PLEASE NOTE: A lot of this is copied from the old topics.
I know that a topic like this already exists, but it has become very inactive recently and is also fairly incomplete.

PLEASE DO NOT SUGGEST THINGS HERE. I'm not a member of the Scratch Team and your suggestion will get a lot more attention if you make your own topic about it. Also, please don't spam, any spam/offtopic posts will be reported.

I could be wrong about some of these, I could very well have missed some things, and some of this information might even be outdated - if that's the case, please let me know! I'm trying to revise this list the best I can. Additionally, feel free to tell me if you think this list could benefit from some more formatting, if there are spelling errors, etc.

Old topics: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/4789/ , https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/239492/

This topic will be updated regularly.


1. Allowing free chats with cloud variables/Allowing blacklists:
Allowing “free” chatrooms (i.e. where users can type in whatever they want) are not being implemented because of the potential for bullying/inappropriate messages, and there is no good way to moderate them. Allowing blacklists is also not going to be implemented because it can be way too easy to work around them since there are so many workarounds for a word (for instance, if “cat” were a blocked word, you could work around it with “c@”, “kat”, “katt”, “catt”, “c.at”, “ca.t”, etc.), and because if a user were to look inside the project, they'd see a list of swear words. If you want to make a chatroom, you still can - however, you'll have to make a whitelist; that is, a program that only allows you to select from certain messages.

2. Private messaging:
When communication is public, people are more likely to be respectful because they know that everyone can see it. However, when posting PMs, people know that only the intended recipient can see it, so don't think as much before posting. Even if a “Flag PM” function is implemented, the Scratch Team currently does not have the resources to moderate it, because of the reason I said before there would be a lot of inappropriate/disrespectful messages.

3. Disabling “See inside”, restricting sharing, etc.:
Several people want to be able to lock their projects so that they are read-only, and other people can't see the code to copy their scripts, sounds, or artwork. However, the motto of Scratch is “Imagine - Program - Share”. By putting a project on the site, you give anyone who sees it the right to see and use your project data as long as they give credit.

Restricting sharing (i.e. sharing a project so only some people can see it) is also not going to be implemented.

Paddle2See wrote:

We depend very heavily on our community to help us keep an eye on things and make sure that the Community Guidelines are being followed. Reducing the number of people that can see a project increases the likelihood that inappropriate content could be shared without being reported. That's a risk that we are not willing to take. Keeping everything out in the open is the best way we have found to help keep Scratch friendly and safe.

4. Rating projects/dislike button:
While this would be a nice idea to see how good your project is, it has a major drawback. Often, when a user posts their first project, it is something fairly simple, such as a remixed project or something they made with one of the tutorials. If a user posts a simple project to start, and then gets a lot of low ratings because it isn't a very advanced project, then they will likely want to quit because they will think their code is bad. The dislike button would also very likely have a similar effect of discouraging new users and would create an excessively negative environment.

5. Removing 60/120 second rule, New Scratcher status, etc.:
While all of these things may seem annoying, they are extremely effective shields against spam and inappropriate content. You also don't have to wait for very long to bypass them - the 60/120 second rule means you just have to wait a minute or two, and to become a Scratcher you only need to share a few projects, maybe favorite some, and generally be fairly active for a couple weeks. In fact, the reason New Scratcher status was added was because the forums were being flooded with inappropriate/spam content.

6. Delete your comments on other peoples' projects/editing comments:
This is so that people can't post inappropriate/offensive/spam comments and then delete them, while you aren't likely to do this on your own projects, studios, or profile. Additionally, editing comments can lead to users manipulating the system, such as by commenting that they like a project, waiting until they get replies that say things like “I agree!”, and then changing the comment to say that they hate the project.

7. 3D Scratch:
Scratch is a language that is designed to be as easy as possible for beginners to pick up. Adding 3D would make the language extremely complicated, and much more difficult for beginners to understand. There is a sister program to Scratch that contains 3D features, called Starlogo TNG. You can also try Alice, which is different from Scratch but has a bunch of stuff in common.

