Project creation cooldown

RCUTB

When you make a project, there should be a cooldown (ideally about 60-120 seconds) before you're able to make another one. If you try to make one using the API it should give an error of some sort.

The reason for this is that in recent years many people have been making so called “spamchains”, which are remix chains made for the sole purpose of getting as many projects as possible. This counts as project spam which is against the terms of use. However, note that ALL REMIX CHAINS ARE NOT SPAMCHAINS. There are many examples of remix chains having creative aspects, like adding on to a story.

However, many of the remix chains ARE spamchains, and these are typically made by remixing projects one after another very fast. One of the most famous methods for this is using a “remix bomb”, which is a script using the API to create new remixes very fast (about 1 second/remix). If a project cooldown was implemented, this would break remix bombs or at least slow them down significantly. Even if you DON'T use a remix bomb it will still take much longer to make a spamchain than before, which might discourage people from making them.

However, the cooldown shouldn't disrupt normal, non-spam remixing. I'd say an ideal duration is about 60-120 seconds, since when you're remixing and actually modifying the project it usually doesn't take a shorter time than that. In the extreme it could go up to 5 minutes, but not longer than that.

Last edited by RCUTB (Feb. 4, 2025 18:35:35)

Voxalice

Agreed. The Scratch Team explicitly disallows bots, project spamming, and non-constructive remixing. I think this suggestion would heavily mitigate those problems without disrupting regular project creation.

Do you have any ideas for how this cooldown could be communicated to the user?
Maybe the “Create” button in the navbar and the “+ New Project” button in My Stuff could be greyed out when the cooldown is active? (But that would require the Scratch Team to actually touch scratchr2. :( )

Last edited by Voxalice (Feb. 4, 2025 18:49:05)

RCUTB

Voxalice wrote:
Do you have any ideas for how this cooldown could be communicated to the user?
Maybe the “Create” button in the navbar and the “+ New Project” button in My Stuff could be greyed out when the cooldown is active? (But that would require the Scratch Team to actually touch scratchr2. :( )

I think just loading the editor normally, but displaying a message like “You're making projects too fast” and not actually adding a project to your account. Perhaps have a “Try again” button (remember that although it should happen rarely the message might appear during normal activity as well).

AmpElectrecuted

support, people shouldn't be spamming like 1,000 projects just to get a url milestone

cake__5

0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED

ThisIsTemp1

cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED

Spamming for URL milestones isn't allowed, it wastes project space.

cake__5

ThisIsTemp1 wrote:
cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED
Spamming for URL milestones isn't allowed, it wastes project space.

whats a few hundred projects that are a scratch cat called untitled-239401 gonna do? its not as if there arent billions of empty projects on scratch already.

ThisIsTemp1

cake__5 wrote:
ThisIsTemp1 wrote:
cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED
Spamming for URL milestones isn't allowed, it wastes project space.
whats a few hundred projects that are a scratch cat called untitled-239401 gonna do? its not as if there arent billions of empty projects on scratch already.

1 million of them is 41 GB. 41 GB can be used to store something more important.

cake__5

ThisIsTemp1 wrote:
-crash our quote trains-
1 million of them is 41 GB. 41 GB can be used to store something more important.

if what your saying is factual, we can just detect if scratch cat projects were made 500 away from any milestone and in high volume by the same user that meet the same criteria with the same milestone, and then delete them if they stay unedited for a month.

or just, yk, create a specialized encryption algorithm just for these projects that is a blocked emoji that represents that project so untitled-8209 by cake__5 would be:

{"(blocked emoji)8209","cake__5"}

instead of including the scratch cat asset for every single one of those programs

ametrine_

cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED

why do they “need to be made”? i really don't see the benefit

cake__5

ametrine_ wrote:
cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED
why do they “need to be made”? i really don't see the benefit

so we can be f a m o u s

ametrine_

cake__5 wrote:
so we can be f a m o u s

scratch isn't about being famous

anyways, support. no one's gonna be creating multiple projects in a minute, unless they're project spamming which isn't allowed in the first place

Last edited by ametrine_ (Feb. 4, 2025 22:54:19)

AvidOsirianGuy

support

ametrine_

AvidOsirianGuy wrote:
support

when supporting a topic, please explain why you support it. the forums are not a ballot box.

AvidOsirianGuy

ametrine_ wrote:
(#14)
AvidOsirianGuy wrote:
support
when supporting a topic, please explain why you support it. the forums are not a ballot box.

i support this topic because it will make spammers well, spam less! (quick explanation

)

alwayspaytaxes

RCUTB wrote:
Voxalice wrote:
Do you have any ideas for how this cooldown could be communicated to the user?
Maybe the “Create” button in the navbar and the “+ New Project” button in My Stuff could be greyed out when the cooldown is active? (But that would require the Scratch Team to actually touch scratchr2. :( )

I think just loading the editor normally, but displaying a message like “You're making projects too fast” and not actually adding a project to your account. Perhaps have a “Try again” button (remember that although it should happen rarely the message might appear during normal activity as well).

There could also be a cooldown for simply sharing the project, which only happens between scratch-www and the API (and so its probably easier to add?? profit????)

Forthishe

i support this suggestion and this should be implemented

ametrine_

Forthishe wrote:
i support this suggestion and this should be implemented

ametrine_ wrote:
when supporting a topic, please explain why you support it. the forums are not a ballot box.

epicdude512

cake__5 wrote:
ametrine_ wrote:
cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED
why do they “need to be made”? i really don't see the benefit
so we can be f a m o u s

I dont see how it will make you famous and either way fame is not worth breaking the rules, getting popular breaking the rules does not make you f a m o u s, it makes you i n f a m o u s. and you dont want to be infamous. Or the more likely outcome is somebody sees the spam and reports it, rightfully so and your account gets ban, or possibly outright terminated, And it would not be a false report, it would be completely justified

Support, i dont think it would be very hard to add, and i think it could help with spam

Raw_Productions

cake__5 wrote:
0 support, url milestones need to be made by active users and the residue projects can just be BALEETED

no they don't

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