Scratch

  It's interesting, because it seemed like people in Misc were mostly using Misc, and not so much Scratch. How has the removal of Misc made people create fewer projects?

Servine wrote:

Lightnin wrote:

  It's interesting, because it seemed like people in Misc were mostly using Misc, and not so much Scratch. How has the removal of Misc made people create fewer projects?

It just seems a bit gloomier now. I think...

@ The gloom has just got rid of people
@ The community seems to be really Individual now
@ No way to actually see what everyone's doing
@ Nothing funny going on

I agree, I arrived at the Forum after it was removed, just after, but yes I say it is very quiet and I'd like to have a general chat with some members, but can't.

i don't think anything has really changed except for some people who just pouted and left after misc which wasn't really many.

sure, the forums aren't as active, but i think more people are making projects or there's been no effect on the main site.

I guess it depends on which of the many Scratch sub-communities you hang out on. If you spent a lot of time on the misc, the new forums probably will never be able to compare. So if the forums are what you think of as Scratch, then it probably does feel less vibrant. And it's certainly true that some people left after the change (although, surprisingly, the stats for forum usage haven't really gone down at all).

But the parts of Scratch that have to do with projects, and creating things with Scratch, seem to be continuing as they have for a long time.

Only about 700 people post in the forums on a given week. But about 24,000 make a project or write comments on the main site. So there are many different parts of Scratch.

Last edited by Lightnin (2012-03-02 16:43:18)

Lightnin wrote:

I guess it depends on which of the many Scratch sub-communities you hang out on. If you spent a lot of time on the misc, the new forums probably will never be able to compare. So if the forums are what you think of as Scratch, then it probably does feel less vibrant. And it's certainly true that some people left after the change (although, surprisingly, the stats for forum usage haven't really gone down at all).

i've noticed that there's been about the same amount of activity but more activity in the other boards (the scratch-related ones)

I've actually been making more Scratch projects now (but I'm not necessarily sure if that's related to the removal of misc). But I somewhat agree that the forums feel a bit more quiet without misc. I would usually look around the forums, make a couple posts, and then look at Miscellaneous to see numerous bustling discussions and moderators trying to keep threads "on rail". But now there isn't that much of that, and I don't even pay attention to the Things I'm Creating/Making/Reading/Playing forums.

Lucario621 wrote:

. I would usually look around the forums, make a couple posts, and then look at Miscellaneous to see numerous bustling discussions and moderators trying to keep threads "on rail". But now there isn't that much of that, and I don't even pay attention to the Things I'm Creating/Making/Reading/Playing forums.

XD That's really interesting. Would you say that part of the draw of Misc was the fun of watching the mods try to handle the various dramas? Kinda like watching matadors with bulls?

RedRocker227 wrote:

Hm, it's not really surprising that the forum usage has stayed the same. For some reason the Scratch related forums are being used much more than they were previously.

That's also super interesting. I mean, from my perspective, that seems like a good thing, since the primary goals of the project are to support kids in expressing themselves creatively with Scratch. We provide a forum space to hang out / talk about other stuff as well, but it's not really the primary goal of Scratch.

Last edited by Lightnin (2012-03-02 16:52:14)

Lightnin wrote:

RedRocker227 wrote:

I agree, it's getting extremely boring now. All the threads nowadays are either "official topics" of things I've never heard of, or "LOOK I DRAWED A PONY" ._.

Do you think some of the excitement of the misc had to do with the drama that was often going on there? Or just the variety of topics?

From what I've seen, I think there has to be *some* space for drama in online communities. But spaces for drama take a lot of resources, so it has to be limited.

Well it was mainly the variety. I mean, TBH, there's only a few different subjects that fit in the forums now. And it was also interesting reading about what other members were getting up to; that was probably one of my favourite things about Misc.. But now there's hardly any interesting threads; if you look at the making and creating forum, it'll be mostly Minecraft servers, and in the reading and playing forum, it's mostly official topics. Official topics aren't necessarily bad, it's just when there's one for every single thing imaginable, it can get a bit boring and annoying.

I enjoyed Miscellaneous because I enjoyed hearing what people were up to, discussing what was going on in the world, and giving people advice. It was nice being able to just talk. Not really discuss, but just talk. Now if you wanted to ask say, what computer setup people used, and advice on how to get started, it might be closed.

True, the Mods aren't as harsh on the new threads as they were immediately after they implemented the new setup, but they still are much more cookie cutter than it was previously.

Its nice to here an opinion from a Mods point of view.

Lightnin wrote:

Lucario621 wrote:

. I would usually look around the forums, make a couple posts, and then look at Miscellaneous to see numerous bustling discussions and moderators trying to keep threads "on rail". But now there isn't that much of that, and I don't even pay attention to the Things I'm Creating/Making/Reading/Playing forums.

XD That's really interesting. Would you say that part of the draw of Misc was the fun of watching the mods try to handle the various dramas? Kinda like watching matadors with bulls?

I'm sorry to say, I actually did sort of feel like that :p

RedRocker227 wrote:

Hm, it's not really surprising that the forum usage has stayed the same. For some reason the Scratch related forums are being used much more than they were previously.

That's also super interesting. I mean, from my perspective, that seems like a good thing, since the primary goals of the project are to support kids in expressing themselves creatively with Scratch. We provide a forum space to hang out / talk about other stuff as well, but it's not really the primary goal of Scratch.

That's a really good thing.

BLU_Spy wrote:

I am lost. What was Misc? :S

The awesomest forum in the world.

ProgramCAT wrote:

The Scratch community seems to be be derailed...
Most talented Scratchers have left, and now there isn't a lot happening anymore.
The entire community seems to be heading the same direction as Alice.

Astro947 hasnt posted a project in like 3 months...

This started happening before Misc. went away.

Maybe Scratch 2.0 will be a shockpad, or maybe it will vibe up for a while and then die down.

Anyways, I'll still cling to whatever scraps of Scratch there are left.

It will be lonley.