8. “Broadcast received” boolean:
There is way too much ambiguity to how this would work. Would it return true of the broadcast was fired at any point since the project was created, since the green flag was clicked, since something else was broadcasted, etc.? If you really want to do something like this, instead just make a variable and set it to 1 and use the equals block.

9. Game badges/achievements:
This would harm Scratch's purpose, and people would determine their social worth on the site based on achievements in games, and some users would act as if they are more important than others merely because they have more game badges. However, you are allowed to make achievements/game badges for your own games if you'd like.

10. Changing your username:
It would be very difficult to keep track of people if they could change usernames, and users would likely be confused when someone they follow changes their username. Additionally, that would add another layer of difficulty to the moderation of the website, making it harder for the Scratch Team to follow what a user is doing, and could be very hard for the servers overall. However, the Scratch Team has occasionally changed users' usernames by their request, but it's only been in some rare cases, such as when their username contains offensive content. Nicknames will most likely not be added either for very similar reasons, and could potentially be even more confusing.

11. Off-topic/misc. section on forums:
One used to exist, but it was shut down due to a large amount of flame wars, spam, and difficulty moderating and was replaced with the TIMAC and TIRAP forums. You can also check out the TBG forums.

12. A 13+ version of the website:
Scratch is designed for all ages, and dividing the community would not really help anybody. However, if you want to share projects you feel would be more 13+, you can always download them and upload them somewhere else such as DeviantArt or Steam.

13. Digital currency and money blocks:
Digital currency might be cool for some Scratchers but can cause problems such as competition and not focusing on Scratch's purpose - Scratch itself isn't a game and therefore there isn't anything you can really buy. If this was implemented, it could possibly lead to features being blocked until a user pays some digital currency. Also, Scratch is a site that wants everything to be available to everyone - this could defeat that purpose. Finally, there's some ambiguity to how we could even obtain digital currency. However, you are allowed to make digital currency for your own projects if you'd like.
Additionally, blocks that ask for actual money can very easily be abused, considering most users on the site are children; they probably don't have access to a credit card/PayPal, and they likely don't know much about how money works anyway, and it could lead to users doing things such as locking a project until paid a very large amount of money.

14. Banning minor remixes:
Remixes are allowed as long as at least something is changed, even if it's minor. However, a remix that only changes something extremely small and hard to notice can be taken down.

15. Adding a rank above Scratcher:

DaSpudLord wrote:

Scratch is not a place for people to worry about ranks. The New Scratcher rank only exists to filter spam, and since it only takes 2 weeks to get a promotion, bullying and separation is minimal. Additionally, this would divide the community between those who have a high rank and those who have a low rank, and there would be lots of bragging and bullying coming from users of higher ranks.

16. Adding users to work on projects/Live editing:

Paddle2See wrote:

I agree that it isn't something we can support right now, because of the moderation and technical issues, however I don't agree with the statement that it teaches bad collaboration techniques. Just because it isn't the way something is done now, or by most people, isn't always a good reason to reject it.

I do think it should be added to the rejection list because the moderation and technical issues are quite substantial and I don't think we should spend time discussing it until we have more resources available to address those.

TL;DR - the servers can't handle this all that well and it can probably be hard to moderate considering it can lead to PMing (see #2).

17. Removing restrictions on FNAF-based projects:
These restrictions were put because many of these projects were considered too scary for some users, especially younger users. Scratch was also blocked on many networks because of this, such as school districts. Some parents have also reported that their children had nightmares, and some users were wary of browsing Scratch, which basically poisoned Scratch's reputation. Removing these restrictions would likely poison Scratch's reputation again, and Scratch wants to keep its goal of being appropriate for all ages. The game itself wasn't banned from Scratch entirely, so you may still make things about the game as long as they don't break the guidelines. This goes for all projects, if you find anything that's inappropriate for the site then be sure to report it.

18: Removing restricted image hosts/Adding your own sites:
These are there as they do not accept inappropriate images, just like Scratch. Also, Scratch doesn't have the time to whitelist everyone's sites. If you want to post your images, you can upload them to accepted image hosts, such as CubeUpload.

