Scratch

sparks · 2011-12-29 15:44:00

We at AT have certainly undertaken many interesting projects together, many of them changing the very Scratch experience. This is the development thread for the new Scratch Forum project.

A lot of the time the Scratch team seem to have problems with the Scratch Fora, the well known "Scratch time" where time zones just aren't taken into account is an example, and the lack of many necessary back-end controls lead to unfortunately necessary decisions such as blocking [img] tags from the fora. Why are these problems not resolved? Firstly because the Scratch team are being paid to work on the site in many cases and have many duties, meaning that site development needs to be balanced with their other duties - less time for development. Secondly, the fora aren't coded by the Scratch team, but are rather a customisable forum "plugin" from a third-party provider.

This is a collaborative, free and open-source project by the AT members, designing a new forum system for the Scratch site.

Here's a sort of list of things we're thinking of doing, maintained by Magine

Last edited by sparks (2012-01-06 16:21:19)

bobbybee · 2011-12-29 15:49:23

I whole-heartedly support! I'm great at PHP, and I'm good with UI. Let's hope this gets the ST's attention.

MathWizz · 2011-12-29 15:49:40

I like the idea, but it sounds like a HUGE project and. Do you mean that we make a completely new forum of base ours off of the existing one? If we make a new one, we'd have to make it compatible with the current database or lose all of the existing topics and posts.

bobbybee · 2011-12-29 15:51:26

Would that really be such a hard thing to do, MathWizz. It isn't like the database is encrypted to the point that it is impossible to manipulate. If anything we would just have to reset the passwords. (assuming we couldn't figure out what hashing method was used)

sparks · 2011-12-29 15:53:44

Exactly. The fact that it is so large is a big reason why we need the ST to agree its worth a shot. Firstly we need the database name and field names of any inputs, possibly telling us how they structure posts so that our forum can easily link to their database later on, and secondly, it would be pointless starting off and them saying that there's no way they'll change. It's the sort of project that will take a long time, but something that could potentially be a wonderful gift to the whole community if thought out carefully and lovingly designed and coded.

sparks · 2011-12-29 15:54:49

bobbybee wrote:
Would that really be such a hard thing to do, MathWizz. It isn't like the database is encrypted to the point that it is impossible to manipulate. If anything we would just have to reset the passwords. (assuming we couldn't figure out what hashing method was used)

Bobbybee, we're not talking about piggy-backing on the existing forum or trying to access the existing database, we're on about backward-compatibility with existing posts.

TRocket · 2011-12-29 15:56:02

I think this is a great idea since I really like php as well and this would be great for the ST since they get a completly custom made forums made by us for free. and most of the ATers know scratch very well and know what scratch forums need...

Last edited by TRocket (2011-12-29 16:03:59)

bobbybee · 2011-12-29 15:58:51

If backwards-compatabillity is the issue, then we could just use a program that copies the data. I still don't see why we couldn't use the original database.

TRocket · 2011-12-29 16:06:07

should we report this to get it noticed?
also I think the new forums should use AJAX since it's very slow

Last edited by TRocket (2011-12-29 16:10:22)

bobbybee · 2011-12-29 16:11:06

Do you mean fast?

MathWizz · 2011-12-29 16:12:19

TRocket wrote:
should we report this to get it noticed?
also I think the new forums should use AJAX since it's very slow

Why on earth would you use AJAX? That's client side.

rookwood101 · 2011-12-29 16:12:55

You're mad!

Just joking smile Great idea, and I think in response to people that have posted above me: Hold your horses - this will be a long a slow process to complete, you need to enjoy the ride.

Basically don't get ahead of yourselves as we would need to make some kind of starting plan and properly present this before I even think the scratch team should bother considering this.

TRocket · 2011-12-29 16:16:37

bobbybee wrote:
Do you mean fast?

yes,I do mean fast
@MathWhiz I mean on the client side it takes a very long time to reload the entire page just to post something

ZeroLuck · 2011-12-29 16:17:35

I don't think this isn't a good idea:
1. The Scratch Team won't allow you to read/write their databases wink
2. I have no problem with the current forum
3. It'll be much work without sense!

Last edited by ZeroLuck (2011-12-29 16:17:52)

sparks · 2011-12-29 16:21:18

Well said, Rookwood smile There's a habit on the forums of "I know code! I'll help!" then not really committing.

Before anyone reports this, I think we need to have a problem and brief as well as a few key ideas about what we think the new forum should have that we could offer.

Please contribute to/delete the following:

Problem
The Scratch Fora have some problems that the Scratch Team are unable to fix and it lacks many possible applications to make the fora easier to moderate and safer for the users. The Scratch Site could do with a new forum that solves these problems

Brief
We will design a new Scratch Forum system that will make the community's use safer and more enjoyable whilst making moderation more efficient and less difficult.

sparks · 2011-12-29 16:24:30

ZeroLuck wrote:
I don't think this isn't a good idea:
1. The Scratch Team won't allow you to read/write their databases

We aren't going to read/write their database. We would be creating a new database with the same field names as the existing one and read/writing to that. If the project is accepted on completion it can be easily connected to the existing database.

