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- Raiden1254
-
Scratcher
1 post
Issues with Scratch #1 (SENSITIVE CONTENT)
WARNING: SENSITIVE CONTENT AHEAD
Many of the content below contain personal experiences and biases, BUT do not take this as false information. This is happening.
Hello, and today, I would like to discuss about the many issues of Scratch, and will be covering mass reporting, AI usage, toxicity, grooming threats, personal vendettas, and such.
1. Mass Reporting
I initially joined Scratch around 2017, and one of the most annoying challenges that had my Scratch account banned were mass reporting. I originally made many animations, and when needed, gave citations and such. Many of my scratch peers decided to mass report me through remixing my project without the remix credits showing, then reporting me for copying their projects. I had then switched to more basic animations (walking a dog, how to make a cake, etc.), but even then, they accused me of inputting inappropriate content and not crediting the ‘original creator’, causing my ban to occur after two months on Scratch. Now, there are even more mass reporters that have targeted big names in the creator community, such as Griffpatch and IncognitoOrange. It's hard to not see countless people on the Explore page projects being reported and criticized for such things.
2. AI Usage
If everybody has read through the updated Terms of Service, you might have read Section 2, Option B where 'us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license (with the right to grant and authorize sublicenses) to publicly display, publicly perform,…, and to otherwise improve our products and services and create new products and services, including through the training of AI models. ' This is seen as a threat in the animation / music community, and many other groups as well. Imagine if you were working on a brand-new project, and all that data would be given to AI models to make duplicates of said project. This update shows that Scratch may add a AI bot that helps with projects, but even then, hundreds of thousands of our community members would be repeatedly using the process of Copy, Paste, Credit Themselves, Repeat. @IncognitoOrange and many others have proposed a alternate opt-out option, and I concur that the Scratch team should acknowledge this option.
3. Toxicity
For users who have watched BrickPlex ‘s project on the problems with Scratch, you may already predict what I will say. But what if I told you that was only Scratching the surface(pun intended)? Toxicity is a act of hatred and poison towards others, and I’ve known people who have said things they would never do IRL. Scratch is supposed to be a 8+ community, but some predators disregard this and manage to sneak in racial slurs, hate comments and mass report threats. I understand that F4F is fine(a common sign of friendship in a way), but repeatedly spamming F4F or advertising projects is NOT OKAY, especially when the receiver gets threatened repeatedly to F4F or something horrible( I can't say this in Scratch but it relates to grooming threats ) will happen to the receiver. To talk about politics in Scratch is acceptable to a certain extent, where you can't force other people to believe your opinions. Widespread copying of code and content without credit is often seen in Scratch. From time to time, the Scratch Team tries to mitigate this, but most users don't read the Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, and continue to do so.
4. Grooming Threats
From a perspective of a user who has gone through this type of abuse multiple times, I am shocked by how much Scratch has changed from a kid-friendly community to a absolute monstrosity of opinions and hatred, and grooming threats, although rare, are still actively present. There are comments out there that try to move conversations away from public platforms to private, untraceable chat apps that are non-associated with Scratch. The commenter also tests the boundaries, such as asking them to do something that their parents or guardians would not permit them to do. I had a harrowing experience of how a trusted, user that was locally popular in my school for their creativity became extremely vicious and tried to lure me into the dark side of the Internet(again, I can't say this.). At the end, they were reported, but this led to trauma and I had to completely abandon Scratch to see therapists daily. The fact that somebody is twisted enough to do this worries me about the children that use this platform to code and have fun, and how they too might be lured in as well.
Conclusion: Personal Vendettas
Shall I go through the examples of these? There are call-out projects with titles like 'Why is a bad person' or ' is a liar', with side by side screenshots claiming a user stole work. There is spamming and mass reporting. Everything that you see from 1-4 are part of these. Sadly, these are not the only issues out in Scratch, but that doesn't mean you should quit Scratch, I am simply asking that people can spread the message to advocate for other people.
Be a ACTIVIST.
End
Many of the content below contain personal experiences and biases, BUT do not take this as false information. This is happening.
Hello, and today, I would like to discuss about the many issues of Scratch, and will be covering mass reporting, AI usage, toxicity, grooming threats, personal vendettas, and such.
