Hey all,
A quick update: I've been busy removing inappropriate submissions, lately, which includes games that aren't educational (and have no clear educational application), those that don't meet the jam's specifications (most video games, for example), and a few that I've found which contained speech and content that directly persecuted marginalized groups (clearly against the guidelines of the jam).
That last was a very small sample, but let me be clear: this jam - and, for that matter, any educational tool or setting - is not a place in which to disparage, exclude, or attack anyone. Work expressing prejudice against a particular gender identity, religion, culture, language, country of origin, sexual preference, physical/mental/emotional ability/condition, or skin color will be removed from this jam. If there's a type of prejudice I haven't covered, consider this my statement that it, too, is unwelcome.
I've looked into how to report and ban submissions, and I can't, as moderator, unless a user flags their work (which then sends me a report which I can use to ban said user). In order to get a "report" on these submissions, I'd have to have them re-appear in the jam, which I will not do. My other option is to make submissions private until the jam is over, which would defeat the purpose of having a "living library" of narrative game resources. I've emailed Itch support to see about next steps.
In the future, I'll ask another user to report any submissions that violate the rules of the jam so I have the option, depending on the severity, of banning the user instead of simply removing or disqualifying the submission. Please do let me know if you find prejudiced content in any of these submissions and I'll investigate.
Learning, like many things, can't happen until a person knows they're safe. "Safety tools" are meant to help people at the table have a default understanding of how to respect one another; they have little meaning unless safety is considered by a creator as a central element of their game's design and content.
Let's keep this a safe space for all!
Cheers,
Michael