don't blame the scratch team. first of all, i'm going to address and inform the context behind this project, and the absolutely toxic attitudes towards the scratch team and their decisions. - - - you may have seen the hashtag #banST going around. i understand the situation, as zena, a scratcher u may know was banned from scratch. (@xyniia , @zenasaur + more) it's absolutely ok to stand up for your friends, to feel emotions /and/ to show them. however, I think most scratchers weren't considering the rational option, one i am about to explain. - - - all bans happen for a reason. i personally saw comments made explaining that zena was sharing links to unmoderated chat (gather, i believe) and as everyone agrees to by signing up for scratch, that is strictly against scratch rules. its written in 'community guidelines'. ( please correct me if i'm wrong, i don't know the full story of what happened. ) so, imagine if zena hadn't gotten banned. let's look at it from the scratch team's perspective. - - - you create a coding website for children to have a creative outlet, make friends, and be themselves. anonymously. then one day you see someone has posted a comment that includes a link to a website where anyone can click on, where the scratch filters, comment restrictions, and report features aren't active. you block the scratcher to prevent any personal information being shared. done. - - - that seems rational, doesnt it? mhm. now, imagine that after this decision, you see projects with 'ban st' and 'why, st?' and sometimes words like 'how could you do this, st? you make this site worse.' hmm. - - - remember in about early 2020, #savescratch was trending? yeah. i think lots of scratchers don't realize that the scratch team isn't at fault- it's the community itself. users make their own decision to post a hate comment. to raid a studio. to report a project. to create an impersonation account. to make a harmful project. to spread lies. it's the users and nothing more. if you want to be rational, you can't say it's the scratch team's fault. they. do. not. control. scratcher's. actions, and you cannot expect them to. what you can expect is them managing what happens after something wrong happens. i know for me if i see a harmful project, i'll report it a few times and come back the next day and it's gone. it's not difficult. - - - id just like to remind the scratch community that the scratch team does everything. they created this site. created. designed, coded, and allowed you to even post a comment in the first place. they're the reason you're here, the reason im here. i don't know about you, but i am so grateful. ...if you're not, are you sure scratch is right for you ? - - - ive also seen scratchers complaining about getting muted, getting banned, and then complaining that they got banned 'again'. - - - this is a section about the filterbot lol so, i have personally experienced the confusion of the filterbot, but please understand that you just might not see what you got muted for. for example, once i was muted multiple times for something that i only realized later- the beginning and endings of two adjacent words formed a non-appropriate word, and that's why i was muted. it's perfectly rational, and i for one am very glad scratch isn't a place where you can just swear freely. there are actual, living, 6 year olds viewing this website. - - - if you evaded a ban, that's not allowed. you were banned for a reason, like i said above. it simply makes no sense for you to evade a ban, and then come back and complain about being banned. - - - summary - - - don't blame the scratch team. they don't do anything wrong, it's the users of scratch. the scratch team comes to work and they try their best every day, and somehow manage the site where millions of users come and talk every day. the st created scratch, and nothing can change that. thank you. credits - thumbnail by @hot-takes