myeducate wrote:

Coder_Annika wrote:

Can curators edit posts?

Thanks for asking! I'm still working on editing but when I'm done it should be for the original poster and moderators.

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

ScratchNetwork is a rapidly advancing network for Scratchers that can be very useful. However, there are some things to be desired. The most important thing is what this post is about.

Free and Open Source Definitions:

Myed does not seem to understand the value of free and open source projects. He told me that “this is not an open source project and I have no plans to make it open source” (not word for word). Open source is very important for projects such as these. Scratch itself is free and open source. Before I explain why it needs to be free and open source, I want to explain what it is.

Open source is a way of making programs and such. It involves making the code for the project available for anyone to use. The idea of open source is to improve the overall quality of a product. The more people working on something, the more eyes you have to see bugs, and the more minds you have to be creative.

Free Software is similar to open source, but it refers to freedom rather than quality. For a program to be free software it requires these four freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program
  
• The freedom to modify it
  
• The freedom to distribute it without modifications
  
• The freedom to distribute it with modifications
  

If a service does not have all of those freedoms is not free software, and does not respect your freedom. ScratchNetwork falls into that catigory, non-free software.

The phrase “free and open source” is meant to mean both of the above.

As I mentioned before, I did speak with Myed about this breifly, but he did not seem to take me seriously. It is crucial for this to be free software. How do we know that the information posted here is safe? How can we trust this if he explicitly hides how it actually works?

The reason Myed gave for not giving us these freedoms is that “the code is rather proprietary and has a lot of sensitive information in it.” Why did he put them there in the first place? The answer is convenience. It was more convenient for him to put that sentitive information there, and is too lazy to take it out and build it in a manner that respects our freedom.

I am not even talking about doing something that will be bad for him. Not at all! He would likely benefit greatly from it being open source. Projects that are open source are generally more secure and have the benefit of being trustworthy because of their transparency. I am sure many people would love to help him make it because they have the skills and want to make something useful for the Scratch community. I would love to help out in any way I can, but, unfortunately, I cannot because he has barred the doors to that.

If you agree and would like to see ScratchNetwork as Free and Open Source software, please reply to this message on my profile.

Reply to this message on my Scratch profile.

myeducate wrote:

removed because it will never be open source.

myeducate wrote:

Hi, I removed your post from ScratchNetwork as you had posted it on two sites and I wanted to keep everything regarding the development of ScratchNetwork to the forums. Hope you understand.

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

Quote from me at ScratchNetwork:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

ScratchNetwork is a rapidly advancing network for Scratchers that can be very useful. However, there are some things to be desired. The most important thing is what this post is about.

-snip-

myeducate wrote:

Hi, I removed your post from ScratchNetwork as you had posted it on two sites and I wanted to keep everything regarding the development of ScratchNetwork to the forums. Hope you understand.

muellly wrote:

Since myeducate ordered a reivew for Scratch Network from my shop Neverending dreams I am going to write the review here as what better place is there to write a review on Scratch Network, than on Scratch network. The rest of the stuff I was asked to reviewed can be found here.

Logging in: Logging in is very easy. You have to copy and paste a comment onto a profile and press log in. I was amazed the first time I came to Scratch Network that this was actually possible. Though there are some flaws with this system such as the bad word detector thinking it is a bad word, which I have experienced once. I also saw in the comments of your profile that someone accidentally was logged into Myed's account which could have spelled disaster if it was the hands of a troll, good thing it is a very rare glitch.

Writing the post: When I first started writing this post I noticed that the box to type was small, however it expands as you write so that is a good thing. However the bottom left-right scroll bar is annoying. I am kind of confused on what I am suppost to write for project/studio/Review/owner/creator. Wait a minute is that the text to the link your suppost to type in below? There are various text formatting options such as bold, Italics, Underline, the ability to make Undertale references though it is a shame that I can't use the Papyrus font. The only other thing I can think is missing is the strike through. It is annoying that as this post gets longer I have to scroll up to the top of it in order to format text. I suggest making it so the scroll bar for this only affects everything below the text formatting options.

