Scratch

The Future Of Scratch

No one really knows the future of Scratch as of now. Not even the Scratch Team.

All anyone can say as of now about the long-and-still awaited Scratch 2.0 is that it will be made in Flash, and run fully in your internet browser.

Users have been giving ideas in the Suggestion forum, many being either denied, or given just a simple, "We'll think about it."

Even though you can't say for sure, most people are certain that the most commonly suggested block additions of, "Show List," "Hide List," and "I recieve [v]," will be added. Though barely anything has been confirmed.

Pretty much everyone looks forward to Scratch 2.0s release, but the Scratch Team says it may not be until another 6-7 months.

I want to note designblocks.net(for the 2.0 article) that is also created by Lifelong Kindergarten at MIT and has a similar interface to Scratch.    Check it out!

Greatdane wrote:

I'm writing something on my experience with Scratch Day.

Put something in Requests saying that you need ads.

Uh... Greatdane?

Fine. 

The (not so) Exhilarating Scratch Day Experience

Ah, Scratch Day. What a wonderful way to group Scratchers together, and a whole new way to interact. You can view someone you know online. Hopefully.

While the idea of Scratch Day stays sound, the actual execution is, by my opinion, less than okay. The main idea is to make Scratchers come together, and add whole new interaction. One can make a Scratch Day to group Scratchers in the area and make them work together, or even better things. But who has the time, money, interest, or community?

Last year I got to work with another Californian called Clov. It was really fun and interesting while it lasted, but Clov lived far away from me. He found a nice place to rent($200) and I thought it was pretty sound. I asked all Californians who could come to come, and I got around 3 responses, and Clov ended with the same fate. I looked at all the fun everyone else had at MIT and wherever with envy, a certain kind of jealousy. If only Scratch had been developed at Stanford.

This year was mildy better and worse at the same time- this time, even less people organized groups and I had an even less chance this year. What a lovely surpise! If anyone had any chance of putting up a Scratch Day in my area, my Saturday would be packed anyway. I had two concerts and a couple other things. How would Scratch Day fit in?

This year, there were basically two options- go to a booth at Maker's Faire, or learn BYOB. BYOB, which I eventually chose, was extremely special, because of the chance of it happening.

Early when I started Scratching, I found this really cool user called Jens. I had tuned into his projects since then and found he had made something peculiar named BYOB. I downloaded 1 and 2 and gave some feedback. BYOB 3 came, and I already knew enough to know about it earlier than anyone else. By coincidence, Jens worked with someone at UC Berkley by the username bharvey. bharvey at UC Berkley was kind enough to post a Scratch Day explaining BYOB. I seized the chance and went there.

BYOB was really interesting and all, but there was no one there, except bharvey. He took me on a crash course on BYOB, how to use it and what it could do. I had fun and today I have more BYOB projects than I do Scratch projects.

All of this comes to the conclusion of exactly why Scratch day was so bad for me. The community was as of yet undeveloped, and by randomness I was lucky enough to encounter someone who did something Scratch-related. The only other choice was to go to a $2 booth where you play around with Scratch. So ultimately on Scratch Day I talked with someone about how simple Scratch is and how they had improved it. And that's the end, totally contradictory to the entire purpose of Scratch Day anyway.

Which is why I think Scratch Day needs a redesign. I remember suggesting a year ago along with other people(such as coolstuff) that online chat would awesome. It's been a year, and Scratch Team has since closed the Scratch Day thread, and nothing has been heard about it since.

What were your experiences on Scratch Day? Were they good or bad, were they better or worse? Did you think it was awesome or boring? Do you have any suggestions for the community(and Scratch Team) on how to make it better?

-By Greatdane

How do you like it?

Last edited by Greatdane (2010-06-27 22:48:18)

iCode-747 wrote:

@Greatdane: Awesome! Can I take out the end paragraph, though?

Sure.

you left out my article