Scratch

andresmh wrote:

We created this map to see which country projects come from:
http://stats.scratch.mit.edu/maps/projects/
I hope you enjoy seeing how our community is really international!

i think this is great! is it realtime?
could this be made for users as well?

Cool! It should be if you right click on a place it would show the most recent project from there. 

scimonster wrote:

What category does it go in?

?  What do you mean?

ssss wrote:

scimonster wrote:

What category does it go in?

?  What do you mean?

Which category of the Scratch Statistics site does it go under?

poopo wrote:

Why is it that every one in the US is in Kansas?

Kansas is around the center (geographically), so that's where it shows.

I didn't realize projects get shared so often before this was made.

Last edited by scimonster (2011-04-28 09:26:30)

hdarken wrote:

Awesome feature.

Also, a lot are from Kansas and South America.

scimonster wrote:

poopo wrote:

Why is it that every one in the US is in Kansas?

Kansas is around the center (geographically), so that's where it shows.

I didn't realize projects get shared so often before this was made.

Well, one of the things I noticed, was people can figure out where users' live through this. I'm assuming the server takes the IP of the computer and finds out where the IP is located and then the application uses that to determine where the project came from.

I think there should be an option to enable/disable this, and when users' register, there should be the option on there as well and the option default is disabled and if the user is under 13, then it disables it completely. That way it will follow the Privacy Policy.

Remember, there are still rules that need following. 

This is really cool 

I even saw my own project on there 

Last edited by kimmy123 (2011-04-28 11:47:13)

adriangl wrote:

andresmh wrote:

Hi Magnie.

You bring up a good point. We're only showing the country information because exactly that reason.

Our reasoning was that countries are big enough  that it doesn't really tell you much about where someone lives (I guess except if your country is the Vatican, but I don't know if there are any Scratchers there  ). 

Did you realize it was just country information displayed? Do you still feel it should be something people opt-in?

I feel it is safe enough. Even if it opts to a state, that doesn't tell where the user lives. Maybe it should be a flat map with no state border lines so that the state is not identifiable.

That last bit kind of defeats the purpose of the whole thing, does it not? This map is to show how Scratch is international, and moving about on a blank globe isn't going to help much.

That is incredible! I saw a project as it was being released!

andresmh wrote:

Hi Magnie.

You bring up a good point. We're only showing the country information because exactly that reason.

Our reasoning was that countries are big enough  that it doesn't really tell you much about where someone lives (I guess except if your country is the Vatican, but I don't know if there are any Scratchers there  ). 

Did you realize it was just country information displayed? Do you still feel it should be something people opt-in?

My main concern was the States, and I'm not entirely sure if it is just the country, when I opened it up, it showed someone in Hong-Kong ( not directly China ) and another one in a State ( Not directly United States ). I also think that it should be something that people can opt-in for, but I was also thinking, maybe an extra option "opt-in" would show the state, "Just Country" would show just the country, and "opt-out" keeps you out of it entirely ( and maybe add some more levels of Privacy ). But yes, I think people should at least have a decision whether to opt-in or opt-out.

If you do plan to add that option, maybe set everyone to "opt-out" then send everyone a message which links to where they can change it if they feel like it. Though I'm sure most will opt-in because they want the popularity, but some may want to be hidden. 

Wolfie1996 wrote:

andresmh wrote:

Did you realize it was just country information displayed? Do you still feel it should be something people opt-in?

Just a thought - would it be possible to set it up using the country displayed on the user page? That way, people who don't want their country to be known could set it to a different country, and it would show up as the selected country as opposed to the IP address-related country (for example, a Scratcher living in France could set their country on their user page to, let's say, Spain, and their project would show up as coming from Spain, instead of France). It wouldn't be as accurate as being IP related, but it would give people control over whether their country is revealed or not.

A very good suggestion which I hadn't thought of myself.
I believe this is the best solution to Magnie's issue!