19: Removing phone number censor:
This is so users don't share personal information. While it does have some flaws, removing it completely could be potentially harmful.

20: Removing “add everything” or “invite everyone” studios:
They don't technically break the guidelines and are already marked NFE anyway.

21: Banning F4F:

Paddle2See wrote:

However, I don't think we will be acting on your suggestion - because it's not enforceable (how would you stop people from asking for f4f?) and it's essentially harmless (if you don't want to participate in f4f, just politely decline). Tell them that you prefer to follow based on things you find interesting.

22: Blocking users:
This existed in 1.4, but the Scratch Team found it actually just buried the problem and was later removed. If you have problems with a user, you can report them or use Contact Us if the situation is complicated.

23: When stop sign clicked:
The stop sign is designed to stop all scripts in the project, and having more scripts start when the project is stopped could defeat the purpose of that. It potentially could be confusing for the “stop all” block as well.

24: Banning voice acting:
It isn't easy to track someone based on their voice. If you don't want to share your voice on here, you don't have to.

25: Banning projects that don't focus on coding:

Harakou wrote:

It is. Scratch is a site that encourages creativity in many forms. We'd love it if everyone used the programming aspect, but we're not going to require it.

26: Showing when users are banned:
Bans are supposed to be kept private between the user and the ST, and some banned users might not want users to know that they got banned.

27: Removing studio activity messages:

Paddle2See wrote:

No - I don't see the point of removing it entirely. I do think it would be a good idea to allow the users more control over how much messaging they get though. That can be handled with the other topic though.

Having the option to turn them off isn't rejected, however, but a topic for it does exist - discuss it here!

28: Moderating mini-mods:
It's rather difficult to decide exactly what “mini-modding” is. In many cases, the user is trying to be helpful (such as by pointing out that a user should not spam/necropost, or quoting this sticky when someone suggests a rejected suggestion), and it can generally be useful for users who may not know that what they're doing is discouraged or not allowed. If you see a user who doesn't seem to actually know that they're not a moderator, you can report them.

29: Scratch Team shouldn't be able to post political views:
Scratch is a site for everyone of all backgrounds and beliefs, and as long as you keep your beliefs respectful, you should be allowed to express them - this includes members of the Scratch Team.
This is what ceebee has said about this:

ceebee wrote:

Thanks for bringing this up. If we understand correctly, the issue you’re raising is that it’s hard to be a Scratcher and have members of the Scratch Team share content which may not match your own opinions or beliefs. We understand this concern, and will continue to discuss it as a team.

We think it’s important to explain why we chose to feature a project supporting Pride Month, and why Scratch Team members sometimes share projects or icons related to LGBTQ+ issues. The Community Guidelines say, “Scratch welcomes people of all ages, races, ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities.” We believe Scratch should be a space for people to express themselves and share what is important to their lives such as race, gender, religion, etc. We feel respectful comments, projects, and studios about LGBTQ+ are appropriate for the Scratch website. When someone shares their identity, or celebrates their friend’s identity, we want to support that. When someone shares something that is against another person’s identity, we see that as unfriendly and unwelcoming. As members of the Scratch community, Scratch Team members create and share projects about topics important to us, and for some of us, that includes sharing LGBTQ-related projects. And we hope this will inspire other Scratchers to create content about topics that are important to their lives.

In regards to concerns about the recent feature of a “Pride Month” related project. We chose to feature this because it was a project related to a current event, Pride Month, which is important to many people on Scratch. Moreover, the project had a supportive message and expressed the desire of a group to be treated with the same dignity and respect as members of any other group - which we think is a cornerstone of the Scratch Community. The decision to feature a project about a current event is not unique. In fact, we often feature projects related to events that are important to many Scratchers. This includes holidays like Christmas, Easter, Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, and Ramadan and events like the beginning of school or Pi Day. We appreciate that Scratchers can remain respectful of the many diverse events and holidays celebrated on Scratch even when some events aren’t important to some individuals.

Thanks and I hope this clarifies your questions.

30: Bringing back the discuss tab:

Paddle2See wrote:

Thank you for all the feedback. The Scratch Team has discussed the proposals but is not planning on putting the Discuss button back in the navigation bar, for the reasons put forth in the original announcement.

