Edit: You can disable these features by going into account settings > membership > and turning off the membership badge on profile and pfp
Also scratch is going way overkill with these features, like minikiwigeek said. There's sadly no way to disable other membership stuff other than the profile badge and cat ears
Also, I don't have a problem with the cat blocks theme. It can be enabled with an “extension” and not really something that shows superiority.
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I've been using Scratch recently and I just saw an update roll out in real time.

This update puts cat ears on users who have scratch membership and adds a membership badge on their profile. I'm not on board with this
For more context: Scratch rolled out these things called Scratch membership. It's a way of donating to Scratch and gives small perks. I was fine with how the previous perks were, but this? I explained it to my friend like this; “this update sucks because it's trying to persuade users into buying membership in a not so good way”.

I am a YAB member, and believe scratch mostly has good intentions. But this just needs to be taken back. + they could've used that time into rolling out 3.0 styles for websites, or other things!

TLDR: scratch has badges for membership users and i think it should go.

(No hate to Scratch, it's team, members, or people who work with Scratch!)

OH GOD THAT LOOKS SO BAD (the cat ears and other badges)
Also, honestly I agree and we tried mentioning this before it was actually added. I feel like this just persuades people to buy it and feels like a status thing instead of a donation thing at this point, and I've seen websites be killed by stuff like this. It also doesn't look good and can look odd with profile pictures. The profile page badge looks out of place to me and pushes the follow button to the left

It even added a bubble next to your forum post saying you were a member.

I agree. It should at least be toggleable on the members end to have these features displayed on their profile, and on another users end to toggle whether they can see other peoples member things.

I would prefer if it were removed completely, but Scratch has made its priorities and stance pretty clear regarding the communities sentiment, so that likely will not happen.

Read the faq on the membership page (scroll below the “and more perks coming soon” notice)

If you don't want to scroll, I'll add this faq on the page:

“Are you putting Scratch features behind a paywall?
We are not planning on changing the Scratch experience you know and love. Scratch Members and their families receive some optional perks that you may see in the Scratch community, like cat-ear frames for their profile pictures, and some that you can’t see, like themes for the code editor. These will not change Scratch as you know it – they’re a small way to say “thank you” to Members and their families for helping to keep Scratch free for everyone.”

I agree with this. The ST has presented membership as a way to donate and get some thank-you perks, often comparing this to T-shirts and such. I'm all for that if it helps further Scratch– things like conferences and streams by the ST, and access to online courses, are all great perks. But the cat ears thing is creating “first-class” and “second-class” Scratchers, which is a change to the community's atmosphere– and not a healthy one. I was planning on becoming a member, but once I saw plans for the ears, I decided not to. I wouldn't want such a thing on my account. I'm more than happy to donate to Scratch, but this is a change to the community, and a very flashy/distracting one too.

WigglyJoey wrote:

Read the faq on the membership page (scroll below the “and more perks coming soon” notice)

If you don't want to scroll, I'll add this faq on the page:

“Are you putting Scratch features behind a paywall?
We are not planning on changing the Scratch experience you know and love. Scratch Members and their families receive some optional perks that you may see in the Scratch community, like cat-ear frames for their profile pictures, and some that you can’t see, like themes for the code editor. These will not change Scratch as you know it – they’re a small way to say “thank you” to Members and their families for helping to keep Scratch free for everyone.”

We're aware, but this might not go as well as the FAQ actually presents. Also, what exactly are the themes? Can they please elaborate?

If the themes in question are accessibility features (ex. colorblind modes or dark mode), then I feel like that's unfair because colorblind people and people that want accessibility shouldn't have to pay to do so on Scratch. Also, I feel like different themes for preferences and accessibility would help

MagicCoder330 wrote:

It even added a bubble next to your forum post saying you were a member.

I thought it was an extension.
And it looks kinda weird when everything else is dark blue.

kip22s wrote:

MagicCoder330 wrote:

It even added a bubble next to your forum post saying you were a member.

I thought it was an extension.
And it looks kinda weird when everything else is dark blue.

Nope. Anybody who is a member has a member bubble next to their posts.
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This will just serve to create a divide (eg, ONLY POST HERE IF YOUR PFP HAS CAT EARS BORDER or saying “oh, look at timmy the loser, he doesn't have a member bubble…”)

And didn't a moderator mention this on criticism on some topic?

I'm not even mad that they look so weird especially the cat ears

if they added these features then i'm sure they're going to add that Ai Assistant and New Moderation Tools for 4.0

oh * that looks horrible

are the cat ears even togglable?

At this point, I think dark-mode won't be added anytime soon.

medians wrote:

WigglyJoey wrote:

-snip-

We're aware, but this might not go as well as the FAQ actually presents. Also, what exactly are the themes? Can they please elaborate?

If the themes in question are accessibility features (ex. colorblind modes or dark mode), then I feel like that's unfair because colorblind people and people that want accessibility shouldn't have to pay to do so on Scratch. Also, I feel like different themes for preferences and accessibility would help

The cat blocks are the only themes we know

WigglyJoey wrote:

medians wrote:

WigglyJoey wrote:

-snip-

We're aware, but this might not go as well as the FAQ actually presents. Also, what exactly are the themes? Can they please elaborate?

If the themes in question are accessibility features (ex. colorblind modes or dark mode), then I feel like that's unfair because colorblind people and people that want accessibility shouldn't have to pay to do so on Scratch. Also, I feel like different themes for preferences and accessibility would help

The cat blocks are the only themes we know

Yeah, though the use of the word “themes” sounds more like editor themes, like dark mode, different colors, etc to me. Are they planning to add anything else? I feel like those types of themes should be available to non-members (same for cat blocks if they're gonna add it for members)

Trying to artificially create social statuses on a website targeted to children already rubbed me the wrong way, but the actual implementation is far more intrusive than anything I, or anyone else for that matter, was expecting. Take one look at a member's profile and everywhere you glance you'll see badges promoting the fact that they are indeed a member. Hoo boy, this surely isn't going to make some kids jealous.

