropriately, perform disrespectful actions towards others, start and engage in Flame Wars, troll and/or cyberbully others on the website, post links to commercial websites, or continuously do anything else that is generally considered as being against the Community Guidelines.
Bans on the Main Scratch Website
On the website, when a user is banned, the ban applies to the entire site. This means that the banned user is forbidden from accessing any part of the site when logged in, including the forums (besides the Community Guidelines, the Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy and the Statistics page). In some cases (such as users creating multiple accounts to get around bans), the Scratch Team may decide to ban them based on their IP address. This means that an entire network is forbidden from accessing the website (as well as the forums) and cannot be used to create accounts. Users normally receive alerts before getting banned, but they may not receive any alerts prior to being banned in the case of severe violation of the Community Guidelines.
Account Creation Blocks
Sometimes, an IP address may be blocked from creating new accounts. In this instance, they will see a message when they click the Join Scratch button on the navigation bar. The message says:
| “ | It looks like one or more accounts on your network have been used to create disrespectful or inappropriate stuff that breaks the Scratch Community Guidelines. Please let the person in charge of the computers know about this. Meanwhile, we cannot accept new account registrations from your network. | ” |
Account Creation Warnings
A Scratcher may get warned by the Scratch Team when they violate the community guidelines on multiple accounts. This normally occurs prior to an IP ban or account creation ban. The message that Scratchers may get when they get warned says:
| “ | It looks like one or more accounts on your network have been used to create disrespectful or inappropriate stuff that breaks the Scratch Community Guidelines. You can still register for a new account - but please let the person in charge of the computers know about this warning. If your network is used to break the community guidelines again, it may be blocked. | ” |
This is to remind the user to follow the guidelines when creating another account, cautioning about IP bans.
Bans in Scratch 1.x
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This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective. |
Before Scratch 2.0, bans on the main Scratch website and the Scratch Forums were handled separately instead of the whole site, so users were often only banned from the part of the website that they had broken the rules on.
Scratch Website
Bans on the Scratch Website usually occurred when one shared inappropriate projects, harassed others, cheated to get onto the Front Page, or was predominantly disrespectful. A ban in Scratch 1.x was far more likely in the case of repeated offenses. Bans could only be made on the main website by the Scratch Team. User bans on the main website also applied on the forums. However, IP bans did not always apply on the forums.
Scratch Forums
Most bans here occurred when a user either often sparked flame wars or posted links to commercial websites. Bans here were rarer than on the main Scratch website, as far fewer users used the forums than the main website. Both the Scratch Team and Community Moderators could ban users on the forums.
Bans on the Scratch Wiki
- Main page: Scratch Wiki:Blocking
Bans on the Scratch Website do not apply on the Wiki. However, if a user is banned on the Scratch Website and continues their behavior on the Wiki, then they will also be banned on the Wiki.
Because all users on the Wiki must request accounts and there are fairly high standards to receive one,[1] rude behavior and vandalism are relatively rare; this means that bans are also relatively rare. However, some bans have occurred because of vandalism, spam, or breaking rules. Only users in the bureaucrat group can ban users on the Wiki, but Administrators and Experienced Wikians that are not Bureaucrats can request someone to be banned. In addition, bans have occurred for other reasons that have nothing to do with offensive behavior, including switching accounts, among other reasons. The Wiki software that is being used does not have the ability to delete users, so they are banned instead. The software refers to it as a "block." This only blocks the user from editing or performing any wiki option like moving pages, as if they were not logged in, whereas bans on the main site prevent the user from viewing pages.
Becoming Unbanned
In most cases, bans are temporary and the account is automatically unbanned after a set number of days,[2] usually three, but if the ban is permanent (known as a "permaban", or "permban"), that user has to contact the appropriate administration (the Scratch Team on the main website or a Bureaucrat on the Wiki) in order to become unbanned.
Scratch Website
On the Scratch Website, when a user is permanently banned, they must contact the Scratch Team to explain what they did and promise that they will behave properly in the future. Upon receiving the message, the Scratch Team may decide either to set the ban to expire (thus unbanning the user) or take no action. If the Scratch Team decides to take no action, then they will respond with a message saying why the user will not be unbanned.[3] In some cases, they will state that the banned user is not welcome back on Scratch and in that case is not allowed to submit any further appeals.[4]
In some cases, usually in a ban after another ban, the Scratch Team will suggest the user to take a break from Scratch and respond after a specified date. If the user is a minor and has been banned multiple times in the past, the Scratch Team will request the user's parent, guardian, or teacher to submit an appeal instead.[3] The Scratch Team also will not respond to disrespectful or dishonest appeals.[5][6] Creating forum topics, projects, studios, etc. asking to be unbanned is also not allowed and will not result in an appeal being processed faster.[7]
Additionally, some bans cannot be appealed. In that case, the ban page will not show a contact form. The most common case for this is if a user is banned for using alternate accounts to get around a ban, in which case they must submit any appeals from their main account.[8] If the user wasn't using any alternate accounts but does not have an appeal option, Contact Us could be used to submit an appeal.
