So, I'm guessing that you are a New Scratcher and have just joined this site, and I hope you are enjoying it so far! I'm here to give you an in-depth guide on Scratch Profiles. Every user has one, and it can be personalised and customised to say what you want too! It is the thing that you get directed to when you click on someone's username in the forums or on a project, studio or the homepage. If you want lots of people to be tempted to look at your projects, a cool and interesting profile may just help, and this guide will show you everything you need to know!

1. Get Onto Your Profile

If you are on the Scratch Homepage (scratch.mit.edu), your profile will be on the bright blue bar that is at the top of the page, next to the icon of an envelope and a folder, and this is effectively the same on any other page, but the top bar is a darker blue and is much thinner.

(This is the Scratch Homepage)



(This is on any other page)



Click on where it says your username, where your avatar or image is, as well as the arrow and a dropdown menu will appear. The options are ‘Profile’, which is the one that we want to click on, ‘My Stuff’, which is where you can see your projects and studios, ‘Account Settings’ where you can change your password, email and location as well as ‘Sign Out’. We want to click on the option that says ‘Profile’.

(Scratch Homepage)

(Any other page)

2. Profile Features

Your profile is great, it is your own little corner of Scratch! First of all, let's go over the features.

Information About You

(How you see it)

(To people not following you)

(To people following you)

Basically, this tells other Scratchers basic information about your account. It has your name at the top, next to a ‘Follow’ button (you won't see this on your page as you can't follow yourself, but you will on other's) where people can follow and unfollow you. It also included when you joined Scratch (in hours if you have been on Scratch for less than a week, in weeks if you have been on for less than a month, or in months and weeks for most people) as well as your Scratch Rank. This is Scratcher (if you have been on for more than two weeks, made two projects and have commented a bit), New Scratcher (if you do not meet all of the criteria for Scratcher) or Scratch Team (people who work at MIT as a job and are over 18). It also includes your location, so is effectively an overview of your account!

About Me and What I'm Working On

(What it looks like to you)

(What it looks like to other people)

These are two customisable boxes in which you get 200 characters in each to tell Scratch about yourself personally. ‘About Me’ tends to be about your interests, hobbies, age and personality, while ‘What I’m Working On' tends to be a list of projects that you are currently developing or a list of achievements, but it doesn't really matter if you don't follow these guidelines. The only guidelines you have to follow, however, are the Community Guidelines, which make sure that everything in there is respectful and not rude, and if it is the Scratch Team will most likely see it and ban or block you, as well as replacing the offending content with ''.

Featured Project

(What it looks like to you)

(What it looks like to other people)

This is not to be confused with the Featured Projects section on the Scratch Homepage, but it is a section in the middle of your profile where you can show off any one of your projects and have it stand out to anyone who goes onto your page. You could put a project of yours that it popular or your best project, or maybe one that you think deserves more views. You can also put an unshared project there and use it as a status or welcome picture, like many people do, and I will show you how to do that later on in the guide. The default name is ‘Featured Project’ but there are a few other titles as well.

What I've Been Doing

(This looks the same for everyone)

This is a box on the right side of your profile and basically updates everyone with what you have been doing. You favouriting or loving a project, following a user or studio, creating a studio or sharing a project or joining or getting promoted in a studio all show up here, and the most recent four activities come up, but if there hasn't been much activity even though you are logged on, the box may go blank, and like in my picture, you just have to do something that will make an activity point come up, so don't worry if this happens to you.

Shared Projects



(When you click ‘View All’)

(If no projects have been shared)

This is the first row on your profile and consists of a sliding bar which shows up to 20 of your most recently shared projects. Only the project thumbnail, name and who it is by is shown, and when you click on it, you are lead to the project. To get a project on this row you must press ‘Share’ when you are inside the Scratch Editor making it, and this enables it for the world to see. It also includes the number of projects in brackets next to where it says ‘Shared Projects’. Once you have shared more than five projects you will have to use the scrolling bar along the bottom to see them, and once you get past 20 you will have to click ‘View All’. If you have more than 60 projects there will be numbers with pages in which your projects will be on. If you have any unshared projects, they won't show up here. If you have not shared any projects, a blue bar will show up, filling where the projects would be saying ' has not shared any projects'.

Favo(u)rite Projects



(When you click 'View All)

(If no projects have been favourited)

(An unfavourited project)

(A favourited project)

When you click on a project, at the bottom there will be a grey star and grey heart. The heart is for a love, but the star is for a favourite and when you click on it, it turns gold and the project thumbnail, name and creator appears in the section of your profile that is ‘Favorite Projects’. Even though my language option is English, it is spelt this way, which is nothing we can do about. It comes up with the total number of favourited projects and displays the most recent 20 favourited. If you have more than 20 you will see all of them when you click ‘View All’, and if you have more than 60 they will be displayed on separate pages when you click ‘View All’. If you have not favourited any projects, the space will be filled by a light blue that says ' has not favorited any projects'.

