Scratch

I like the idea of arranging what you've uploaded, I personnaly think of something like a pin board would be prety cool and helpful.

1. Chat rooms aren't allowed because they would require 24/7 moderating, and that would take up peoples time which could be applied elsewhere.

2. Everything on scratch is released under a license which means you just can't lock the download. If you want to know more, click here.

3. Can't stop people from viewing what they want...

4. Even though it may work, all the fanboys/fangirls would rate things 5 stars.

5. This is has been suggested many times before, it would just lead to bullying and flamming. If you want a full reason, try using the search function.

6. Although it would be helpful, it could cause issues with slow computers and if someone accidently added an infinite loop creating clones, it'd probably crash the computer.

bump!

woofwoof301 wrote:

So,  I spent a good time reading your stickied thread telling us what not to post, and I found that some of things we weren't allowed to do would be interesting if we could.

So, my original suggestion was to be able to catagorize your own projects into Folders. I'm working on some mathematics related projects, and if I uploaded them, they would look COMPLETELY out of place with the shoot-em-ups I also have on my user.

Also, some of my previous projects were rather bad, and it would be great if Scratch users could have a storage based wall instead of a wall where projects just pile up. In common storages like Dropbox, you can create folders and drag your docs into them.

Perhaps it is too much, but could you folk at Scratch perhaps amp up the projects? A response would be nice, yes or no. 

Well, like with any major suggestions to change the website, such things take a lot of time to design and implement, if possible. Why not try designing a mockup of the system so the Scratch Team can see it? 

In the meantime, you could use galleries as a way to sort your projects. (it's what I do to sort my "Plushie Pal" animations from the rest of my project whenever someone wants to see them). Not exactly the most glamorous option at the moment, but it's still something. ^^

As to your thread on what not to post , I saw some things on there that I thought would be extremely useful.
...

3) Front page- I am utterly disgusted by some of the projects that get on there. I understand that I have no right to be a BK, and that was kind of rude, but I really feel as if the projects with more work put into them (i'm NOT saying mine) should be placed on the front page. The kind of projects that blow your mind when you download them and look at the scripts

I think you might be mistaken about what that suggestion is all about - a while back, there was a case where people were complaining [and overexaggerating!] about certain kinds of project (such as art projects) being uploaded to Scratch and hitting the front page. To put it simply, not liking what's on the front page wasn't a valid argument for saying it was illegal for them to be there on Scratch in the first place.

Much of the front page is still largely community controlled, and obviously not everyone will like what the majority of the community likes. However, there have been suggestions to help make the front page more diversified, such as rotating among the major 20 top loved/viewed/remixed or allowing accounts to have customized pages when they log in (like in YouTube). Long story short, options to make the front page more diversified is encouraged, topics that unfairly singles out certain front page projects is not.

4) 1-5 Stars- THIS WOULD BE A GREAT idea. I read your posts and saw the problems, and then thought of an answer. Every time somebody rated a project a 1 or 2, a comment box would pop up (This part is related to the messaging part) and you would send the person a message on how to be better.

Instead of crying about it, they would learn from their mistakes and then make their projects better. Scrath is one of the best communiteis I have seen, and I don't think anybody will try to flame new users.

This 5 star rating would also help determine who gets on front page, because, again, that one project with a mouse waving around would have gotten an average 2.5 stars despite getting 1000 views. Everybody would have been satisfied that it didn't get front page and half those inflammatory remakres never would have happened.

Sadly, people post inflammatory remarks all the time, regardless on whether or not there is a rating system is in place - adding a rating system does not guarantee that inflammatory remarks will stop. Not to mention such a system does not guarantee that a high quality project is promoted - the system could be abused to put down good projects while rating up inappropriate ones.

People can make comments on how to improve a project without the need of a rating system. Adding a rating system only has a tendency to make the whole site more... unnecessarily judgmental, so to speak. Since Scratch is designed to get people introduced to programming, it's best to give them an environment with less critical judging. Hence why the Scratch Team has been against this suggestion.

5) Private Messaging- This should be enabled so that you can message them in general and say:"Hey, nice job, you're doing great." It just seems out of place to go onto their boucney ball project and say, "I love what you're doing."

If somebody sends u something u don't like or doesn't help you, the ignore uses button or flag as innapropriate button is always there.

There are too many young members on the site, so such a system is very, very risky. There are users out there who many not have very good intentions and can abuse the messaging system for terrible things, from spamming, to trolling, to other things that are probably inappropriate to mention here.

Keeping things out in the open allows the entire community to keep an eye out on each other, a private message does not allow that, so, for security reasons, private messaging is definite "no".

6)Cloning-This would be extremely great. If this was an option, we would have a sense of control, and not make a project where it just clones it self a million times. Then, it would be laggy and nobody would see it. The problems you listed woudl only happen if you made it so.  So...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PEASE PLEASE LET US UPLOAD CLONING GAMES!

You know, I have no reason why this suggestion is on the list. 

