Note: this is a post that doesn’t belong is any particular forum but I just want to get this out of my system

I’ve been asking myself why the original developers of scratch decided to add social media elements to a kids coding website, scratch is nonprofit so it can only get money from donations and you need to hire moderators so it’ll be more expensive to do this, along with updating the features and stuff. After I thought about this I realized that the coding on the website is extremely basic and if scratch was just the coding engine it probably won’t be as popular as it is today. Why? because the engine basically teaches you basic coding and that’s pretty much it, you just move on to python or unity in a couple days, but with the social media aspect people will have a reason to use for more than a month, they might use it for years and kids might try to trick their unsuspecting parents into signing them up for a social media thinking it’s only the coding. It just seems like the social media part was put in mostly to draw in people to use it. While there are some other uses (like constructive criticism and such) it still doesn’t explain the fame system, while those do serve function the thing is that they’re public. Favorites don’t have to be public, and follows don’t have to be public. So yeah just my “small” theory I have

anyways sorry for any grammatical mistakes I made, I wasn’t writing this to show it to everyone

LionManStudios wrote:

why the original developers of scratch decided to add social media elements to a kids coding website,

So that people can get constructive feedback from each other, to greatly improve the quality and functionality of the projects made. if you see my below quote, you'll understand why “constructive feedback” is so important.

LionManStudios wrote:

Why? because the engine basically teaches you basic coding and that’s pretty much it, you just move on to python or unity in a couple days

Haha funny, just search "one line challenge" on Scratch, and you'll see tons of creative advanced projects, it's one of my most favourite examples of the fact that anything is possible on Scratch. @Scratch-minion is the person who started it, and they're an adult, so the fact that “once you grow up and you learn some advanced things, so you have to leave scratch” is very wrong.

@nishpish literally made a project that can identify a face using a neural network on Scratch, can you believe it?

It is “constructive feedback” that enables users to make such great projects. Imagine a website, where you can code stuff, but you simply cannot share it with anyone through a web link, you need that person to have Scratch installed or you have to send the project file to them, so they can load it into the website, this “sharing”, “commenting”, “loving”, etc enables users to share their thoughts and projects, on an amazing website called scratch.

LionManStudios wrote:

I’ve been asking myself why the original developers of scratch decided to add social media elements to a kids coding website

Loves/faves spread out happiness to others so they will carry on using scratch. They give out confidence and can be helpful if people are interested what others like. When I was young, I was amazed when I got my first comment love fave etc and this did encourage me to keep on using scratch.

LionManStudios wrote:

After I thought about this I realized that the coding on the website is extremely basic and if scratch was just the coding engine it probably won’t be as popular as it is today.

So you are saying in bold that the social actions make others stay on scratch. That's good, right?

because the engine basically teaches you basic coding and that’s pretty much it

That is what scratch is for. It is a beginner programming language.

might use it for years and kids might try to trick their unsuspecting parents into signing them up for a social media thinking it’s only the coding.

If they are respectful, I don't see a problem with them only chatting. Also, keep In mind that scratch is a moderated social media, so it is a bit different to Instagram etc

The Questions about Scratch forum is not the place for theories or speculation. Those would fit best in a project.

Feel free to post here again if you have a question about Scratch that you would like to be answered.