Browsing Scratch Network: The first thing I notice is that when you open links in a new tab it just opens a tab to the page you are on. When browsing things with threads I tend to open all of them that I am interested in then close out the tabs as I am finished reading them. With Scratch network I have to open them on the same tab, leaving me to losing my place when I am finished reading them. Most posts on the Scratch network tend to be rather bare, however that's mostly because it is a wip and not many people are using it yet. Scratch network's posts seam rather unorganized. PushPoints are used to order the posts. There is no way to sort the posts by category, which would be useful combined with the search function.

Themes: I see that there are several themes to chose from. I see no difference between Ocean, bright blue and Scratch blue. My username on dull gray is hard to read. I see that the only thing themes change is the side bar. I suggest allowing users to create their own theme for their account.

Fun button: That button to click just for fun is very insightful. I have learned so much from clicking it. I love how you moved it from YouTube to the background of Scratch Network. This is beautiful. This is truly the best feature of Scratch Network.If you press it twice the song starts playing on top of the song that is already playing. I can't wait for my cat Tracy to crash my computer by pressing the button to many times.

Push Points: Push Points are used to push a post higher up in a page. It replaces bumping. This is why I do not like the idea of Push Points. While I get that bumps to most are just the word bump to push the topic to the top of the listings bumping for me is an art. It is a way to show others that I care about my topics. The two topics I care about the most, Neverending Dreams and the Slimeith's quest topic, I bump with entries out of love. Bumping these two topics aren't just bumping for me, it's a way for me to write about more about the topic. Writing game/story making tips is fun for Neverending dreams topic. It was a lot of fun to write things about Slimeith's quest, making comics for the series, even pushing myself to write songs just to bump the topic(and for a soundtrack for a game but that's not as important.) Sometimes it pains me that I miscalculated when I would finish the third game and said the release would be the 99th bump entry, leading to me not being able to bump the topic. Even though I may not always have ideas what to bump about, and sometimes I do minibumps in the Neverending Dreams thread I still enjoy bump entrying. Just writing bump in these two threads feels very distasteful. Push Points feel like just saying bump, and the two threads I mentioned are probably the only two threads I would ever post onto Scratch Network(well apart from reviews like this). For me I rather have a 500 character minimum for bumping than use a system like push points. I hope along with push points there is an option to write bump entries to bump threads, even if there is a character minimum.
(well I sort of went into a rant there about bumps, why does this always seem to happen when someone mentions a way to bump like a button or using points. Though this would make a pretty good bump entry.)

What I would like to see: Something I notice is missing from Scratch Network is the ability to reply to thread. When you first mentioned Scratch Network to me you listed these two things:

Add updates and posts for your followers

Get constructive reviews for your Shop, Studio or Project.


What better way to do this then adding replies to threads. You could write update posts for people following(or frequently checking in) that thread and what better place to write a review for a thread than on the thread it's self. This is the exact reason I'm writing this review on Scratch Network(that and Scratch's posting is faulty with 403 errors). I would also like to be able to bump topics on here by writing long entries about the topic in question.

Overall: Scratch Network is a place where you can add listings for stuff such as shops and projects, and have people order from shops. The current bumping/pushing system is lackluster as there is no option to write over the top bump entries. The usefulness of Scratch Network is to be determined and it counts on how many people view the posts on Scratch Network for the advertising to have much effect. Scratch Network definitely has potential to grow and since it's a beta who knows how much it will grow before it's official release. I hope that Scratch Network succeeds.

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

I have been banned from ScratchNetwork for no reason.


I do not understand what I did wrong, and find this a perfect example of how this centralized, non-free network is not good.

I was there in the first place because I was willing to give it another chance.

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

myeducate wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

I have been banned from ScratchNetwork for no reason.


I do not understand what I did wrong, and find this a perfect example of how this centralized, non-free network is not good.

I was there in the first place because I was willing to give it another chance.

