Scratch

Preface:

Welcome, New Scratcher, to the wonderful world of programming! I hope that you can get everything that you want out of Scratch! This handbook is guaranteed to make you into a Scratcher that is liked by almost anyone who meets you here.
I wish you the best.

Table of Contents:
Step 1: Meet new friends.
Step 2: Impress new friends.
Step 3. Making new friends into good friends.

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Step 1: Meet new friends

This is probably the easiest step. Mostly, what you're doing here is making people know you as helpful. All you have to do is go to a user's project, and tell them what you think. Try to pick someone who seems like someone who hasn't been on long, but seems like they will be active. Signs of new people who will stay active are:

• They make different types of projects, e.g. not just making an animation series or game series.
• They have friends other than just famous people, whose projects on the front page.
• They aren't on extremely often. Usually new people on extremely often soon consider it work and stop.

Once you find someone like this, just say one or two things that they could improve. Sometimes, you'll want to say "This is horrible!!!" or something, but don't, because your main goal is to befriend them. I recommend saying something like:

This is a nice project, [username]! But I noticed when [condition] happens, it [problem]s.
Or...
Cool project, [username]! But I think it might be better if you make it [do something].

Note: never say "Check out my projects!" or "Feel free to look at my page!".  If they like you, they'll usually look anyway.

So once you've done that a few times, you'll see someone commenting on your project or adding you to their friend list(don't stalk them, Scratch notifies you.) If it's someone you commented on, then see if you want to be friends. Talk with them a little. If they seem like an honest friend, go ahead and add them to your friends list.

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Step 2: Impress new friends.

In Step 1, you went to others to befriend them. But it's much quicker when others are also coming to you. So in Step 2, we'll figure out how to invite others to you without a formal invitation. So here's the secret: make a project.
Now you're thinking, "There's about 10 bazillion different projects out there. Why will mine be any different?"
The truth is, that number on the front page that counts projects is not reliable. Accurate, but not reliable. That's because many projects are tests. And also because people don't click on some good ones because they judge books by their covers. So, what you need is a good project with a good cover.
Tips on making a good project(usually, I'd give you a crash course in programming, but this isn't the programming handbook.)

• Go to other people's favorite projects(at the bottom of their page. Download them. See why they're good games, and how the scripting incorporates it.
• Don't make a video or mario style platformer. Everyone's seen them all. It's just a fact.
• Ask people. If you don't understand how some code works, just ask. They'll usually be happy to help.
• Remember the magic ratio: spend some time getting things to look good, but spend more time on programming. Ratios are usually numbers, but I decided to use my creative license.
• Give credit! People love it when you give them credit for helping you.

Once you make a good project that the public that sees it approves of, it's time to move on to step 3.

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Step 3: Making new friends into good friends.

Now that you have friends that will listen to you, work together to make something great! Personally, I think that this is the easiest step. The only way I can explain it is this.
First, make a topic in collaboration(in the forums). Tell some people that you've talked to that you want them. The bigger the team the better. People think you're special if you have lots of people helping you.
Next, work together on a project. Start by making a rough draft and uploading it. Everybody else can put in their opinions and add stuff if they want(with a new project, keep the old one). Once everybody has done their part, whatever that may be, have the leader of the group(That's you if you've been listening) post the finished version!
Note: Test accounts are good for posting updates for the team.


If you can pull this off, you are officially an outstanding collaborator. If you don't, just keep trying! Maybe join other people's collaborations once in a while. Either way, thanks for reading, and I only have one more thing to say.

PLEASE DON'T SPAM!!!!!!!!