This is a risky question to ask, but I promise I’ll still keep it safe and within Community Guidelines.

vioducki

So… it’s about the browser extensions. I will not name the specific browser extensions that I use, but I read ceebee’s thread about us not being allowed to mention them at all.
One in particular I use is made by Scratchers, for Scratchers. Again, I won’t name the official name of it as I don’t want to get banned.
Why are we not allowed to at least mention it or any actual safe extensions? I understand that the reason why the ST has banned against other extensions because some could contain privacy concerns and spyware, but as far as I know, that one I mention doesn’t contain any, all it does is give Scratch quality of life updates such as a dark mode, and again it was made by some very talented users within the Scratch community, so I feel they are very trustworthy in not using spyware.
However, mentioning something doesn’t necessarily mean we’re advertising it.

Now, this is only a question that I wanted to ask and that’s the reason why it’s in this forum and not the suggestion forum. I respect the ST very much for what they are doing to keep this site friendly and safe and preventing dangerous software (like other browser extensions that use malware and spyware) from being advertised and mentioned.

ThisIsTemp1

The ST will not allow any browser extensions to be mentioned because people may want to use it after hearing about it. And there is a chance in the future, that one day, a dev may do something that has a negative affect on the people using the extension, so the Scratch Team wants to limit the amount of people who get affected. If they allowed it to be said, they would have to check every browser extension first, then make sure that any updates to the extension are not dangerous, which they do not have the resources for.

Last edited by ThisIsTemp1 (July 23, 2024 18:33:32)

vioducki

That makes complete sense. Considering all the extensions out there, all Scratchers on this website and the number of ST members it would get very tedious deciding which extensions are good and which are bad. I understand where you’re coming from, thank you for the reply

SidewaysCoder

ThisIsTemp1 wrote:
And there is a chance that one day, a dev may do something that has a negative affect on the people using the extension

It's not “there is a chance” - it's already happened. People have already done this with a certain popular browser extension for Scratch. And by then, it was too late.

It's better for the Scratch Team to play it safe than sorry so they won't be responsible for the damage caused by such extensions.

Za-Chary

vioducki wrote:
I understand that the reason why the ST has banned against other extensions because some could contain privacy concerns and spyware, but as far as I know, that one I mention doesn’t contain any, all it does is give Scratch quality of life updates such as a dark mode, and again it was made by some very talented users within the Scratch community, so I feel they are very trustworthy in not using spyware.

Exactly — as far as you know, there is no spyware. But that doesn't mean that there isn't spyware or privacy concerns, and that doesn't mean there never will be. There are also some “trustworthy” Scratchers out there who go on to do some pretty bad things, despite being “trusted.” As a result, the Scratch Team plays a “better safe than sorry” approach when it comes to browser extensions.

BigNate469

Literally all it takes to log save your password to somewhere you can't really control it:

let keys;
document.addEventListener("keydown", (event) => {
  keys = keys + event.key;
});

(I know that you would need things like an extension manifest; I'm trying to make it as hard as possible for people to make spyware here while showing how easy it is for someone to do so)
A little more code and you could be constantly sending that to a server where you really can't control it.

If you don't understand JavaScript, in a Scratch blocks, that would be:

While that uses a nonexistent block for simplification, that is essentially what's happening.

My point is, in code that can be thousands of lines long, how are you going to spot that? It's incredibly easy to add to anything provided you know what you're doing.

Last edited by BigNate469 (July 23, 2024 19:20:29)

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