ZeroLuck wrote:
2. I have no problem with the current forum

Many people do. Image tags are now disabled because the current forum lacks the tools for the moderators to provide a nicer solution to the spam problem and the time stamp is confusingly not set to your local one, even though there is an option for this. Those are just two reasons.

ZeroLuck wrote:
3. It'll be much work without sense!

It would make things easier for the Scratch Team to moderate and therefore make the entire forum safer for its users.

TRocket · 2011-12-29 16:28:43

sparks wrote:
Well said, Rookwood There's a habit on the forums of "I know code! I'll help!" then not really committing.

Before anyone reports this, I think we need to have a problem and brief as well as a few key ideas about what we think the new forum should have that we could offer.

Please contribute to/delete the following:

Problem
The Scratch Fora have some problems that the Scratch Team are unable to fix and it lacks many possible applications to make the fora easier to moderate and safer for the users. The Scratch Site could do with a new forum that solves these problems

Brief
We will design a new Scratch Forum system that will make the community's use safer and more enjoyable whilst making moderation more efficient and less difficult.

we will ask the scratch team mode and users :what they like about the current forums?
what they don't like about the current forums?
please think of more

also I think the latest stable version should be set up on a website so the ST can ask us to change stuff hopefully before it's to late

MathWizz · 2011-12-29 16:43:57

TRocket wrote:
bobbybee wrote:
Do you mean fast?
yes,I do mean fast
@MathWhiz I mean on the client side it takes a very long time to reload the entire page just to post something

Ah, now I see what you mean. smile

sparks · 2011-12-29 16:49:30

well lets see what Scratchers think about the current forum.

meowmeow55 · 2011-12-29 16:54:13

This sounds interesting, but there are plenty of other forum systems out there, and barely anyone writes their own forums, so why do it now? But I suppose that a custom forum system would be neat, especially one that would integrate with the main site better. So this sounds like a neat idea! Of course, I can't really help much, because I don't know a whole lot of PHP, but I still support this! big_smile

sparks · 2011-12-29 16:59:40

Thanks, meowmeow55, I'm sure you'll be an excellent guy for advice and suggestions too, if nothing else smile

sparks · 2011-12-29 17:08:50

Hmmm, so far my research thread hasn't brought up much, people tend to go on about the people more than the forum features. Then again, I suppose this tells us that it is the community that is most important to people.

I've always thought that on a post report, something that would make spam deletion faster is if you could select, in your post report from a drop down on things like "inappropriate", "spam", "delete this post", "rename this thread" etc as well as the report text field. This would let moderators deal with high priority reports like "inappropriate" faster rather than wading through "rename this thread" reports since until they open the report they can't see how serious it is.

rookwood101 · 2011-12-29 17:10:32

Just read this:

cheddargirl wrote:
The thing is that, since the coming of Scratch 2.0 is also likely to involve a site change, changes to the forum structure is also expected. So whenever some suggestion of a website change is given, the design of the website is also taken into account. Think of it this way, since the website is definitely changing (expected to be in 2012), it might not be viable to make so many changes now, it could be better to make changes with the coming of 2.0.

:S

sparks · 2011-12-29 17:17:59

Oh. I should have thought of that... well... maybe we should ask the ST more directly what their plans are for the fora, it may be that they will be discarding this one soon anyway.

ProgrammingFreak · 2011-12-29 17:28:50

I can't wait to see the result. smile

Scratch

archived forums

#1 2011-12-29 15:44:00

Scratch Forum Development Thread

#2 2011-12-29 15:49:23

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#3 2011-12-29 15:49:40

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#4 2011-12-29 15:51:26

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#5 2011-12-29 15:53:44

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#6 2011-12-29 15:54:49

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

bobbybee wrote:

#7 2011-12-29 15:56:02

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#8 2011-12-29 15:58:51

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#9 2011-12-29 16:06:07

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#10 2011-12-29 16:11:06

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#11 2011-12-29 16:12:19

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

TRocket wrote:

#12 2011-12-29 16:12:55

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#13 2011-12-29 16:16:37

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

bobbybee wrote:

#14 2011-12-29 16:17:35

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#15 2011-12-29 16:21:18

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#16 2011-12-29 16:24:30

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

ZeroLuck wrote:

ZeroLuck wrote:

ZeroLuck wrote:

#17 2011-12-29 16:28:43

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

sparks wrote:

#18 2011-12-29 16:43:57

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

TRocket wrote:

bobbybee wrote:

#19 2011-12-29 16:49:30

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#20 2011-12-29 16:54:13

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#21 2011-12-29 16:59:40

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#22 2011-12-29 17:08:50

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#23 2011-12-29 17:10:32

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

cheddargirl wrote:

#24 2011-12-29 17:17:59

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

#25 2011-12-29 17:28:50

Re: Scratch Forum Development Thread

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