No, you were never banned. That was a test of a system, and who better to test it on than somebody that said they'd never use ScratchNetwork again.

myeducate wrote:

This is what a ban actually looks like.

muellly wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

Okay so first a bad review is deleted and then MasterOfTheTiger, the person who made the review, is banned. That sounds like shady moderation practices to me. Okay I took so long to reply that Myed had time to reply. Still banning a user when you have hundreds of test accounts that are just used to log in doesn't make much sense. Could you not create an alt to test the banning system? Also where did MasterOfTiger say they were never using Scratch Network again? Still deleting MasterOfTiger's review is more likely to give it more attention than it would have if it was just left to rot in the forums, you know the Streisand effect. I think it would have been better just to leave it up and maybe add an mod edit onto the bottom that says that there are no plans to make Scratch Network open source as there isn't a way to reply to posts on Scratch Network as of now. Deleting it just sort of feels like if the ST deleted rejected suggestions in the forums, or trying to hide it like browser extensions.

hellounicorns2 wrote:

Plz don’t have a flame wat.

muellly wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

Okay so first a bad review is deleted and then MasterOfTheTiger, the person who made the review, is banned. That sounds like shady moderation practices to me. Okay, I took so long to reply that Myed had time to reply. Still banning a user when you have hundreds of test accounts that are just used to log in doesn't make much sense. Could you not create an alt to test the banning system? Also, where did MasterOfTiger say they were never using Scratch Network again? Still deleting MasterOfTiger's review is more likely to give it more attention than it would have if it was just left to rot in the forums, you know the Streisand effect. I think it would have been better just to leave it up and maybe add a mod edit onto the bottom that says that there are no plans to make Scratch Network open source as there isn't a way to reply to posts on Scratch Network as of now. Deleting it just sort of feels like if the ST deleted rejected suggestions in the forums, or trying to hide it like browser extensions.

hellounicorns2 wrote:

Plz don’t have a flame wat.

myeducate wrote:

muellly wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

-snip-
Still deleting MasterOfTiger's review is more likely to give it more attention than it would have if it was just left to rot in the forums, you know the Streisand effect. I think it would have been better just to leave it up and maybe add a mod edit onto the bottom that says that there are no plans to make Scratch Network open source … Deleting it just sort of feels like if the ST deleted rejected suggestions in the forums, or trying to hide it like browser extensions.

You can see his review(of sorts) above. As it is more development focused (making it open source), I want it to be on this thread, unlike your review which was a general review of the whole website. As for the deletion notification that is because when you are banned all posts are deleted. It's just a bit of a misunderstanding. Hope you understand :p

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

hellounicorns2 wrote:

Plz don’t have a flame wat.

I never intended to have one.

myeducate wrote:

muellly wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

-snip-
Still deleting MasterOfTiger's review is more likely to give it more attention than it would have if it was just left to rot in the forums, you know the Streisand effect. I think it would have been better just to leave it up and maybe add a mod edit onto the bottom that says that there are no plans to make Scratch Network open source … Deleting it just sort of feels like if the ST deleted rejected suggestions in the forums, or trying to hide it like browser extensions.

You can see his review(of sorts) above. As it is more development focused (making it open source), I want it to be on this thread, unlike your review which was a general review of the whole website. As for the deletion notification that is because when you are banned all posts are deleted. It's just a bit of a misunderstanding. Hope you understand :p

Okay, that makes sense.

jromagnoli wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

hellounicorns2 wrote:

Plz don’t have a flame wat.

I never intended to have one.

myeducate wrote:

muellly wrote:

MasterOfTheTiger wrote:

-snip-

-snip-
Still deleting MasterOfTiger's review is more likely to give it more attention than it would have if it was just left to rot in the forums, you know the Streisand effect. I think it would have been better just to leave it up and maybe add a mod edit onto the bottom that says that there are no plans to make Scratch Network open source … Deleting it just sort of feels like if the ST deleted rejected suggestions in the forums, or trying to hide it like browser extensions.

You can see his review(of sorts) above. As it is more development focused (making it open source), I want it to be on this thread, unlike your review which was a general review of the whole website. As for the deletion notification that is because when you are banned all posts are deleted. It's just a bit of a misunderstanding. Hope you understand :p

Okay, that makes sense.

HelloUnicorns2 accidentally created a tag leak.

jromagnoli wrote:

HelloUnicorns2 accidentally created a tag leak.