If I had to take a guess, it could be that maybe Scratch is designed to be simple and that there hasn't been a practical way to incorporate it into the interface. Or maybe because it's something that can be abused in project. I wouldn't know for sure what the main reason is, but I doubt it's something that's completely off the table (as compared to private messaging, which is an absolute "no" because of security concerns).

Wow, long post. Hopefully I've properly conveyed what I wanted to explain, and that no one tl;dr's this post. 

1)Chatrooms-  no prob w/ wat u said

I agree, chatrooms are very hard to moderate 

2)Locked Downloads- no prob w/ wat u said

imagine program SHARE 


3) Any suggestions on what kind of Front Page system would be better?

4) I know the Scratch community is a very nice one... but there are some flamers trollers spammers out there, they just don't show up on the forums that much. And, as the ST have always said, a 1.5 star rating, although may empower some to improve their project, will discourage others. 



5) What about spambots? Maybe if there was a "are you human?" check or something... but still, it would be really hard to moderate 

6) I think a cloning with a limit was announced as one of the features that MAY be in Scratch 2.0? Just keep a smile on your dial until a proper beta arrives 

markyparky56 wrote:

fanofcena wrote:

@Marky & Cheddar
Vote UP! ... i think this feature is needed atleast lol

Uh... which feature?

THE VOTE UP BUTTON

cheddargirl wrote:

woofwoof301 wrote:

6)Cloning-This would be extremely great. If this was an option, we would have a sense of control, and not make a project where it just clones it self a million times. Then, it would be laggy and nobody would see it. The problems you listed woudl only happen if you made it so.  So...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PEASE PLEASE LET US UPLOAD CLONING GAMES!

You know, I have no reason why this suggestion is on the list. 

If I had to take a guess, it could be that maybe Scratch is designed to be simple and that there hasn't been a practical way to incorporate it into the interface. Or maybe because it's something that can be abused in project. I wouldn't know for sure what the main reason is, but I doubt it's something that's completely off the table (as compared to private messaging, which is an absolute "no" because of security concerns).

Wow, long post. Hopefully I've properly conveyed what I wanted to explain, and that no one tl;dr's this post. 

Wait, this is a no right?

Cloning has been incorporated into Scratch, its just that MIT won't allow projects made with clones to be uploaded. They are afraid fools will just infinitely clone a spirte causing the website to crash or such.

However, if the Scratch Team just puts a limit on the general Scratch app on how many sprites you can have, say, 300, then it won't crash. People make projects with 100-300 sprites all the time, and nothing ever happens. 

Thanks 4 taking the time, Cheddargirl.

cheddargirl wrote:

woofwoof301 wrote:

So,  I spent a good time reading your stickied thread telling us what not to post, and I found that some of things we weren't allowed to do would be interesting if we could.

So, my original suggestion was to be able to catagorize your own projects into Folders. I'm working on some mathematics related projects, and if I uploaded them, they would look COMPLETELY out of place with the shoot-em-ups I also have on my user.

Also, some of my previous projects were rather bad, and it would be great if Scratch users could have a storage based wall instead of a wall where projects just pile up. In common storages like Dropbox, you can create folders and drag your docs into them.

Perhaps it is too much, but could you folk at Scratch perhaps amp up the projects? A response would be nice, yes or no. 

Well, like with any major suggestions to change the website, such things take a lot of time to design and implement, if possible. Why not try designing a mockup of the system so the Scratch Team can see it? 

In the meantime, you could use galleries as a way to sort your projects. (it's what I do to sort my "Plushie Pal" animations from the rest of my project whenever someone wants to see them). Not exactly the most glamorous option at the moment, but it's still something. ^^

As to your thread on what not to post , I saw some things on there that I thought would be extremely useful.
...

3) Front page- I am utterly disgusted by some of the projects that get on there. I understand that I have no right to be a BK, and that was kind of rude, but I really feel as if the projects with more work put into them (i'm NOT saying mine) should be placed on the front page. The kind of projects that blow your mind when you download them and look at the scripts

I think you might be mistaken about what that suggestion is all about - a while back, there was a case where people were complaining [and overexaggerating!] about certain kinds of project (such as art projects) being uploaded to Scratch and hitting the front page. To put it simply, not liking what's on the front page wasn't a valid argument for saying it was illegal for them to be there on Scratch in the first place.

Much of the front page is still largely community controlled, and obviously not everyone will like what the majority of the community likes. However, there have been suggestions to help make the front page more diversified, such as rotating among the major 20 top loved/viewed/remixed or allowing accounts to have customized pages when they log in (like in YouTube). Long story short, options to make the front page more diversified is encouraged, topics that unfairly singles out certain front page projects is not.

4) 1-5 Stars- THIS WOULD BE A GREAT idea. I read your posts and saw the problems, and then thought of an answer. Every time somebody rated a project a 1 or 2, a comment box would pop up (This part is related to the messaging part) and you would send the person a message on how to be better.

Instead of crying about it, they would learn from their mistakes and then make their projects better. Scrath is one of the best communiteis I have seen, and I don't think anybody will try to flame new users.