1. Mass Reporting
I initially joined Scratch around 2017, and one of the most annoying challenges that had my Scratch account banned were mass reporting. I originally made many animations, and when needed, gave citations and such. Many of my scratch peers decided to mass report me through remixing my project without the remix credits showing, then reporting me for copying their projects. I had then switched to more basic animations (walking a dog, how to make a cake, etc.), but even then, they accused me of inputting inappropriate content and not crediting the ‘original creator’, causing my ban to occur after two months on Scratch. Now, there are even more mass reporters that have targeted big names in the creator community, such as Griffpatch and IncognitoOrange. It's hard to not see countless people on the Explore page projects being reported and criticized for such things.
2. AI Usage
If everybody has read through the updated Terms of Service, you might have read Section 2, Option B where 'us a non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license (with the right to grant and authorize sublicenses) to publicly display, publicly perform,…, and to otherwise improve our products and services and create new products and services, including through the training of AI models. ' This is seen as a threat in the animation / music community, and many other groups as well. Imagine if you were working on a brand-new project, and all that data would be given to AI models to make duplicates of said project. This update shows that Scratch may add a AI bot that helps with projects, but even then, hundreds of thousands of our community members would be repeatedly using the process of Copy, Paste, Credit Themselves, Repeat. @IncognitoOrange and many others have proposed a alternate opt-out option, and I concur that the Scratch team should acknowledge this option.
3. Toxicity
For users who have watched BrickPlex ‘s project on the problems with Scratch, you may already predict what I will say. But what if I told you that was only Scratching the surface(pun intended)? Toxicity is a act of hatred and poison towards others, and I’ve known people who have said things they would never do IRL. Scratch is supposed to be a 8+ community, but some predators disregard this and manage to sneak in racial slurs, hate comments and mass report threats. I understand that F4F is fine(a common sign of friendship in a way), but repeatedly spamming F4F or advertising projects is NOT OKAY, especially when the receiver gets threatened repeatedly to F4F or something horrible( I can't say this in Scratch but it relates to grooming threats ) will happen to the receiver. To talk about politics in Scratch is acceptable to a certain extent, where you can't force other people to believe your opinions. Widespread copying of code and content without credit is often seen in Scratch. From time to time, the Scratch Team tries to mitigate this, but most users don't read the Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, and continue to do so.
4. Grooming Threats
From a perspective of a user who has gone through this type of abuse multiple times, I am shocked by how much Scratch has changed from a kid-friendly community to a absolute monstrosity of opinions and hatred, and grooming threats, although rare, are still actively present. There are comments out there that try to move conversations away from public platforms to private, untraceable chat apps that are non-associated with Scratch. The commenter also tests the boundaries, such as asking them to do something that their parents or guardians would not permit them to do. I had a harrowing experience of how a trusted, user that was locally popular in my school for their creativity became extremely vicious and tried to lure me into the dark side of the Internet(again, I can't say this.). At the end, they were reported, but this led to trauma and I had to completely abandon Scratch to see therapists daily. The fact that somebody is twisted enough to do this worries me about the children that use this platform to code and have fun, and how they too might be lured in as well.
Conclusion: Personal Vendettas
Shall I go through the examples of these? There are call-out projects with titles like 'Why is a bad person' or ' is a liar', with side by side screenshots claiming a user stole work. There is spamming and mass reporting. Everything that you see from 1-4 are part of these. Sadly, these are not the only issues out in Scratch, but that doesn't mean you should quit Scratch, I am simply asking that people can spread the message to advocate for other people.
Be a ACTIVIST.
End
- gdfsgdfsgdfg
-
Scratcher
1000+ posts
Issues with Scratch #1 (SENSITIVE CONTENT)
1. mass reporting isn’t really a problem, sometimes scratchers can lie, even if a project did get taken down for a mass report, if theres no inappropriate content, then it will be put back on
2. I half-agree with that statement, because ST confirmed that AI will not train on scratchers projects, but I still am against the use of AI for malicious intents
3 and 4: report and contact us exists
2. I half-agree with that statement, because ST confirmed that AI will not train on scratchers projects, but I still am against the use of AI for malicious intents
3 and 4: report and contact us exists
- Paddle2See
-
Scratch Team
1000+ posts
Issues with Scratch #1 (SENSITIVE CONTENT)
Please use the Report button on any projects or comments that go against the Community Guidelines. That sends a link right to the Scratch Team moderators so they can look at the issue directly and take any necessary action.
You can also use the Contact Us link (at the bottom of every page) for more complicated situations.
You have mentioned some very serious concerns and I hope you will follow up privately with specifics so the Scratch Team can address them.
You can also use the Contact Us link (at the bottom of every page) for more complicated situations.
You have mentioned some very serious concerns and I hope you will follow up privately with specifics so the Scratch Team can address them.
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