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This article or section needs additional citations for verification. Its information may not be accurate. Editors can help by adding references. (March 2024) |
kaj was a Scratcher who made claims about destroying Scratch in an attempt to get more views. Although kaj is no longer on the website, they are often blamed for so-called "hacking" into other users' accounts, though whether they actually did so was never confirmed. This user has arguably gone down as one of the most notable users among the Scratch community, and is considered to be "Scratch's Boogie-man".[1]
History
kaj was a regular user on the Scratch Website who joined on July 29, 2008[2] and was said to be from the United States.[3] Originally, kaj had no intention of causing harm. However, kaj developed a desire for more views on the projects they had created. After a while, kaj got extremely annoyed about not getting more views[4] and created a project that threatened to destroy Scratch. After repeatedly breaking the Community Guidelines, kaj was banned from the Scratch Website by the Scratch Team. When someone who claimed to be kaj contacted the Scratch Team (with decent evidence), they used male pronouns, instead of female ones, which were used in old comments.[5]
Misconceptions, Impersonations, and Conspiracies
- See also: List of Misconceptions about Scratch#Kaj
Some users put the word kaj in their username to scare other Scratchers. These users often leave comments threatening to hack other Scratchers and destroy Scratch. However, the real kaj never stole or hacked any accounts. The people who do this are just fearmongering and trying to get popular in a way where other Scratchers fear them.[citation needed] However, Scratch Team member cheddargirl had stated that any account that has both a username and profile picture referencing kaj[6], with the exception of names, or if it's not trying to fake kaj, will be deleted.[citation needed] Additionally, new accounts cannot have a username containing "kaj" — it will be rejected when attempting to create the account.
One such example includes a user who impersonated Kaj and went after the "In The Air" studio, a past SDS. The user was removed immediately.[citation needed]
KajTheModerator
- See also: April Fools' Day
On April Fools' Day 2011, KajTheModerator appeared on the Scratch Forums. KajTheModerator was an April Fools' prank and not the real kaj; this account was controlled by Scratch Team member Paddle2See. On April 15, 2011, KajTheModerator "retired".
| “ | KajTheModerator has reported that he wants to spend more time with his family and has retired from the Scratch moderation team. We'll all miss him dearly. | ” |
– fullmoon, Retired Community Moderator[7] | ||
KajTheModerator made a comeback on April Fools' Day 2012 but has not returned since.
KajTheModerator has more meaning to it than being a simple prank for the laughs and fun. Around the time when KajTheModerator arrived, many users would try to scare people and threaten to hack by creating accounts named with "kaj" somewhere. Paddle2See created KajTheModerator to "poke fun at the people using the 'kaj' mantle to troll other people".[1] Prior to the clarification, there was a dispute brought up over the justness of having KajTheModerator, but in reality, the user was just created to display a good side of kaj, one that helps, and to end the trolling of users by seeing that a form of "kaj" was in authority.[8]
Deletion
On October 28, 2017, Paddle2See deleted KajTheModerator as he did not wish to continue account activities in addition to it causing some controversy.[9]
Scratch 2.0 Alpha
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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. |
In Scratch 2.0 alpha, there was a bug that allowed users to view the profile pages of deleted users.[10] kaj's account became visible and was followed by several users before the bug was fixed.[11] The account's icon was the default icon.[12]
Scratch 2.0
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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. |
There was another bug that allowed users to follow kaj (and other deleted users) using HTTP requests via a browser's console. This was patched, although many users had already followed kaj. A list of people who used this exploit and the one below can be found here. Afterward, another exploit was found by a few advanced Scratchers which allowed users to comment on kaj's profile. The comments used to be found here[dead link], but the exploit was also patched by the Scratch Team. A glitch happened on September 28, 2015, when the followers' list became bugged and when a person was following kaj, kaj was able to be seen.[citation needed]
Forums
It was reported that in the Scratch Discussion forums, a post[13] had a message that it was last edited by kaj, without any BBCode used.[14] This was later revealed to be a joke made by a developer.[15] As a joke, some users have put the following BBCode in their Forum Signature to make it look like the post was last edited by kaj:
[i][color=#aaaaaa]Last edited by kaj (Yesterday 00:00:00)[/color][/i]
Appearances
kaj made an appearance in Part 4 of the Scratch Mentors' series, Scratch Mystery, as a helper of Tera.[16]
Controversies
In the Scratch Discussion Forums, a user brought up a suggestion to stop making fun of kaj.[17] The user stated that the practice was contrary to the Community Guidelines, and if kaj were to return to Scratch, they would be very upset over the projects made about them. The topic became controversial, with the support side even saying that the Scratch Team was going against their own rules.[17] However, Scratch Team member Paddle2See replied to the topic saying that kaj was amazed at the fame collected, and they were not upset about it.
| “ | You will be pleased to know that we were contacted by email a number of years back by a person that claimed to have created the kaj account. Their story checked out as far as we could see (they knew details of the account that lined up with what the account owner would know). They were amazed by all the “fame” their simple account had collected over the years. They didn't seem upset by it. | ” |
– Paddle2See[18] | ||
See Also
References
- ↑ a b post:341721
- ↑ "
{"joined":"2008-07-29T19:44:13.000Z"}" https://api.scratch.mit.edu/users/kaj - ↑ "
"country":"United States"" https://api.scratch.mit.edu/users/kaj/ - ↑ projects:1602339[dead link]
- ↑ Lightnin. (30/6/2011). "Well, I don't know if Kaj is a she anymore. Someone contacted us a while back to say they were Kaj, but they used the male pronoun." projects:1602339/#comments-7998658[dead link]
- ↑ post:5031514
- ↑ ar-post:729218
- ↑ topic:34557
- ↑ Paddle2See. (28/8/2017). "Eh, I was done with the account - and there seemed to be some controversy around it." users:Paddle2See/#comments-39028329[dead link]
- ↑ topic:811
- ↑ post:5597
- ↑
- ↑ post:1647109[dead link]
- ↑ topic:171581
- ↑ users:Paddle2See/#comments-18918726[dead link]
- ↑ projects:54010298
- ↑ a b topic:185924[dead link]
- ↑ post:1826818[dead link]
