April Fool's Day on Scratch has been pretty underwhelming recently. There aren't any “original” AFD pranks anymore, just the cat blocks.

The AFD forum was the best thing about Scratch AFD in recent years. People could write posts that didn't make any sense (e.g. “My MacBook ate my dog and went on a rampage”).

I know it can be painfully hard to change the entire Scratch website for one day of the year, but why can't you just re-use the 2023 AFD forum (April Fools Day: Help-Bug-Suggest-something like that).

I understand why the pranks have not appeared on Mar. 31 because of Easter overlapping with that day, I'm just surprised ST isn't doing anything for AFD on the forums, not even recycling an old forum.

The cleanup and small moderation team, too much effort most likely.

:]::#00289A// This is my pet Noobles! He protects my signature from [i]unwanted guests[/i]

B){

}::#800080//This is Noobles' big brother, Probles. He has returned and Noobles is happy to see him!
//oh, yeah, he is also cool so he wears sunglasses.

:P::cap sensing//This is their little brother, Doobles

7salad3salad wrote:

The cleanup and small moderation team, too much effort most likely.

Why don't they recycle the forum and delete it after April Fools?

Plus the ST goes through a lot of effort already by deleting offensive comments.

April Fool's Day meant a massive increase of activity on the forums, which has led to the forums degrading a lot, which has also often lead to them causing the whole site to go down. This doesn't really work in the long run, so the forums won't host April Fool's Day anymore.
Source

mybearworld wrote:

April Fool's Day meant a massive increase of activity on the forums, which has led to the forums degrading a lot, which has also often lead to them causing the whole site to go down. This doesn't really work in the long run, so the forums won't host April Fool's Day anymore.
Source

Why not make a page that is separate from the forums that exists on April Fools Day only?

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

7salad3salad wrote:

The cleanup and small moderation team, too much effort most likely.

Why don't they recycle the forum and delete it after April Fools?

Plus the ST goes through a lot of effort already by deleting offensive comments.

Believe it or not, even THAT forum has to be moderated. There was tons of spam which isnt allowed. It takes away from genuine people needing help.

:]::#00289A// This is my pet Noobles! He protects my signature from [i]unwanted guests[/i]

B){

}::#800080//This is Noobles' big brother, Probles. He has returned and Noobles is happy to see him!
//oh, yeah, he is also cool so he wears sunglasses.

:P::cap sensing//This is their little brother, Doobles

What if saying April fools day is cancelled is an April fools day prank… (prob not, but it’s fun to imagine)

\(-_-) ::#00AAAA //This is crypto. He protects my signature from the evil kumquats!

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

(#5)
Why not make a page that is separate from the forums that exists on April Fools Day only?

That would require a lot of work and basically setting up a second forum system just for one day. As the link above says, Scratch will still have a regular themed studio - which also has a comment section.

SpyCoderX wrote:

(#7)
What if saying April fools day is cancelled is an April fools day prank… (prob not, but it’s fun to imagine)

Paddle2See wrote:

P.S. This is not a prank

mybearworld wrote:

SpyCoderX wrote:

(#7)
What if saying April fools day is cancelled is an April fools day prank… (prob not, but it’s fun to imagine)

Paddle2See wrote:

P.S. This is not a prank

…that’s sad.
P.S. What if that P.S. is a prank…

\(-_-) ::#00AAAA //This is crypto. He protects my signature from the evil kumquats!

7salad3salad wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

7salad3salad wrote:

The cleanup and small moderation team, too much effort most likely.

Why don't they recycle the forum and delete it after April Fools?

Plus the ST goes through a lot of effort already by deleting offensive comments.

Believe it or not, even THAT forum has to be moderated. There was tons of spam which isnt allowed. It takes away from genuine people needing help.

It's not even meant for help questions! It's just harmless fun!

Screw this decision.

mybearworld wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

(#5)
Why not make a page that is separate from the forums that exists on April Fools Day only?

That would require a lot of work and basically setting up a second forum system just for one day. As the link above says, Scratch will still have a regular themed studio - which also has a comment section.