Studios I'm Following



(When you click ‘View All’)

(A studio you follow)

(A studio you don't follow)

(No row when you don't follow any studios)

Following a studio is practically the same as following a user, the icon is in the top right-hand corner and when you click on it, the button turns silver and the studio thumbnail and name is added to this row. You can have four studios displayed at once, and any more than that you will have to use the slider to view them. The 20 most recently followed are displayed on the slider, but any more than that you will have to use ‘View All’ to see them. If you have followed more than 36 studios, there will be multiple pages with the studios on. This is the first of what I like to call ‘Removable Rows’ because if you don't follow any studios, instead of a blue box appearing, the row will not show up at all.

Studios I Curate



(When ‘View All’ is clicked)

(How to tell if you are a curator)

(Being a manager also counts)

(No row when you don't curate any studios)

To curate a studio, you will have to accept an invite from one of the managers which would be found in your messages, or create one yourself. Being a curator as well as a manager of a studio makes them come up on this row. The studio thumbnail, as well as name comes up on the slider, as well as the most recent four being displayed without sliding, and the most recent 20 with the slider. If you have more than that you will need to click ‘View All’, and if you curate more than 36 they will be displayed on multiple pages. You can see if you are a curator or manager by seeing if your name is under the Curator/Manager sections in a studio. This is the second of the ‘Removeable Rows’ as if you don't curate any studios this row won't appear.

Following and Followers



(Following ‘View All’)

(Followers ‘View All’)

(When you follow someone)

(When you don't follow that person)

Following is where you click on the button on the right-hand side of someone's profile and it means that your name and your icon appears in their ‘Followers’ list, as well as their name and icon appears in your ‘Following’ list. What they do, such as following users and sharing projects also appears on your Scratch Homepage ‘What’s Happening?' box. Unlike the other rows, there are no numbers next to the titles to tell you how may followers you have, or how many you're following, but you can see it if you click on ‘View All’. It displays your most recent 20 followers as well as the 20 people who you have most recently followed. If you have no followers, the box just simply does not show up.

Comments



(If you turn off commenting)

(If other people have turned off commenting or not confirmed their email)

(When you have more than 25-30 comments)

(When you report a comment)

Commenting is the main way to contact a Scratcher, and they are underneath all of the rows and the main section. Anyone who has confirmed their email can comment and the comment will show your username, icon, message as well as when you commented, from minutes to months to years. If you haven't confirmed your email then you will not be able to comment and comments on your profile will be turned off. Anyone who has confirmed their email can turn off their comments deliberately, by ticking a check box above their comments - this means nobody can post a new comment or reply to an existing one. You can report disrespectful, spam or mean comments by hovering over the comment on yours and someone else's profile, and you can delete the comment on yours, but you cannot delete your comment on other people's profiles. If you post the same thing more than three times, the filter will not let you as it thinks it is spam and new Scratchers have a 30-second commenting limit.

3. Customising Your Profile

Now you've learnt about all of the awesome things that your profile can do - surely you want to customise them and make it your very own? This section will tell you exactly how too!

Icon



When you first join Scratch your icon is a white Scratch cat on a blue background, and I'm sure you want to change it. Go on to your profile and hover over your current icon until you see the word ‘Change’ in white text on a black background and click on it. This will take you to your file browser where you can upload any type of static image, as well as GIFs (animated logos). Ideas for icons can include your OC (own character) or as piece of your art, an animal, band, book or actor/actress that you like, and Google has tonnes of awesome images that you could use!

Location



(On the Scratch Homepage)

(On any other page)

(The option to change your location)

Your location can be changed by clicking on your usernames next to the folder and envelope, like with what we did to get onto your profile, but instead of clicking ‘Profile’, click ‘Account Settings’. You should be on the tab ‘Account’, but if you are not, change it with the buttons on the left-hand side. Here it states your username and where your current location is set to. Use the drop-down menu to select your country and go back onto your profile, and, viola, it has changed to your new location. Select ‘Location Not Given’ if you wish to hide where you are.

