Archive.png This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective.

Community Moderators were users who actively looked around the Scratch Website, helping out new users and moderating different areas, including the main site and the Scratch Forums. They had a moderator status in the Scratch Forums and a sufficient amount of power outside the forums to handle disrespectful comments, report inappropriate projects, and so on.

The final election occurred in April 2012, and three new moderators were chosen.

A post by LiFaytheGoblin in the forums, where their status is still visible.

On October 7, 2013, the end of the Community Moderator program was announced.[1] Two new programs were created, Scratch Mentors and Scratch Helpers, to focus more on the helping aspects of Scratch, and less on policing. The Scratch Team continues to moderate the website and forums. JSO, MyRedNeptune, coolstuff, Lucario621, scimonster, and nXIII retired as Community Moderators. Harakou continued moderating as a Scratch Team member. Despite the announcement of the program ending, sparks, LiFaytheGoblin, and thisandagain are still Community Moderators.[2][3][4]

Since the discontinuation of Community Moderators, only Scratch Team members moderate the site.

History

The First Election

The status that appeared alongside a community moderator's forum post.

An announcement was made declaring that a moderator election was soon to be held. It was to decide the first four Community Moderators. If users met the evaluation requirements (having been active on the site for at least six months, for example), they were allowed to run — those who ran were sorted through by the Scratch Team, until a list of eight was announced. Those eight were those to be voted on in the election. Some days passed, and the top four were announced: coolstuff, Wolfie1996, illusionist, and Dazachi. They were appointed as Community Moderators just days later, to much approval.

Past Forum Moderators

Forum moderators, users chosen specifically by the Scratch Team without need for an election, have had their status renamed — they go under the title of "Community Moderator" as well, even though their posts are not held for reelection.

Age Limit

As of September 29, 2010, a new rule was added to the list of qualifications that all Community Moderators must pass — it was that users who wished to run in the elections must be of fourteen years of age or older (later changed to thirteen years or older), by the end of the month in which the election was to be held.

There was a large uproar, due to the many users younger than fourteen that believed themselves mature enough for the job. The Scratch Team and Community Moderators stood firm, however, repeatedly stating that the rule will not be changed and that it is there to prevent younger users from taking on a responsibility that may be too large for them.

“ If anyone doesn't mind me adding my two cents on the age issue: ever wonder why most websites put an age restriction at around 14 years? There are a lot of security measures in place with which to protect minors (such as COPPA in the U.S., for example). The internet can be a good place, but it can be a bad place as well - these security acts are in place to protect minors from gaining access to what most people consider inappropriate for those under around 14 years of age.

Granted that there are those younger than 14 who act more mature (and those older than 14 who act immature, but that is besides the point), but with some of the content that moderators have to deal with at time at times (such as pornography, for example), it becomes a rather risky thing to have someone underage being exposed to this, aside from the other pressures of being a moderator.

”

– cheddargirl, Scratch Team[5]

Summer 2011 Elections

The third Community Moderator elections were in the summer (northern hemisphere) of 2011.

Nominations started on July 15.[6]

The official list of candidates was released on Tuesday, July 19.[7] They were:

  • Harakou
  • sparks
  • jji7skyline
  • gettysburg11

Elections were held on the 21st, and the results were announced the day after.

Spring 2012 Elections

The fourth and final election happened in spring (northern hemisphere) 2012.

Nominations began on April 5.[8]

The final candidates were announced on April 9. The candidates were:

  • gettysburg11
  • LS97
  • Lucario621
  • scimonster
  • silvershine
  • sparks

Ending the Community Moderator Program

On October 7, 2013, the end of the Community Moderator program was announced.[1] According to the Scratch Team, the name "moderator" placed too much emphasis on policing, and not enough on helping inspire the community, which is really what moderators should do. The plan was to create two new roles: Scratch Mentor and Scratch Helper. Mentors were to be invited personally by the Scratch Team, while Helpers was an opt-in program for anyone wishing to do more.[9] Most of the current moderators retired, with only sparks and Harakou remaining for the last few months before the new programs were ready. Since the discontinuation, only Scratch Team members moderate the website and forums, and an equivalent to the old program is officially rejected.[10]

Current Scratch Team Community Moderators

Some Scratch Team members moderate the community. Their job is to give punishments or warnings to users who break the rules. Punishments may include warnings, mutes, bans, or account deletion. The following Scratch Team Members are Community Moderators:[11]

Former Community Moderators

Main article: Retired Community Moderator
The status that appeared alongside a retired community moderator's forum post.

Community moderators could choose to leave their position. Scratchers who were moderators in the past are:

  • Lanie
  • fullmoon[18]
  • Wolfie1996[18]
  • Jens
  • kevin_karplus
  • illusionist*
  • Dazachi*
  • demosthenes[19]

*Retired because they were under the age of consent for being a moderator.

JSO, MyRedNeptune, coolstuff, Lucario621, nXIII, and scimonster all retired at the end of the moderator program, so they never had the retired community moderator rank.

