{"id":11598,"date":"2015-09-11T16:41:26","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T16:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/is-okay\/"},"modified":"2015-09-11T16:41:26","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T16:41:26","slug":"is-okay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/is-okay\/","title":{"rendered":"&#x1f4a9; is okay."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/gethopscotch.tumblr.com\/post\/120473188706\">gethopscotch<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>One of the beautiful and challenging responsibilities bestowed on anyone attempting to build a healthy community\u200a\u2014\u200aregardless of the age of its members\u200a\u2014\u200ais establishing norms that prescribe their interactions and behaviors.<\/p>\n<p>At <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gethopscotch.com\/\">Hopscotch<\/a>, a creative community where kids build and share their own games, we have been knee-deep in this undertaking for several months. A recent email from a concerned teacher prompted us to think about where we\u2019ve landed:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/243d80a53b2fe7a4d97951157e4d3bd3\/tumblr_inline_npacaqS2uS1qjeypg_540.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>Yikes! Delete Hopscotch? This suggestion was sufficient to make us wonder whether we should allow \u201cbathroom content\u201d in Hopscotch and, ultimately, taught us a lot more about our company and values:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We design for our users (kids!) above anyone else<\/li>\n<li>We establish our own norms, rather than assume we\u2019re obliged to someone else\u2019s<\/li>\n<li>We appreciate silliness, and don\u2019t take ourselves too seriously<\/li>\n<li>Last but not least, &#x1f4a9; is okay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How did we get here, to a place where we welcome poop? It started with a preponderance of poop projects in Hopscotch:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/52220ea6f52309839966c19ff114df0a\/tumblr_inline_npacqsCUtd1qjeypg_540.jpg\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>For the most part, we\u2019d been allowing these projects to flourish. But, in light of this teacher\u2019s email, did we need an Official Position on poop?<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s the problem here?<\/h2>\n<p>We first wanted to understand where kids are coming from.<\/p>\n<p>Kids enjoy making projects with poop because <a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/p\/2RxP5xrD5W\/?taken-by=shandi0530\">poop\u2019s funny<\/a>. This humor doesn\u2019t come at anyone\u2019s expense\u200a\u2014\u200ait\u2019s free of malicious intent to bring someone else down. (see: most adult jokes.) And it\u2019s a natural and very basic fact from the first week of anyone\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p>Whether this is appropriate for Hopscotch is more nuanced\u200a\u2014\u200a\u201cto whom is it (in)appropriate?\u201d is a better question.<\/p>\n<p>Many people use Hopscotch. Kids make Hopscotch projects. Adults make Hopscotch projects. Parents and teachers supervise children on Hopscotch. Each of these groups has different goals and assumptions, and each is accountable to a different audience. Unfortunately, we can\u2019t optimize for everyone.<\/p>\n<h2>What do grownups think about poop? It stinks (most of the time).<\/h2>\n<p>While poop projects leave most kids doubled over laughing, the adult response is far more mixed; responses vary from amused\u2026<\/p>\n<figure class=\"tmblr-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/66.media.tumblr.com\/2b2a01125c5a928f9283d0f43f42ae59\/tumblr_inline_npacs3zXhM1qjeypg_540.png\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/figure>\n<p>\u2026to indifferent (\u201cOf course..\u201d, \u201cNot for me, but\u2026\u201d), to outright disapproval (see email above). Even our team was divided\u200a\u2014\u200awe generally don\u2019t get the joke, but are happy kids are happy.<\/p>\n<p>In many (most?) circles in the developed world, what happens in a bathroom is private. Adults instill this mentality in children, shield them from bathroom-talk, and reprimand them when they engage in it.<\/p>\n<p>Other adults don\u2019t share this belief but are accountable to people who do. It\u2019s their responsibility to uphold values prescribed by authorities\u200a\u2014\u200aparents of their students, school administration\u200a\u2014\u200aand prevent children from being exposed to bathroom-related stuff.<\/p>\n<p>Our stance on poop will inevitably make some people happy and others unhappy. We would rather make a large group of people very happy than somewhat please everyone.<\/p>\n<h2>But, kids &gt; grownups.<\/h2>\n<p><b>The thing is, while poop\u2019s novelty may have worn off for us adults, ultimately, Hopscotch is built for kids. We prioritize their perspective above others and weigh it against what we think is best for them.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>After considering the viewpoints articulated above, we decided that we don\u2019t agree that bathroom stuff is unequivocally bad. Kids find it entertaining and, except in certain circumstances (read: poop on face), it doesn\u2019t harm anyone physically or emotionally. It\u2019s natural and often funny.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, we prize expression and restrict it only to prevent harm. So, if kids like poop and it\u2019s not hurting anyone, we like poop.<\/p>\n<h2>You Do You.<\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s our prerogative as the builders of a unique community to create and update our own standards for it. By allowing poop in Hopscotch, we\u2019re opening the door for new expression that has been restricted in other communities.<\/p>\n<p>And, rather than telling those who disagree with our beliefs that they\u2019re wrong or don\u2019t belong, we can use this opportunity to educate them on our values.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>By the end of this process, we\u2019d reached a new, formalized stance on poop: It\u2019s okay!<\/p>\n<p>We realized that our position on bathroom stuff actually resonated with our company much more broadly than we had imagined.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPoop is okay\u201d reminds us that Hopscotch is being designed by and for kids. It tells us to act based on what\u2019s best for this community, now, rather than based on pre-existing or pre-approved standards. It means that kids can use Hopscotch to build whatever they want. It means that we are building ourcompany according to our own specifications. Further, it means that it\u2019s ok and important to be silly\u200a\u2014\u200ato not take ourselves too seriously.<\/p>\n<p>As we talked through it, we realized that all of these things were deeply important values of our company; so much so that we enshrined this phrase as one of Hopscotch\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@hopscotch\/official-company-values-34f9befcd849\">Official Company Values<\/a>. And because we want to meet our users where they are, we codified it in kids\u2019 language &#x1f61c; &#x1f62d;.<\/p>\n<p>&#x1f4a9; is okay.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>woot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>gethopscotch: One of the beautiful and challenging responsibilities bestowed on anyone attempting to build a healthy community\u200a\u2014\u200aregardless of the age of its members\u200a\u2014\u200ais establishing norms that prescribe their interactions and behaviors. At Hopscotch, a creative community where kids build and share their own games, we have been knee-deep in this undertaking for several months. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-314","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}