You can do some awesome tricks with your location, such as setting it to a two letter country code. Some Scratchers use the ‘ST’ to pretend that they are on the Scratch Team, or some even change it to what their initials are! Check out how to do it here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/67992332/

Rank

(New Scratcher Rank)

(Scratcher Rank)

(Scratch Team Rank)

This is not something you can easily change, but the New Scratcher Rank is given to all new users on the site, and comes with its restrictions - 120 second wait between each forum post, and 30 seconds between each comment to avoid and prevent spambots. You can become a Scratcher by being active on the site for two weeks, sharing two projects as well as commenting helpfully on other projects, and you should get a message which guides you through the benefits of being a Scratcher and then lets you become one. The Scratch Team rank is given if you are 18+ and work at MIT (who create Scratch) or have an internship there. You can tell a member of the Scratch Team apart because their username has a ‘*’ after it.

About Me and What I'm Working On



To change your About Me and What I'm Working On, just go on to your profile and hover over the boxes until you see dashes around the outside. Then, click in the box and type away - within 200 characters of course! You could include your hobbies, what you like doing, how you came across Scratch, or just tell everyone about yourself, sell yourself in a couple of words! You may want to include emojis as well as text symbols, and a cool site for copying and pasting them is here: http://bizuns.com/symbols-bullets-copy-paste. After you finish typing, click off the box and it saves.

Featured Project



(Changing the project)

(Changing the name)

Changing your featured project is easy, go on to your profile and hover over the ‘Featured Project’ section until you see it say ‘Change Featured Project’, and then click on it. You can choose from all of your shared projects, as well as change the name using the drop-down menu to things like ‘Featured Tutorial’ and ‘Remix This!’. Some Scratchers choose to make their featured project an unshared one, as a sort of ‘hub’ or ‘status’ about them, and this is a good way if they don't want to share the project. You can try this here: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/65751042/. As well as that, you can make an animated project thumbnail that you can use for your home project with this link: https://github.com/MegaApuTurkUltra/Scratch-Thumbnail-Changer/releases!


I hope I have covered the basics of your profile here, and if there are any mistakes (factual or grammar) or things that I have missed - please tell me and I will be happy to add it in/change it Scratch on!

… nice tutorial! Altough it's kind of long ( probably half the post is pictures lol) it explains all the features on a profile. Should be Itopiced, since this could be a helpful guide to New Scratchers.

Invisible_Factory wrote:

… nice tutorial! Altough it's kind of long ( probably half the post is pictures lol) it explains all the features on a profile. Should be Itopiced, since this could be a helpful guide to New Scratchers.

Yep - haha, I was hoping that the pictures would break the text up Thank you as well! Is there any way I could suggest it?

One stickied topic has a list of Helpful Topics here but it says “Last edited by Paddle2See.” Maybe ask him to add this topic? It says in the creator's signature it says he/she moved to Shadeverse.

Invisible_Factory wrote:

One stickied topic has a list of Helpful Topics here but it says “Last edited by Paddle2See.” Maybe ask him to add this topic? It says in the creator's signature it says he/she moved to Shadeverse.

Okay - thanks

Cool guide! I had no idea that you could feature an unshared project - thank you for the heads up about that!

honeybunni wrote:

Cool guide! I had no idea that you could feature an unshared project - thank you for the heads up about that!

Well thank you

This is great! I just sent a sticky request for it!

mrbobbygreathead wrote:

This is great! I just sent a sticky request for it!

Wow - thank you ever so much!

Just out of curiosity, how do you request a thread to be stickied? - I have one in mind

pastelistic wrote:

mrbobbygreathead wrote:

This is great! I just sent a sticky request for it!

Wow - thank you ever so much!

Just out of curiosity, how do you request a thread to be stickied? - I have one in mind

You press ‘report’ (it's really weird) and say it should be stickied and why.

Wow! Great guide and tutorial! This really should get a sticky

This was done with inspect element and snipping tool I guess… Awesome!

mrbobbygreathead wrote:

pastelistic wrote:

mrbobbygreathead wrote:

This is great! I just sent a sticky request for it!

Wow - thank you ever so much!

Just out of curiosity, how do you request a thread to be stickied? - I have one in mind

You press ‘report’ (it's really weird) and say it should be stickied and why.

Oh - I never knew that

Cloudly wrote:

Wow! Great guide and tutorial! This really should get a sticky

Aw thank you!

banana439monkey wrote:

This was done with inspect element and snipping tool I guess… Awesome!

Pfft… No - I obviously got Scratch Team status for the day xDD

Cloudly wrote:

Wow! Great guide and tutorial! This really should get a sticky

Thank you!

Wow! This will be very helpful for anybody starting off!

Coco_x wrote:

Wow! This will be very helpful for anybody starting off!

Thank you! I hope it will be helpful

Cool guide Liz!

bUmP