Welcoming Committee

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The Welcoming Committee logo.

The Scratch Welcoming Committee (commonly abbreviated SWC) is a program that was created to help welcome New Scratchers to the website and help them out with any questions they might have. Scratchers can become members of the committee by creating a welcoming project and submitting it for review to the Welcoming Committee project submissions studio.

History

The Welcoming Committee was created in August 2012. The intention was to show New Scratchers a "connect" link on their My Stuff page. This led to a random "Welcome to Scratch" project.^{[citation needed]}

How it Works

When a Scratcher creates a project welcoming New Scratchers, they can add it to the submissions studio. A Welcoming Committee curator or reviewer will view the project and give suggestions for changes until it is ready for the main studio. This is sometimes known as the "review process." Once the project is accepted, the creator is a member of the Scratch Welcoming Committee, and their project is added to the Main Studio, or if the user reviewing their project is a reviewer, their project would be added to the completed projects studio to later be added to the main studio by a curator. Members are not invited to curate. New Scratchers cannot submit projects. When the Welcoming Committee curators or reviewers review projects, they check to see if the user is a Scratcher or not. If the user submitting their project isn't a Scratcher, they will be told that they can't submit it now and that they can always re-submit their project once they get the Scratcher rank.

Members of the Welcoming Committee are expected to help, greet, and answer questions that new members might have in their welcoming projects' comments, they can also help, welcome, and answer new users' questions in the Welcoming Committee studio's comments. Users don't have to be members of the studio to help out in the comments, though. Anybody can answer comments in the studio voluntarily.

The three links on the front page

When a user registers, they will see three links the Front Page in their "What's Happening" section. The first link goes to the project editor with some tips on the side on getting started in the program. The second link goes to the starter projects made by the Scratch Team. The last link, "Connect with Other Scratchers", links to the Welcoming Committee studio. This is shown until the user clicks the "X" button in the corner.

When the studio was first introduced in Scratch 1.4, the links were displayed on a user's My Stuff page, and were only present for users with odd ID numbers.

The Project Reviewing Team

The Project Reviewing Team is a group of trusted members of the Scratch Community who assist the Welcoming Committee curators by reviewing projects submitted to the Project Submissions Studio. They help the project creators fulfill the guidelines, and ensure that the project is ready to be added to the Welcoming Committee studio. Once the projects are ready, they are added to the Completed Projects studio. A curator will then check the project over, before adding it to the Main Studio.^{[citation needed]}

How to Join

Main article: How to Join the Welcoming Committee

To join, a Scratcher must make a project to welcome new Scratchers. Then they must submit their project by adding their project to the Welcoming Committee project submission studio.

Curation

Main article: Welcoming Committee Curator

Welcoming Committee curators are invited infrequently when the current curators feel it is necessary. Curators preform tasks such as inviting new reviewers, conducting activity checks, improving the review system, moving projects from the completed projeets studio to the main studio, and more in addition to also reviewing.

Current Curators

• gobo (Controlled by the Scratch Team)
• scmb1 (Former Scratch Team Member)
• P110
• cheddargirl (Scratch Team Member)
• ricarose (Former Scratch Team Member)
• ItchyCatIII
• ceebee (Scratch Team Member)
• makethebrainhappy
• Sandstorm5
• jakel181
• RonTheNerd
• Ninja-Super-Girl
• oriquack
• Illusion705
• leahcimto
• nightmxre-
• -ScratchDesign-
• jask82006
• ocuious

Past Curators

• Xx_DeathPetal_xX
• dolphingirl36
• EH7meow
• Hamish752
• alpacabun
• Really_A
• Denciethepenguin
• -Cherri-
• CrazyNimbus
• abstract-
• purplewolves
• asqwde
• LiFaytheGoblin (then-Scratch Team Member)
• NilsTheBest
• chacharosie8888

Welcoming Committee Forum

The Welcoming Committee has a private forum that only SWC Curators and Scratch Team members can access. It has a Forum ID of 50. This forum is pictured below.

The Welcoming Committee Curators use this forum for many necessary tasks that include:

“	...to improve the review system and to coordinate reviews, as well as to easily exchange resources for curators.	”
– LiFaytheGoblin, then-Scratch Team member

Other tasks include inviting new curators, asking questions, coordinating translations, and changing various systems that curators have for reviewing projects and communicating with reviewers.^{[citation needed]}

Welcoming Committee reviewers do not have access to this forum.

Related Studios

The Welcoming Committee has multiple studios that help to provide information and to assist in the submission and reviewing of projects that will be added into the main Scratch Welcoming Committee studio.

Project Submissions Studio

The Project Submissions studio thumbnail.

On 13th November 2017, a new studio was created called Project Submissions - Welcoming Committee. This announcement was also posted in the announcement forum. This studio was designed to make the review process more organized. All welcoming committee curators and reviewers would manage this studio. This is so they could remove projects they did not add.^{[citation needed]}

Completed Projects Studio

The Completed Projects studio thumbnail.

This studio was set up to allow members of the Project Reviewing Team to add projects that they have successfully reviewed into one consolidated location, thereby reducing the possibility of projects getting lost in the comments on curators' profiles. Projects are removed from this studio by curators once they have been added to the main Welcoming Committee studio.

Welcoming Committee Help

The Welcoming Committee Help studio thumbnail.

This is a studio for SWC curators, reviewers, and helpers to communicate. It also contains some helpful, informational projects about the Scratch Welcoming Committee.

SWC Translations

The Welcoming Committee translations studio thumbnail.

This studio contains translations for the Scratch Welcoming Committee. Anyone can translate as long as they know the language and don't use a translation software. The translation studio is curated by all curators, reviewers, and users who have submitted translations.

Reviewing Welcoming Committee Studio

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

The Reviewing Studio studio thumbnail.

This studio was set up to allow Welcoming Committee curators and reviewers to see which projects are currently in the previously used review process. When a project is put in the submissions studio, if the user has the Scratcher status, the curator should remove it from the submissions studio and add it to the reviewing studio. This would allow more organization and the review process to go more quickly and smoothly.^{[citation needed]}

Each individual curator and reviewer typically had their own reviewing studio as well. This helped keep the reviewing process organized and allowed them to see which projects they were currently reviewing.^{[citation needed]}

The Reviewing Studio is no longer used as part of the reviewing process, as of August 5^th, 2022.

Info Welcoming Committee Studio

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

The Info Welcoming Committee studio thumbnail.

This studio allowed all Scratchers to find out more about the welcoming committee. It contained several projects that give information on the welcoming committee.^{[citation needed]} The projects included:

• Welcoming Committee members guide
• How to join the welcoming committee
• How to help in the submissions studio
• Welcoming Committee FAQ
• How we choose Welcoming Committee Curators

This studio no longer exists and was transformed into the Reviewer Help studio as of August 5^th, 2022.

See Also

• How to Curate the Welcoming Committee
• How to Join the Welcoming Committee
• New Scratcher Status
• Scratch Helper Groups
• Welcoming Committee Curator