Some Scratchers might have multiple accounts intended for use in different contexts. If they do, the frequent sign-out-sign-back-in may become an inconvenience, and if one temporarily falls out of use long enough to be considered “inactive”, it can become more inconvenient to get back into that account. As such, I'd like to propose a quick alt-accounts switcher.
Adding Alts
To add an alternative account, one would go to their settings page and click a button labelled “Add Alt”. Upon doing so, they would be prompted for the username and password of their alt, as if they were logging into the account without logging out. Once this is done, it would be permanently attached as an alternative account to the main account. Accounts with the same listed email would automatically be added as alts to the older account with that email. Not only would this make the process easier, it could also alert somebody to someone else making an account in their credentials, meaning they could try to get action taken without having to wait for ‘evasion’ punishment being taken against them. When an account is added as an alt, it will receive an alert at a random point from two to six hours later that it was added as an alternate account; this would serve as confirmation for legitimate alts and quick notice for compromised non-alts.
Removing Alts
An alternative account could be removed in one way, changing the password; if someone's account has incorrectly been marked as an alt by someone else, this implies a compromised account and they would want to do this anyways. If the account was given to someone else, the only way a real alt could stop being an alt, the new owner would want to change the password anyways.
Restrictions on Alts
An account with its own alternative accounts cannot be added as an alt itself, and existing alts cannot become alts of another account until it is un-alted. Alternative accounts would share all of their social interactions following their alt status with the main account, preventing artificial fame by those who choose the convenience. The alts would not be allowed to follow each other or the main account, nor could they request each other's projects to be featured (which I'm pretty sure such conduct is against the CG anyways)
Switching Alts
Alternative accounts would have one main purpose, that being rapid switching. This would be found under the “Sign Out” button, and would be called “Switch Accounts”. This would bring up a submenu with all listed accounts, and selecting one would quickly switch the user to the new account without having to sign out, then back in. The traditional method would still be allowed, of course. This would automatically link any moderation actions between the accounts, too; if an alt or main account breaks the rules, the penalty is applied to all linked accounts. If someone has incorrectly been linked to another account, they could then appeal to have their account unlinked and the punishment removed.
Displaying Alts
By default, alts would not be publicly displayed. However, in the same page the user can add alts, they could also toggle displaying those alts. If they choose to do this, the following would happen:
1. The main account would show a list of its alternative accounts.
2. Each alt account would somehow display what the main account is, perhaps through parenthesis .
3. Messages for these accounts' loves, comments, and favorites would also show the main account .
4. Comments would show the main account as well
This display option would either be all alts or no alts, no in-between. In their individual settings pages, the alts could also display an alt type, a customizable string of text that could quickly identify the alt's purpose to onlookers. This string would also show in the main account's alt list, and could be reported for inappropriate content. An example of an alt list like this could be:
BlobMan - RP, Blob Man
BHNations - NRP
TrainerHarita - Pokémon
LocalHarita - Localization
UnrelatedName - General non-LEA content

On the alts' pages, these would have the main account right after the account name .
Activity Preservation & Account Linking
This would link all alternative accounts' activity to one another. This means that the time of inactivity would be determined by the last time any account was active, meaning alts that have fallen out of use for whatever reason would not lose their passwords to inactivity. If the network were lost to inactivity, the recovery would be applied to all of them, bringing the whole network up at once. The account network could also access projects on each other's accounts, though only the account it's under can share it; these would be visible in an “Alt Accounts” section in My Stuff, instead of cluttering the whole page.
Why?
As mentioned above, it can be inconvenient switching accounts as the system currently is. This is especially true if the user has a lot of alternative accounts. The Switch Accounts submenu would also display the profile picture of the accounts, as would the account-linking options (if enabled), making it easier for the user to quickly remember what that alt was for at a glance.

Switching accounts isn't the most slow thing in the world, but this is still a good idea.

I would rather add an option to switch accounts, like the one on r,o,b,l,o,x, just because it's easier than signing out and signing back in again.

possible dupe?: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/839531/

(I don't think so but maybe it's similar enough)

Parkour_Champion wrote:

possible dupe?: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/839531/

(I don't think so but maybe it's similar enough)

Your post is about “sub profiles” that seem quite a bit different than linking normal profiles, based off the descriptions of each suggestion.

Not enough to be a dupe I think.

Good idea, though this may lead to spamming alts to like and favorite and view a project, as well as apply it for scratch to see and put out there.

Quick notice, I think it would be better for an email to the alt's email, so bots can't permantly crack accounts and merge people with them.

mtaka4 wrote:

Quick notice, I think it would be better for an email to the alt's email, so bots can't permantly crack accounts and merge people with them.

There are proposed measures against this to allow accounts to de-link themselves, and also adding an alt to the account would be a viable way to protect both of them

31cam3b wrote:

Good idea, though this may lead to spamming alts to like and favorite and view a project, as well as apply it for scratch to see and put out there.

Two things:
1) People could theoretically already do this, but it's not very convenient
2) It is specified that social actions by alt account are shared, meaning the same person can't like the same project with each of their alts individually.

This feature isn't that needed or useful as Scratch's login system is very quick and most browsers support an auto fill for your passwords. You can quickly switch accounts in less than a minute if you are hasty enough and have autofill for your passwords. It would be nice to have but it isn't exactly necessary due to how fast Scratch's login is.