For experienced forum users, you may want to make browser bookmarks to help you get to the forum sections you use frequently. Other options include using some of the home-made tools that creative Scratchers have constructed (browser extensions, userscripts, etc.) that can restore the Discuss button to the navigation bar.

To help direct newer Scratchers to the forums, the Scratch Team plans to gradually add links to specific sections of the forums on various Scratch pages where they make sense. The Scratch Team will continue to monitor site usage to see if Scratchers are finding the helpful sections of the forums they need to. You can also help by making Scratch projects and studios to educate other Scratchers about the useful features of the forums and how to find and use them. We'll continue to explore various ways to publicize the forums.

Some of you have expressed concerns about the future of the forums. Right now, the Scratch Team’s development priorities are focused on getting Scratch 3.0 ready. At some point in the future, though, we do want to evaluate what we can do to ensure that the incredibly important and helpful functions that the forums provide are happening in a way that works for both new and veteran Scratchers. We recognize how vital the forums are to many communities, and that they do important things like helping Scratchers with scripts, connecting people around the world with other Scratchers who speak their language, and welcoming new Scratchers to the community. Our goals for the future are to make sure these things keep happening, and that more Scratchers participate in these activities.

To shorten things a little more, here's something else a little clearer that Paddle has said about this issue:

Paddle2See wrote:

There is concern that the forums aren't the right place for Scratchers that are really new to the site. They can be confusing and they are not as well guarded as the main site so more vulnerable to spam and trolling. And I think it's a great idea to point them towards specific sections where you think they can benefit.

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

32: “Invite all” button for studios:

Paddle2See wrote:

We actually had this feature in the early days of Scratch 2. Unfortunately, we found that it led to a lot of unwanted traffic in inboxes. It was too easy for one person to generate very large numbers of invites. So we intentionally removed the feature, forcing the person sending the invites to at least have to work a bit themselves. Sorry - this is rejected.

33: Banning certain franchises:
The Scratch Team will not ban any franchise as a whole unless said franchise contains shockingly inappropriate content and little to no clean content, and would be virtually impossible to make anything appropriate out of it. The reason that certain franchises such as FNAF have some restrictions is because they are very popular and had many inappropriate projects made about them (see number 17), however this is a fairly rare scenario and there's no need to do it with most franchises unless they suddenly become very popular on the site with many inappropriate projects about them coming in too.

Paddle explains it better than me, though:

Paddle2See wrote:

As with so many of these “Ban some game or movie” suggestions, we feel that it is possible to make Scratch projects that are appropriate for Scratch with the material. Also, we have not had a large number of inappropriate projects based around Star Wars.

Please use the Report button on projects that you feel are not okay for Scratch - but we don't see a need to put specific restrictions on Star Wars based projects at this time.

34: Removing character limits on comments:
This is to prevent spam - in fact, before this restriction was in place, very long blocks of text (such as entire Wikipedia articles) were posted in comments. It was also very hard for the servers to handle long blocks of text like this. If you run out of space, you can always “continue” it by replying to your own comment.

35: Showing exact post count of other users:

Paddle2See wrote:

The reason that post counts were made “fuzzy” in the first place was to de-emphasize the importance attached to the post count - to prevent spamming for post count. We don't want people focusing on “the numbers” - but rather working to make quality posts that encourage meaningful communication. I see no real benefit from making it easier to see the exact number.

36: Notifications for viewing projects:
This could lead to even more inbox traffic of users, and it could possibly lead to drama/arguments over someone viewing a project but not giving it a love, favorite, and/or comment. Views are also not quite like loves, favorites, or comments - a user views a project to see if they enjoy it, and it's their choice to decide whether or not they would like to let the user know they enjoy it with a love, favorite, and/or comment.

37: Deleting inactive accounts:

Paddle2See wrote:

Thanks for the suggestion - but I don't see us going this route at this time. We don't need the space badly enough to risk losing projects that Scratchers spent a lot of time making.

