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Why was my CS project hidden?

Updated

If a project or discussion post falls into one of the following disallowed criteria, a Guardian may hide it from the "hot" list and/or public view entirely. Learners who persistently break these rules may also get banned from community activity. Projects that spur discussions that distract from learning about computer programming and coding may also get hidden.

A project is considered inappropriate and will be hidden if it falls into one or more of the following categories:

Offensive

  • Containing discriminatory or offensive language.
  • Sexual or violent content, or any other content that could reasonably be deemed inappropriate for an educational setting.

Off-topic

  • Advertisements or non-helpful links to 3rd party sites.
  • Controversial or divisive topics including religion, politics, or personal issues/revealing details that compromise learner privacy.
  • Social groups or clubs, or projects that generate social chats, and other posts not related to coding, in the discussion thread.
  • Asking others to “vote up” a project.
  • Garnering or receiving votes from a voting ring (groups of people who conspire to vote up each others’ projects). People who participate in voting rings will be banned from community activity.

Plagiarism

You can create spin-offs of projects by clicking the "Spin-off" button under each project. Creating a spin-off gives credit to the original creator and connects the new project to the original. Any learner can create a spin-off of any project.

It’s considered plagiarism if:

  • A user pastes someone else's work into a new project, instead of creating a spin-off.
  • A user pastes work from multiple projects without giving credit/links to those projects in comments at the top of the project.

Appealing a Hidden Project

If your project has been hidden, you can edit it so that it no longer violates the CS project guidelines. Once you’ve edited your project, you can fill out an appeal form to request it be unhidden. After you've submitted the form, a Guardian will review your CS project and respond to you with a decision. 

Note: Projects that have been hidden because of a discussion ban will have to remain hidden, as this is one of the consequences of the discussion-ban.