I'm probably not a good person to write a guide on anything, but I have noticed some stuff, and I have some spent some time around. (neither of those things mean anything by the way)I wrote this guide for anyone. Most people will know this all already, bu if you don't, I hope I'm helpful. I wrote this because it must be hard, a new scratcher, trying to join a collaboration, and not knowing what's a good place to start, especially now as there are so many collaborations.  
But anyway. 
Collaborations. 

Dictionary definition: 
collaboration- something involving more than one person getting together to do something. 
To collaborate- the verb to form a collaboration or to work collaboratively. 

A scratch collaboration (often shortened to ‘collab’) is anything from two to infinite scratchers working together to create a scratch project. 
Obvious enough. 
Anyone can start a scratch collaboration- anyone can join a scratch collaboration. You don't necessarily have to be an amazing scratcher to own a scratch collaboration, nor do you have to be something special to join one. 
Fortunately, that doesn't come into it, as every scratcher is something special. 

That's it for an introduction to this article. 

Joining a scratch collaboration:
most people who use the scratch forums a bit have joined a scratch collaboration at some point. I can probably safely say that. 
If you're new to scratch collaboration, think about these things before you choose your collaboration: 
•what are you good at? What do you enjoy using scratch for? Look at the opening post to a collaboration thread. See who the owner wants to help them, can you do any of those things? 
•what do you want to help make? if you want to Make a game project, and you find a collaboration making an animated music video, that isn't the best collaboration for you. 
•how much commitment can you put in? If you can't stay active on a collaboration, helping and keeping up will be harder. 

Most collaborations ask you a few questions in a sort of form or ‘app’ (short for application). Answer these questions truthfully and think ahead. 
How much time can you help out? What is your best project? (if in doubt with that one, go for the one with the most views or ‘love-its’. 
 
Some things to look out for: 
•a lot of collaborations look very professional. Some have their own websites, some have the first post in their thread emblazoned with amazing banners, which you can put into your forum signature. Some don't even use the scratch forums- they have their own forums to use, socthat they can have many discussions at once, and more space.  Don't be put off by this. If someone made banners for their collaboration, that does not necessarily mean that the collaboration is better any way.  
•after a while, some (or most) collaborations fall inactive, as people don't have time to look at the collaboration any more. This often happens in the middle of a project. Often, that project will never be finished. It can be a shame when that happens, but it happens averagely often. 
•some collaborations change ownership over time. Sometimes, one owner will move on to another thing. If you get a new owner, then there'll be some shifting, some re organising, and maybe a new thread will be put up, and the collaboration will get a new name. After the shifting around and re organising though, things don't often go straight back how they were, but things won't always be too different. 
•some collaborations have an organisation system, where especially dedicated or helpful members are higher up, as administrators, or similar. Being at the top of a collaboration isn't too important. Being important doesn't make anything better. Generally, it means you have to be more organised and do more work. 

Owning a collaboration 
So far, this article's been aimed at a new scratcher, but now, welcome to the big stuff. 
So. You want to start a scratch collaboration?
What you need is an idea. How is that idea going to be different from all the other scratch collaborations? 
What do you want to make, and what skills will you need to make that?
Artists? Programmers? Story writers? Animators and visual artists? Musicians and sfx people? Voice artists? 
Some things I've noticed: 
most people can do art but feel put down about their art, either because they feel someone is better than them, or because people with a graphics tablet boast. 
•Artists are in high demand, but there aren't many.  
•Visual artists (animator/artist crossovers, mainly good at video tecniques like lip syncing etc.) are rare, and undeniably useful. 
•Most people good at sfx can play an instrument, but most pure instrumentalists aren't too good with sound fx. 
•all the top range programmers are good in something other than scratch. 
•employ new scratchers. If your collaboration dies before the end of its first project, but you gave a new scratcher experience, it will all have been worthwile. 
•most people can program in scratch, or else they wouldn't be on the forums. If it isn't a speciality, that doesn't matter. Someone can is what's important. 
•collaborations never take brainstorming or planning seriously enough. If you have to, plan and create a jobs checklist before you even put the thread up- that way people don't get bored and go inactive during planning stages. 
•inter-collab stuff is always odd, short lived, and distracts you from the work you're doing. 
•banners and a website? You don't need them, but they can look cool, and it always makes things more interesting. 
•admin system- be fair, firm and don't dictate- be democratic! Just because you made a collab doesn't mean you have to sound big or important. 
•a ‘corners’ or grouped membershipped system- having groups is nice, but they get confusing, and no one pays them any attention. Just ask someone what they can do and leave it at that. 
• applications confuse some people. (yes, really, but then you must have seen people ignore everything and just ask ‘can I join? And then never come on again. )Saying’ quote this into your post and fill it out' is a bit much. 
Just say ‘if you want to join, answer these questions’. And seriously, don't ask for a username, can't you be bothered to scroll left? 