At the very least this is an option you can toggle, but even that doesn't seem to get rid of the annoying “member” bubble next to status updates. Some people, for one reason or another, want to make their donation in secret and don't want to go around promoting it MrBeast-style, so why not accommodate for that?


I mean look at this, it even shows up on the forums in regards to this very post. “Look guys, it's minikiwigeek2, he's a member and therefore his opinions are more valid than non-members like you!” I know it merely says the word “Member”, but what does this badge actually tell people? That you gave Scratch money? Does that somehow make you a better Scratcher that can be trusted? If I didn't have the badge, would that make me a worse Scratcher?


A minor nitpick, but I also don't appreciate having years of muscle memory ruined by the new membership badge's presence. If it was to the left of the follow button I wouldn't be nearly as annoyed with it, but it's placed to the right, forcing the follow button to be shoved to the left instead of just remaining in the same spot like it has been for the past 12 years. Again, it's not a big deal, but I like consistency in websites, and forcing me to stare at the follow button to see where it's located on this particular profile instead of just instinctively clicking like I always have is going to get annoying over time.


Just to emphasize how intrusive this update is, here's my profile. I can count 10 visual changes that indicate I'm a member, plus the cat ears that don't show up on profile pages at present, which is absolutely overkill. The What I've been doing section effectively reads: “Kiwi, who is a member, followed someone. Kiwi, who is a member, shared a project. Kiwi, who is a member, joined a studio. Kiwi, who is a member, needs to touch grass.” I don't know about you, but I'm detecting a pattern here, and it's a very unnecessary one.


I get that the Scratch Team is a non-profit and needs money, and I don't have any objections with that. Before this update, I personally approved of Scratch Membership's benefits, because all of the perks were off-site and didn't affect the main Scratch site in any meaningful way - it genuinely did feel like a donation with some fun perks instead of a subscription service masquerading as a donation.

I still love Scratch obviously (I mean, I hated the studio update back in 2021 but I didn't personally consider it worth leaving the website over), and at the end of the day this change is ultimately not a huge, earth-shattering revelation. But these things build up over time and set scary precedents, and of the places on Scratch that I can see some room for improvement, this ain't it. Please reconsider.

Kiwi

minikiwigeek2 wrote:

Trying to artificially create social statuses on a website target to children already rubbed me the wrong way, but the actual implementation is far more intrusive than I was expecting. Take one look at a member's profile and everywhere you look you'll see badges promoting the fact that they are indeed a member. Hoo boy, this surely isn't going to make some kids jealous.

At the very least this is an option you can toggle, but even that doesn't seem to get rid of the annoying “member” bubble next to status updates.


A minor nitpick, but I also don't appreciate having years of muscle memory ruined by the new membership badge's presence. If it was to the left of the follow button maybe I'd be fine with it, but it's placed to the right, forcing the follow button to be shoved to the left instead of just remaining in the same spot like it has been for the past 12 years. Again, it's not a big deal, but I like consistency in websites.


I get that the Scratch Team is a non-profit and needs money, and I don't have any objections with that. Before this update, I personally approved of Scratch Membership's benefits, because all of the perks were off-site and didn't affect the main Scratch site in any meaningful way - it genuinely did feel like a donation with some fun perks instead of a membership masquerading as a donation. But this ain't it. Please reconsider.

Kiwi

Also, not everyone would turn it off and I'd prefer not having it all. I was annoyed because it moved the follow button and looked out of place. It makes the profile page look odd in my opinion

minikiwigeek2 wrote:

Kiwi

I agree with all of this. I know a lot of people objected to membership even existing, or felt that it was a step on the road towards features of Scratch being paywalled– but I never agreed with that. It's very clear that the ST's intention with this was “thank-you” perks, but this isn't just “thank-you” perks, it's actually creating a system of “first-class” and “second-class” Scratchers, which is a divide in the community, where some users' comments and posts have “extra weight” to them. Especially when the badge is almost impossible to miss. I was planning on becoming a member, but I wouldn't want these cat ears or (Member) next to my name. (see how unmissable that is?)

All of the other perks like access to conferences and materials are all great perks to encourage donating to Scratch. If it's important to show that they've donated, a small (not intrusive or distracting) mention on the profile might make sense, like changing “Scratcher” to “Scratch Member”. But not this extremely eye-catching badge which shows up everywhere they go.

medians wrote:

Also, not everyone would turn it off and I'd prefer not having it all. I was annoyed because it moved elements and looked out of place and makes the profile page look odd

Not to mention that Gap Between the Username and the PFP in a Profile Page, Because It doesn't look like they were going to add anything Membership Related in that Gap as far as I'm aware.

Don't we already have enough division in real world? Like, the monopolies and everybody else at the bottom?

I feel like this new update falls under a rejected suggestion

The Official List of Rejected Suggestion wrote:

8.2 Add a rank above Scratcher or allow users to skip the New Scratcher status
There are three ranks: New Scratcher, Scratcher, and Scratch Team. The only reason the New Scratcher rank exists is to prevent spam, and since it only takes a few weeks to become a Scratcher, bullying and separation are rather minimal. Similarly, the Scratch Team rank exists so users know who is on the Scratch Team; note that Scratch Team members do not brag about the Scratch Team rank. In contrast, there may be division in the community between Scratchers and those with a higher rank, which could also lead to bragging and bullying. This also includes a “verified Scratcher” status where well-known Scratchers get a special symbol next to their name.