Former Scratch Team Community Moderators

Some of the Community Moderators who worked for the Scratch Team have retired for various reasons. The former Community Moderators who worked for the Scratch Team are:[20]

Duties[21]

Moderators browsed the Scratch Website, handling reports from users and reading through recent comments, forum posts, and the like. They edit forum posts and remove comments for:

  • Inappropriate content
  • Spam
  • Disrespectful actions
  • Rude language

They could also do the following to any forum thread:

  • Close it to new posts
  • Open it to new posts
  • Soft-delete it (move it to the Dustbin forum.)
  • Move it to another forum
  • Sticky it ("sticking" it to the top of its page)
  • Unsticky it
  • Move individual or multiple posts to another topic
  • Move individual or multiple posts to a new topic

Community moderators also ban users but only did so for obvious spammers.

Terms

Document.png This article or section needs additional citations for verification. Its information may not be accurate. Editors can help by adding references. (July 2017)

Community Moderators discussed their work with the Scratch Team approximately every four months.[citation needed] They decided if they wanted to continue with their job, take a break, or be sent off for re-election in the next four-month period.[citation needed] There was no limit to the number of times a community moderator could be elected.[citation needed]

Other Moderators

There were other forum users with moderator status and the same title, yet they did not have to run in any elections and such. They were originally titled "Forum Moderators", but had their status changed to "Community Moderators" like the other elected moderators. The permanent moderators of the Scratch Forums were:

  • JSO
  • MyRedNeptune
  • nXIII

nXIII helped work on the Scratch 2.0 beta forums and often moderated those forums rather than the 1.4 forums.

Others

Lutz

The user Lutz also had the Community Moderator status. He is part of the PicoBoard team, and his job was to keep track of the Sensor Boards Forum and help anybody's issues. However, he has not been active on the forums for several years.

KajTheModerator

Main article: April Fools' Day#2011

On April Fools' Day 2011, the Scratch Team played several tricks, including the creation of this account. "KajTheModerator" is supposed to have registered on April 1, 1999, and have over 9000 posts. Many topics have come up about this user.[22][23][24]

KajTheModerator retired on April 15, 2011, after only two weeks of activity.

KajTheModerator returned for April Fools 2012.

The account was deleted in 2017 by Scratch Team member Paddle2See, who operated the account.

Text Based Games Forum Moderators

Main article: Text-based Games Forum#TBG Moderators


These moderators were fully separated from the other moderators, and they did not have power over the main site and forums. Their status was shown as "TBG Moderator", as they were specifically for the Text-based Games Forum.

Moderator Forum

An unofficial mockup of the forums.

Both the Text Based Games Forums and the main forums had a moderator forum. This forum was only accessible by the Scratch Team and moderators of the forum in question.

It worked just like the public forums and was used to discuss things that may upset people, cause flaming if discussed in public, or simply only pertain to moderators.[citation needed] Topics in the moderators' forum were largely about how to deal with something moderating related, but also contained talk about upcoming features of Scratch 2.0 that were not ready for wide testing, and some general chat.[citation needed]

Identification

Moderators were identified by the Community Moderator rank on the Scratch Forums and a degree symbol (°) next to their names on the main site.[citation needed]

Dustbin

Main article: Dustbin (forum)

Despite common misconceptions,[citation needed] when a forum thread or post is deleted by a moderator, it is not deleted permanently. It is instead moved to the Dustbin. This allows any moderator to move the post or thread back to main Scratch forums, thereby undoing the "deletion". This also applies to old text-based-games that are 'deleted' to clean up the TBG forum. Trying to access a forum thread or post currently in the Dustbin will only load a blank page if the user is not a Scratch Team member.

The Dustbin can also be used to gather information on a user when moderators are discussing them.

The URL for it is https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/2/. Accessing it if the user is not a Scratch Team member will result in the browser's 403 Error.

Moderator Appreciation Day

September 16 every year is Moderator Appreciation Day.[25] It is a day where users can thank Community Moderators for all the work they have done. Some users make projects dedicated to the Community Moderators,[26] or add notes in their signatures.

See Also

References

  1. ↑ a b topic:17590
  2. ↑ post:3602338
  3. ↑ post:4365398
  4. ↑ post:3684010
  5. ↑ ar-post:557234
  6. ↑ ar-topic:68700
  7. ↑ ar-topic:69166
  8. ↑ ar-post:1196076
  9. ↑ post:157817
  10. ↑ topic:343602, section 7.4
  11. ↑ post:4316409
  12. ↑ post:3378864
  13. ↑ post:7324656
  14. ↑ post:6604970
  15. ↑ post:3378377
  16. ↑ post:4392083
  17. ↑ post:6543645
  18. ↑ a b ar-topic:80803
  19. ↑ ar-topic:93879
  20. ↑ post:4316409
  21. ↑ ar-post:1[dead link]
  22. ↑ ar-topic:59831
  23. ↑ ar-topic:59817
  24. ↑ ar-topic:59833
  25. ↑ ar-topic:46087
  26. ↑ projects:12176554
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