Types of collaboration:
 
animating- 
these collaborations are fun, produce good results, and need averagely specific people In graphics, animating, voice art and Sound. These collaborations require a lot of decisions, organising and planning, which can put people off.  

Anything type collaborations- 
wide ranging collaborations, good for anyone with any skills. They make anything and take anyone, which allows them to become big. The most common type of collaboration. 
Writing collaborations: fun, cheerful, booky and chatty, writing collaborations are long lived, but do anything from interactive ebooks to a multi-round writing contest. Generally, you have to like writing books and stuff, but really, anyone who likes to read can join. 
Good for anyone interested in that.
 
Journalistic collaborations- 
organised and efficient, you need a good app to get in one of these. They write scratch magazines. You have to enjoy researching and writing. (I must admit, I don't know much about this type of collaboration). A good collaboration to be in as it can get you quite well known. 

Programming- heavy collaborations: 
impersonate operating systems, or make big games, often not using scratch. You have to enjoy programming, but really anyone's welcome. 

Musical collaborations, or scratch bands: 
these are odd. They write music together over scratch and share lyrics and music via scratch, soundcloud, YouTube etc. Not reccomended for first time collaborators unless you're musical.

Defining jobs: 
Animator- animates sprites to make them move through lots of costumes all slightly different 
Musician- writes songs and music. 
Programmer- does all the scratch coding 
Artist- creates art, banners, sprite drawings etc. 
Sound artist- creates sound effects and music 
Voice artist- does voices for characters
Visual artist- animates, plans, lip syncs, and often does art too. If you haven't heard of a visual artist, you can probably consider yourself one if you've ever made all or most of an amv. 
Researcher- plans, researches, does technical stuff. 
In a typical anything sort of collab, ideally, you'll want: 
2 programmers
2 artists or visual artists (if you have a visual artist, you don't necessarily need an animator, but you might need an extra artist) 
1 animator or visual artist 
1sound artist or musician 
1 researcher
1 voice artist. 
Naturally, one person can do more than one job. 

Multi-collabing: 
Okay, so you've joined one collab and you enjoy it, you could cope with more work, and you're thinking of a second collab. 
If you're only on a second collab, you probably won't want to make one yet. 
If you're sure of these things, go right ahead and choose a new collab. 
Remember- If you're choosing a new collab because an old one died, watch out! The old one may come back, and if you aren't ready for two, then it may be hard. 

More than two collabs: 
Confident are we? There's no point making a collab if you haven't had lots of experience though, so go right ahead, but if the workload gets too much, just tell your collab owners, and something'll be done to help you. 

Starting more than one collab: 
It's a big commitment, but it's also possible, and you'll probably want to make two that do different things, but so long as you're prepared for the workload, there's nothing to stop you.


 

I hope this guide was useful. I'm not trying to get stickied,        
I'm just trying to pull together a helpful article. I hope this has helped someone.  
  

How can i work on a project with a friend using the same account at the same time. Or two different accounts on one project

NintendoFountain wrote:

How can i work on a project with a friend using the same account at the same time. Or two different accounts on one project

You remix.

Great guide! Well done!

Wow, that guide was brilliant! Everything you said was typical of normal collaborations has happened on this collaboration I'm in (especially loads of people joining and never coming back )