SpyCoderX wrote:

(#7)
What if saying April fools day is cancelled is an April fools day prank… (prob not, but it’s fun to imagine)

Paddle2See wrote:

P.S. This is not a prank

I only really use this site to talk to my friends even though it is a coding website. Sure, I like the idea of using comments to dump AFD stuff on, but making a project for the April Fool's theme will be tough. My only idea is to make a project with a screenshot of the huge green flag circle and title it “free follows” to trick innocent users.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

It's not even meant for help questions! It's just harmless fun!

Are you saying that the forums aren't meant for people to get help? That is very, very unlikely, and in fact not how the forums are used. You are currently using them to get an answer to your question.

mybearworld wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

It's not even meant for help questions! It's just harmless fun!

Are you saying that the forums aren't meant for people to get help? That is very, very unlikely, and in fact not how the forums are used. You are currently using them to get an answer to your question.

No, I'm saying that an AFD forum won't drive people away from asking serious questions. Going offline for an hour to decorate Easter eggs anyway, so don't bug me.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

mybearworld wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

It's not even meant for help questions! It's just harmless fun!

Are you saying that the forums aren't meant for people to get help? That is very, very unlikely, and in fact not how the forums are used. You are currently using them to get an answer to your question.

No, I'm saying that an AFD forum won't drive people away from asking serious questions. Going offline for an hour to decorate Easter eggs anyway, so don't bug me.

Last Year, April Fools' Topics Were Being Made/Bumped So Quickly That The Entire Page Was Different From Before After Reloading It. If Topics Were Made This Quickly, It Would Cover Up Serious Topics.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

No, I'm saying that an AFD forum won't drive people away from asking serious questions.

It probably won't, but most people probably won't answer them, or might answer them in an April Fools style anyways. Also, the other forum categories can't be moderated as well anymore, because much more attention has to go towards the April Fools forum.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

mybearworld wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

It's not even meant for help questions! It's just harmless fun!

Are you saying that the forums aren't meant for people to get help? That is very, very unlikely, and in fact not how the forums are used. You are currently using them to get an answer to your question.

No, I'm saying that an AFD forum won't drive people away from asking serious questions. Going offline for an hour to decorate Easter eggs anyway, so don't bug me.

But it could drive away the answerers & moderators

:]::#00289A// This is my pet Noobles! He protects my signature from [i]unwanted guests[/i]

B){

}::#800080//This is Noobles' big brother, Probles. He has returned and Noobles is happy to see him!
//oh, yeah, he is also cool so he wears sunglasses.

:P::cap sensing//This is their little brother, Doobles

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

The AFD forum was the best thing about Scratch AFD in recent years. People could write posts that didn't make any sense (e.g. “My MacBook ate my dog and went on a rampage”).

The intent was probably to allow joke-type suggestions — not random nonsense posts. We can already write random nonsense comments if we want to.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

mybearworld wrote:

April Fool's Day meant a massive increase of activity on the forums, which has led to the forums degrading a lot, which has also often lead to them causing the whole site to go down. This doesn't really work in the long run, so the forums won't host April Fool's Day anymore.
Source

Why not make a page that is separate from the forums that exists on April Fools Day only?

You mean like an April Fools' Day studio?

Za-Chary wrote:

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

The AFD forum was the best thing about Scratch AFD in recent years. People could write posts that didn't make any sense (e.g. “My MacBook ate my dog and went on a rampage”).

The intent was probably to allow joke-type suggestions — not random nonsense posts. We can already write random nonsense comments if we want to.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

mybearworld wrote:

April Fool's Day meant a massive increase of activity on the forums, which has led to the forums degrading a lot, which has also often lead to them causing the whole site to go down. This doesn't really work in the long run, so the forums won't host April Fool's Day anymore.
Source

Why not make a page that is separate from the forums that exists on April Fools Day only?

You mean like an April Fools' Day studio?

Kinda like that, yeah.

PizzaPizza72 wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

You mean like an April Fools' Day studio?

Kinda like that, yeah.

Cool. Go ahead and make one.