Keep thinking of ways to make Scratch better though

38: Removing project size limit:

Paddle2See wrote:

Sorry - we have to reject this. Server space and network bandwidth still costs us money. We could not afford to allow unlimited project size and still have Scratch be free to use.

39: Online indicator:

Paddle2See wrote:

We (the Scratch Team) have talked it over a few times - but have never managed to convince ourselves that it is a feature that would benefit Scratch as a creative platform. Making projects, sharing projects, collaborating on projects: these are all things that can happen at a fairly slow pace - whether your friends are logged in or not. When they do log in, they can leave you a comment. An online indicator wouldn't be much help in these areas, which we consider to be the core functionality of Scratch.

However, Paddle also points out it's only rejected currently - the Scratch Team does not plan to add this anytime soon, although they possibly could at some point if they feel it's something Scratch may need.

40: Removing location feature:

Paddle2See wrote:

We talked this over on the Scratch Team. While it is true that it is not always accurate (we have an awful lot of Scratchers from “Antarctica”!) - it's still pretty cool to see all the different places that Scratch is used. We decided to keep it for now. Thanks for the suggestion though - keep thinking of ways to improve Scratch

41: Being able to set the editor to the older versions of Scratch:
While many users may find it nice to be able to choose what layout they want, it's unfortunately rather complicated. If you don't like the editor, you can download the offline editor (although this may not necessarily work depending on what type of device you have - for instance, I use a Chromebook and can't download it). 3.0 still has its bugs/missing features and the Scratch Team is working on fixing them.

42: Reverting back to older versions of Scratch:
Too late to do that now. Also, Scratch has to change sometimes in order to accommodate other changes, such as the discontinuation of Flash. They're still working out the bugs and missing features of 3.0 - don't worry!

I reported having glue xD

ScratchDiogoh wrote:

I reported having glue xD

Okay, heh. I felt the old directory needed to be replaced since it was becoming inactive.

Thank you for replacing the old directory.

For item 30, the reason for the rejection might be found here.

red_king_cyclops wrote:

Thank you for replacing the old directory.

For item 30, the reason for the rejection might be found here.

Oh, okay, thanks!

YESSSSS.

Great job! Reporting to be stickied.

PrincessFlowerTV wrote:

YESSSSS.

Great job! Reporting to be stickied.

Yay!

LionHeart70 wrote:

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

…
By the way, I hope this will be stickied, but the old one also had removed blocks and rejected blocks.

Great topic. I will ask this to be stickied.

I will ask this to be stickied. Also, I'm sure Removing the Month of Pride is Rejected.

Botcho_Otkho wrote:

LionHeart70 wrote:

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

…
By the way, I hope this will be stickied, but the old one also had removed blocks and rejected blocks.

I'll try to include rejected/removed blocks too.

TheAdriCoolManDude wrote:

I will ask this to be stickied. Also, I'm sure Removing the Month of Pride is Rejected.

I believe so too, but I think that also ties in with number 29.

Bump, I guess?

LionHeart70 wrote:

Bump, I guess?

Sometimes, I still bump on my own sticky, forgetting that it is a sticky

congrats on the sticky

TheAdriCoolManDude wrote:

congrats on the sticky

Oh, really?
Oh.. looks like it has been stickied. Nice!

I think this topic would benefit from a bit more of formatting, like making questions bolder than answers.

Fupicat wrote:

I think this topic would benefit from a bit more of formatting, like making questions bolder than answers.

I'll try to do that when possible.

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

Haha, if that were actually accepted, then their suggestion will get removed.

TheAdriCoolManDude wrote:

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

Haha, if that were actually accepted, then their suggestion will get removed.

Yeah, I guess maybe I should expand this to “removing any forum”?

LionHeart70 wrote:

TheAdriCoolManDude wrote:

31: Removing the suggestions forum:
This forum is helpful for users to share what they think could be improved about the site, and just because some parts of it seem useless or spam generating doesn't mean the whole forum should be removed.

Haha, if that were actually accepted, then their suggestion will get removed.

Yeah, I guess maybe I should expand this to “removing any forum”?

Let's ask the great ol' Paddle.