I don't want to just say “Hi” to each one of you New Scratchers, so I made this topic. There are soooo many programming languages out there, but why would you want to pick Scratch?

Here are a few reasons:

It's Easy
Scratch is really easy to become good at. Many Scratchers that have been on only for 3 or 4 months have already gotten over 300 followers. This seems like an insult to me because I only have 200 something followers, but that's because I was highly inactive for the past year….Anyway, more and more Scratchers without too much experience have created excellent projects and have gotten highly famous. Due to suggestions, the examples have been taken out.

It's Diverse
If you look at the Scratch statistics, most members are not adults! There are some 60 year olds, but they're probably Paddle2See or some Scratch team member (I'm just kidding! I know you aren't that old. ). So don't feel out of place. There are plenty just like you.

It's Safe
I've been on Scratch for 3 years and haven't received a virus yet. Okay….I'm kidding. Scratch doesn't get you viruses. That's beside the point. Scratch is one of the safest places for kids to go. There are plenty of moderators and Scratchers that help report mean things and get rid of it quickly. TheHockeyist is a Scratcher who's life's duty is to keep the website safe (well…it's not his life's duty, but he does it excellently).

It's Smart
Scratch is an excellent foundation for starting more difficult programming languages. Take 08jact for example. He was someone who many looked up to around 3 years ago when I first joined. He moved on to Flash programming on NewGrounds, and probably is very successful. If you want to become a programmer, Scratch is a great place to start.

It's Friendly
The Scratch team is friendly as long as you don't annoy them (kidding again. They are always friendly). You can ask them for help, or ask a fellow Scratcher for help and we'll be glad to make your time on Scratch a success. There are very few arrogant people on the site, so ask away!

It's FUN
Scratch is extremely fun. You can start a high end thread on the forums, or create a gorgeous game. You can create a funny animation, and see what others think of it! There's endless things to do on Scratch, and everyone here will support you.

Haiming wrote:

It's Easy
Scratch is really easy to become good at. Many Scratchers that have been on only for 3 or 4 months have already gotten over 200 followers. This seems like an insult to me because I only have 190 something followers, but that's because I was highly inactive for the past year….Anyway, more and more Scratchers without too much experience have created excellent projects and have gotten highly famous. Dreamo joined 2 months and 1 week ago, and he's already created top class projects and has 272 followers as of September 14, 2014! LunarNova joined only 1 month ago and see how good she's become.

Follower counts aren't really the best proof that it's easy. Besides, you only selected a top few Scratchers. I've been on for almost 2 years, but my lack of creativity/ideas has left me with zero FP'd projects and only about 120 followers. I do agree with you somewhat, but using follower counts as your evidence/examples really isn't the best choice.

It's Diverse
If you look at the Scratch statistics, most members are not adults! There are some 60 year olds, but they're probably Paddle2See or some Scratch team member (I'm just kidding! I know you aren't that old. ). So don't feel out of place. There are plenty just like you.

Not only is it so diverse in age, but Scratchers can come from all over the world, too. There are several sub-communities on Scratch for nationality/spoken language.

It's Safe
I've been on Scratch for 3 years and haven't received a virus yet. Okay….I'm kidding. Scratch doesn't get you viruses. That's beside the point. Scratch is one of the safest places for kids to go. There are plenty of moderators and Scratchers that help report mean things and get rid of it quickly. TheHockeyist is a Scratcher who's life's duty is to keep the website safe (well…it's not his life's duty, but he does it excellently).

The safest place for a kid to go would be a place where you couldn't make anything about yourself public
Although I do agree that Scratch has a very good moderation system with few mistakes, there is a chance that something may go wrong. Everything in moderation, I say.

It's Smart
Scratch is an excellent foundation for starting more difficult programming languages. Take 08jact for example. He was someone who many looked up to around 3 years ago when I first joined. He moved on to Flash programming on NewGrounds, and probably is very successful. If you want to become a programmer, Scratch is a great place to start.

Yesyesyes. Scratch isn't the most complex thing ever no matter what others have done in it, so eventually you'll need to move on to something that can do even more.

It's Friendly
The Scratch team is friendly as long as you don't annoy them (kidding again. They are always friendly). You can ask them for help, or ask a fellow Scratcher for help and we'll be glad to make your time on Scratch a success. There are very few arrogant people on the site, so ask away!

very few arrogant people

I've seen a lot of arrogance in S&T and the like, but the popular people (and me, and even people less popular than me) usually know their stuff. Also, what's this? The wiki! Seriously, go there if you have basic questions or want help on doing semi-difficult tasks.

It's FUN
Scratch is extremely fun. You can start a high end thread on the forums, or create a gorgeous game. You can create a funny animation, and see what others think of it! There's endless things to do on Scratch, and everyone here will support you.

For newcomers, definitely. Although you'll wanna move on when you're 2 years old on Scratch and the community starts to bore you. (Don't worry, that won't happen for a while, and results may vary.) That's where the “moving on” kicks in.

So that's what I think.

Well….you won't get a lot of followers if you don't make projects that people like….

How do I get this to be stickied?

-Haiming

You shouldn't point out certain Scratchers. Just say that there are “some” Scratchers that did blah blah blah.

Haiming wrote:

I don't want to just say “Hi” to each one of you New Scratchers, so I made this topic. There are soooo many programming languages out there, but why would you want to pick Scratch?

