Living room rants ep.1
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DISCLAIMER:

If you are reading this than you will probably see this disclaimer. A lot of the things I will say here may make you triggered or even offended by. If this upsets you than that is on you bud. Most of this is my opinion but I will try to support this with facts.
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Introduction:
Welcome to the first episode of a series I call Living Room Rants. Today I will talk about a site I was on for a couple of years, scratch.mit.edu. Scratch.mit.edu is a kid-friendly site that utilizes many "blocks" as a programming tool. When you first start off it seems pretty simple but you can do some pretty advanced things when you really think hard. This might be long so grab a snack and get triggered. I will dive into the many problems I have with this site. Since the first day I joined it has drastically changed. I am sad to leave but I don't regret it. The "team" makes me sick. The reason why I put "team" in quotations is something that I will dive into later. Anyway here is the first problem I have with Scratch.
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Prob.1

When you first open the site you see a section called “Featured Projects.” This section is meant to be full of projects that are very relevant. Other people can see the project and it will get many views with likes and followers and such. The problem I have is not the feature itself, but the programming that is put into it. You see, the projects put into the “featured” section are put there automatically. As you know, a robot brain can sometimes be far inferior to a human brain. Now, a project will get featured mostly if it has a #BLM tag.
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Solution:

The automated system can still be used, but the scratch team need to look at what is on the featured tab and remove irrelevant projects, and also add what THEY think is relevant. While we are on the subject of the Scratch team…
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Prob. 2

The scratch team can be, in my opinion, very lazy. They moderate the site awfully. Some of the other problems will be based on this. The only thing they do is sit there and flex their position on the platform. They make BLM projects because it gets them clout. This makes me sick, because they are basically using black people to their advantage. The reason why I think that, is because before #BLM was at its spike in awareness, Scratch didn’t care much. If they really cared they would be making #BLM posts before its spike at about June in the year 2020. Now that I think about it that applies to many major platforms and corporations.

Solution:

There needs to be more moderation to the moderators, if you will. They also need to do their job without focusing on clout. I can’t think of anything else to say that will solve this problem.

Prob. 3

When there is project that is inappropriate or hateful there is a report feature. When the project gets one-hundred reports the WHOLE ACCOUNT gets banned. This results in many innocent people getting banned. People can mass-report the project to bully people and the account will wrongfully be taken down. The person may be able to make another account, but they usually IP-ban the person. Again, the lazy moderation is to blame here.

Solution:

Once the project gets one-hundred reports than the moderators need to look to see if it is ban-worthy, just the project needs to be taken down, or leave the project alone because there is nothing wrong.

Prob.4

There is a large political bias in the community. This results in just general hate. If you say something non-PC then you might get doxed and mass-reported. See Prob.3. Many can’t respect each other’s views which results in an argument, which THEN results in again, an unlawful IP-ban.

Solution:

A better “Terms of Service” would be very helpful. They could say something along these lines,

“Respect each other’s political views. Don’t hate on people that you disagree with. We want to keep the site friendly.”

Prob.5

Scratch is a rather big platform, and that’s the problem. You see, I used to be an animator on scratch. I worked for hours on each animation. My projects wouldn’t get that many views though. They would only get like 16 views. I know that this is only my personal problem, but I am not going to work for hours only get rewarded very little.

Solution:

Honestly, the only thing I can recommend is going to a smaller platform. I recommend trying out a platform called “Snap!” It has the same programming style as Scratch, but your projects are more likely to get noticed.

Props to you if you made it this far, because that lets me know you were interested. this has been the first episode of Living Room Rants!