This 5 star rating would also help determine who gets on front page, because, again, that one project with a mouse waving around would have gotten an average 2.5 stars despite getting 1000 views. Everybody would have been satisfied that it didn't get front page and half those inflammatory remakres never would have happened.

Sadly, people post inflammatory remarks all the time, regardless on whether or not there is a rating system is in place - adding a rating system does not guarantee that inflammatory remarks will stop. Not to mention such a system does not guarantee that a high quality project is promoted - the system could be abused to put down good projects while rating up inappropriate ones.

People can make comments on how to improve a project without the need of a rating system. Adding a rating system only has a tendency to make the whole site more... unnecessarily judgmental, so to speak. Since Scratch is designed to get people introduced to programming, it's best to give them an environment with less critical judging. Hence why the Scratch Team has been against this suggestion.

5) Private Messaging- This should be enabled so that you can message them in general and say:"Hey, nice job, you're doing great." It just seems out of place to go onto their boucney ball project and say, "I love what you're doing."

If somebody sends u something u don't like or doesn't help you, the ignore uses button or flag as innapropriate button is always there.

There are too many young members on the site, so such a system is very, very risky. There are users out there who many not have very good intentions and can abuse the messaging system for terrible things, from spamming, to trolling, to other things that are probably inappropriate to mention here.

Keeping things out in the open allows the entire community to keep an eye out on each other, a private message does not allow that, so, for security reasons, private messaging is definite "no".

6)Cloning-This would be extremely great. If this was an option, we would have a sense of control, and not make a project where it just clones it self a million times. Then, it would be laggy and nobody would see it. The problems you listed woudl only happen if you made it so.  So...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PEASE PLEASE LET US UPLOAD CLONING GAMES!

You know, I have no reason why this suggestion is on the list. 

If I had to take a guess, it could be that maybe Scratch is designed to be simple and that there hasn't been a practical way to incorporate it into the interface. Or maybe because it's something that can be abused in project. I wouldn't know for sure what the main reason is, but I doubt it's something that's completely off the table (as compared to private messaging, which is an absolute "no" because of security concerns).

Wow, long post. Hopefully I've properly conveyed what I wanted to explain, and that no one tl;dr's this post. 

I didn't TLDR it. ;P
Cloning is there so that people don't constantly suggest it: they're not all "no"s. 

woofwoof301 wrote:

cheddargirl wrote:

woofwoof301 wrote:

6)Cloning-This would be extremely great. If this was an option, we would have a sense of control, and not make a project where it just clones it self a million times. Then, it would be laggy and nobody would see it. The problems you listed woudl only happen if you made it so.  So...

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PEASE PLEASE LET US UPLOAD CLONING GAMES!

You know, I have no reason why this suggestion is on the list. 

If I had to take a guess, it could be that maybe Scratch is designed to be simple and that there hasn't been a practical way to incorporate it into the interface. Or maybe because it's something that can be abused in project. I wouldn't know for sure what the main reason is, but I doubt it's something that's completely off the table (as compared to private messaging, which is an absolute "no" because of security concerns).

Wow, long post. Hopefully I've properly conveyed what I wanted to explain, and that no one tl;dr's this post. 

Wait, this is a no right?

Cloning has been incorporated into Scratch, its just that MIT won't allow projects made with clones to be uploaded. They are afraid fools will just infinitely clone a spirte causing the website to crash or such.

However, if the Scratch Team just puts a limit on the general Scratch app on how many sprites you can have, say, 300, then it won't crash. People make projects with 100-300 sprites all the time, and nothing ever happens. 

Thanks 4 taking the time, Cheddargirl.

No, it's not an absolute "no". Private messaging is an absolute "no".

Actually, cloning hasn't been added into Scratch - rather, people modify the Scratch software to include a cloning feature. The website just isn't designed to take in projects from modified interfaces (it just isn't possible, you would have to redesign the website player to accept projects from all modifications to do so).

Why it hasn't been added, I don't know (I'm not involved in the software design process, so I can only guess what's going through the Scratch Team's mind), but from what people have been saying, maybe back then the Java player couldn't handle it, or adding cloning made the source code too top-heavy (keep in mind that modifying the Scratch interface to do too much can cause crashing), or maybe it was glitchy/too complicated at first (like the mesh feature). Putting a clone limit has been suggested, but that's supposedly not the big issue as to why it hasn't been added yet.

But with pending changes to the website and Scratch source code, that's likely to change. This thread by a Scratch Team member talks about a sprite cloning presentation, so who knows, maybe we will have cloning in the future. 

Mesh.

scimonster wrote:

Mesh.

so basically, this would be the ultimate tool to make  multiplayer?

cheddargirl wrote:

woofwoof301 wrote:

scimonster wrote:

Mesh.

so basically, this would be the ultimate tool to make  multiplayer?

Pretty much. it was included in a beta release and then taken out later (from what I heard, there were some technical issues). The at wiki article above shows how to enable it if you want to test it out with a friend over a local network. 

I think they were afraid that it would be too confusing for most people. Besides, it's not the greatest system and definitely could use some refining for it to work better. (If you've ever used Mesh you know what I mean.)