Here are a few reasons:

It's Easy
Scratch is really easy to become good at. Many Scratchers that have been on only for 3 or 4 months have already gotten over 200 followers. This seems like an insult to me because I only have 190 something followers, but that's because I was highly inactive for the past year….Anyway, more and more Scratchers without too much experience have created excellent projects and have gotten highly famous. Due to suggestions, the examples have been taken out.

This is true. I don't have many followers, but whenever I get one, I think to myself, “So I've gotten another follower who is extremely interested in my projects and wants to spy on all of my sharing activity (it kinda creeps me out to be honest…). Meh.”

Haiming wrote:

It's Diverse
If you look at the Scratch statistics, most members are not adults! There are some 60 year olds, but they're probably Paddle2See or some Scratch team member (I'm just kidding! I know you aren't that old. ). So don't feel out of place. There are plenty just like you.

I doubt Paddle2See is 60 years old. If he was, I think he would have retired.

Haiming wrote:

It's Safe
I've been on Scratch for 3 years and haven't received a virus yet. Okay….I'm kidding. Scratch doesn't get you viruses. That's beside the point. Scratch is one of the safest places for kids to go. There are plenty of moderators and Scratchers that help report mean things and get rid of it quickly. TheHockeyist is a Scratcher who's life's duty is to keep the website safe (well…it's not his life's duty, but he does it excellently).

True. I probably report stuff 20-30 times a day. It's not my life duty, but I make it a priority for myself.

Haiming wrote:

It's Smart
Scratch is an excellent foundation for starting more difficult programming languages. Take 08jact for example. He was someone who many looked up to around 3 years ago when I first joined. He moved on to Flash programming on NewGrounds, and probably is very successful. If you want to become a programmer, Scratch is a great place to start.

It is a good foundation, although I've never heard of him as I wasn't here 3 years ago.

Haiming wrote:

It's Friendly
The Scratch team is friendly as long as you don't annoy them (kidding again. They are always friendly). You can ask them for help, or ask a fellow Scratcher for help and we'll be glad to make your time on Scratch a success. There are very few arrogant people on the site, so ask away!

Actually, my first impression of the ST was actually pretty harsh. We had some pretty bad conflict. Only about a year later did the conflict really thaw out. We're on pretty good terms now. If the ST warns me now, I know to back off.

Haiming wrote:

It's FUN
Scratch is extremely fun. You can start a high end thread on the forums, or create a gorgeous game. You can create a funny animation, and see what others think of it! There's endless things to do on Scratch, and everyone here will support you.

Scratch is fun. Everyone will support you, true. (As long as they are not a troll or spambot.)

This is excellent and well-written, Haiming.

About the Paddle2See part, I was kidding. And thanks! Can this be stickied?

Haiming wrote:

About the Paddle2See part, I was kidding. And thanks! Can this be stickied?

I would, but I don't think it's necessary for now.

@TheHockeyist
Well, creating an epic signature isn't necessary is it?

Haiming wrote:

@TheHockeyist
Well, creating an epic signature isn't necessary is it?

@Haiming
No…

TheHockeyist wrote:

Haiming wrote:

@TheHockeyist
Well, creating an epic signature isn't necessary is it?

@Haiming
No…

Yeah, but that's stickied. So….why can't this?

Bump

This is a very good message! Thanks for making it.

I think we should consider making it more visible somehow - but the “sticky” situation needs to be improved. We're getting too many of them. It's probably time to put together an index topic that links to other topics

@Paddle2See
What happened to ITopics?

Bump

Haiming wrote:

I don't want to just say “Hi” to each one of you New Scratchers, so I made this topic. There are soooo many programming languages out there, but why would you want to pick Scratch?

Here are a few reasons:

It's Easy
Scratch is really easy to become good at. Many Scratchers that have been on only for 3 or 4 months have already gotten over 200 followers. This seems like an insult to me because I only have 190 something followers, but that's because I was highly inactive for the past year….Anyway, more and more Scratchers without too much experience have created excellent projects and have gotten highly famous. Due to suggestions, the examples have been taken out.

It's Diverse
If you look at the Scratch statistics, most members are not adults! There are some 60 year olds, but they're probably Paddle2See or some Scratch team member (I'm just kidding! I know you aren't that old. ). So don't feel out of place. There are plenty just like you.

It's Safe
I've been on Scratch for 3 years and haven't received a virus yet. Okay….I'm kidding. Scratch doesn't get you viruses. That's beside the point. Scratch is one of the safest places for kids to go. There are plenty of moderators and Scratchers that help report mean things and get rid of it quickly. TheHockeyist is a Scratcher who's life's duty is to keep the website safe (well…it's not his life's duty, but he does it excellently).

It's Smart
Scratch is an excellent foundation for starting more difficult programming languages. Take 08jact for example. He was someone who many looked up to around 3 years ago when I first joined. He moved on to Flash programming on NewGrounds, and probably is very successful. If you want to become a programmer, Scratch is a great place to start.

It's Friendly
The Scratch team is friendly as long as you don't annoy them (kidding again. They are always friendly). You can ask them for help, or ask a fellow Scratcher for help and we'll be glad to make your time on Scratch a success. There are very few arrogant people on the site, so ask away!

It's FUN
Scratch is extremely fun. You can start a high end thread on the forums, or create a gorgeous game. You can create a funny animation, and see what others think of it! There's endless things to do on Scratch, and everyone here will support you.

Wow! i read this,and i totally agree!

This seems like a topic that was created with the single goal of being stickied.

theonlygusti wrote:

This seems like a topic that was created with the single goal of being stickied.

Well, I wanted to help New Scratchers, but a sticky would be nice.

Bump

Bump