Since 2020, the appeals process has taken a long time (up to multiple months in some cases) due to a large influx of users who were mainly using Scratch mainly as a way to talk to friends rather than as a creative programming site and lack of staff to handle the increased ban and appeal volume.[5] However, in some cases users will submit disrespectful or dishonest appeals and not receive a response, and will confuse that with the process taking a long time.[6]
Scratch Wiki
On the Scratch Wiki, because bans are extremely rare, there is not a standard procedure. In the cases of non-vandalism bans, there is usually no reason to unban the user. However, in the cases of vandalism or otherwise violating Wiki Guidelines, then the banned user must contact the Bureaucrat that banned them and ask to be unbanned.
Range
Bans are either user-restricted or IP ranged: usually only a user is banned, but if they create more accounts and evade their ban, they can be IP banned.
Account Bans
Account bans are simply bans that prevent a certain account from access. Account bans are more common than IP bans and are generally used if there is nothing to suggest the user will create other accounts to continue causing havoc.
IP Bans
IP bans are normally used when a user creates alternate accounts in order to evade an account ban. The IP ban disallows access on the network that has the banned IP, thus preventing the Scratcher from using another account to continue their rule-breaking activity. If an innocent user shares a network with someone who caused an IP ban, they may unexpectedly be restricted from using the Scratch website, although their Scratch account would not necessarily be blocked in this case.[9][3]
 Note: | IP banned users can see certain pages using the new interface (i.e. Projects, search bars, etc.), but most pages using the older interface (i.e. Profile pages, discussion forums, etc.) will be blocked from view. |
Controversy
Some users complain about the Scratch Team unfairly banning people.[10][11] Although there are occasionally misunderstandings, as the Scratch Team can make mistakes, this is usually not the case. Sometimes, if a popular Scratcher is banned, Scratchers may create studios and projects asking for the Scratch Team to unban them, however these are usually deleted by the Scratch Team because this can be considered gossiping, since the Scratchers do not know the full story and may not be aware of the Community Guidelines violations that led to the ban.[12]
Reasons for Being Banned
A user might be banned if they:
- Do not follow the Community Guidelines
- Receive multiple alerts for the same action
- Reshare projects unshared by the Scratch Team without removing inappropriate content
- Make a project containing an excessive amount of inappropriate content, known as a "shock project"[3]
- Are signed in to an alternate account of an already banned one, referred to as ban evasion (if the ban for the account first banned is temporary, this could either extend the user's ban or warrant a permanent ban for the accounts used to evade the bans)
- Inappropriately use the Discussion Forums or the comments section (e.g. bypassing censors, posting obscene, NSFW, racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, and/or xenophobic comments or jokes, etc.).[3]
Reasons for Accounts Being Deleted
A user's accounts might be deleted (sometimes with an IP ban) if:
- The user acts like they have disregarded the Scratch Team's alerts by continually misbehaving
- The case was a one-time severe offense
- The deletion was requested after a long-term ban
Muting
- Main article: Mute
A user may be blocked from posting comments and forum posts if their comments are detected to be breaking the Community Guidelines. Unlike bans, mutes are temporary and automatic, only blocking users from posting comments and forum posts rather than access to the entire site.
Images
The Scratch Website ban message
Scratch's IP Ban message
The forum ban message on Scratch 1.x
The Wiki ban message
The Account Creation window notifying that an account or more has been banned but accounts can be still created, cautioning about IP bans
Placeholder appeal page, which used to be located here
The Scratch Website message after an appeal request
What users see if they receive an account creation block
The Scratch Team message notification a user gets when they are banned because of an alt account of theirs.
See Also
External Links
- Questions about Scratch forum
References
- ↑ Scratch Wiki:Become a contributor
- ↑ https://u.cubeupload.com/PrincessPandaPhotos/Blockedforthethirdti.png
- ↑ a b c d e post:6447165
- ↑ post:7026317
- ↑ a b post:7001451
- ↑ a b post:7005479
- ↑ post:7009751
- ↑ https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000156898-what-happens-when-an-account-is-blocked-
- ↑ topic:155818
- ↑ topic:45007
- ↑ topic:217783
- ↑ post:1631442
