Scratch

I don't see how these forums are similar to an MMO... 

what do you expect? mmo's and forums are both gatherings of a bunch of people. of course it's going to "feel" the same.

Wes64 wrote:

what do you expect? mmo's and forums are both gatherings of a bunch of people. of course it's going to "feel" the same.

For years I've been an implementer of forums and databases and all the trappings which go with them (thank you Scratch Team for doing this) so I was far too busy to even want to participate in a forum of any kind--they were just too much like work.
So instead of being on forums I was playing an MMO for recreation. Recently I've stopped playing MMO's and this is the first forum I've frequented in nearly 7 years. After reading many posts/following threads I had a serious "oh, feels like an MMO" moment, so I shared the epiphany.

So what does Scratch Forums and MMO's have in common player-wise?
-A lot of new people asking for help (completely understandable) in a forum associated with an educational programming environment.
-A lot of people who just want other people to do things for them ("just give me a fish!")
-A lot of experienced people who haven't had their altruism completely fished dry--yet ("sure, here's that fish")
-A lot of experienced people who would rather not just give someone the answer("I can teach you to fish...")
-Possibly a fair number of people who are just making things they like and learning the limits and work-arounds in Scratch ("too busy breeding fish, you're welcome to look at them though, you can use these to make your own but I'm not tech-support and I'm to busy to comment, good luck!")
-I've seen a lot of "Me Too!"-ers. That can't be helped sometimes. ("Add your face to my fish and don't forget to click Love-it!") Imitiation, flattery, or just reinventory-idolatry, it's all good as long as someone is learning something.
-Thankfully I haven't run into any creepers; it's probably because I'm a guy and not role-playing as a girl ("Oh I hear you like fish...heh heh").

And I know there's the "Deep Ones"...those Scratchers who came before most, made artful works and custom blocks and only return on occasion to sample the fish and marvel at the epic pagination in their MyStuff project/gallery lists. Cthonic, possibly.

Please keep in mind that "a lot" is just a lazy opinion phrase. It's mostly harmless unless you're using it to justify a budget. 

I suppose it's because both an MMO and Scratch are social websites (as someone else mentioned), where people work toward a more or less common goal. In MMOs it's perhaps building the best character, completing the game's story or having the most fishes ( ), and here in Scratch, people work to learn programming, and/or achieve popularity by getting their projects on the front page.

i see your point but i don't know why it's necessary to point this out. is it bad? should something be done?

Well these things can happen on any forum really.

ImagineIt wrote:

Well these things can happen on any forum really.

Another MMO parallel:  Collabs == Guilds
After reading some of those threads I was having flashbacks to all the guild recruitment moments I endured. 

Yeah , this is quite similar to a MMO , althought I don't see your real connection...

It used to happen but I hope that fad's passed. And if you don't like the fourms, don't post and especially don't rant about it.