Collaboration on Scratch: Banned or Impossible?

Haycat2009

Scratch is respectable in many ways. But the areas that are not respectable are simply very common, and incredibly annoying.

One of them is collaboration. By collaboration, I mean “A duo or trio work to make a project” instead of “10^10^118 people make a project, each of them contributes exactly one sprite”. While both methods of collaboration are commonplace, the first one is particularly difficult without
1. Leaking every part of your project
2. Violating Scratch rules
3. Being able to communicate.

Here's three methods to collaborate between a duo that currently work on Scratch:
1. Making a shared account
2. Private messaging project files. Each person uses offline Scratch.
3. Using the Collaboration forum
4. Creating a remix chain

Heres why none of them work:

Shared accounts:

Collaboration accounts are not allowed and will be blocked by the Scratch Team.

I admit that it can be hard to tell who did the wrong thing if a shared account goes rogue. But here's my take: Blame both. The one who did not do anything wrong has the responsibility, after all, for allowing a shared account and for trusting the other to be worthy. There's also no way for the perpertrator to avoid blame this way.

This is also one of the safest ways to collaborate, especially when there are multiple projects to be made by the same group.

Private messaging:
Its essential for coordination, communication without letting the whole world know what on earth you are making. You dont want to make a collab animation with a twist that quickly gets spoiled BEFORE the project is ready. And its banned.

8.1 Private messaging
Scratch currently has public messaging, meaning anyone can see the comments that you write. As a result, people are more likely to be respectful since anyone can see the comment. However, with private messaging, people know that only the intended recipient can see the message, which could lead to many more disrespectful or inappropriate comments. The Scratch Team also simply does not have the resources to moderate a private messaging system, precisely because there would be a lot of bad comments. In addition, it is a huge Internet safety concern and is not the purpose of Scratch anyway.

This extends to allowing users to post links to other private messaging websites. Many such messaging websites are not as well-moderated as Scratch is. If such links were allowed, Scratch may be held responsible if anything bad happens to someone. It also extends to voice chat capabilities on Scratch; for more information, see this post.

Private messaging can lead to many bad comments, but sour grapes who troll are rare in comparison to serious users who use chat for serious reasons. We shouldnt let a minority control the decisions of the majority: Imagine a despotic tyrant. Dont forget, we have an auto-censor that significantly reduces staff workload and is effective. It will still work for private messaging, so thats why the risk is null.

Collab forum:
This is a legal way. Unfortunately, its meant for “10^10^118 people make a project, each of them contributes exactly one sprite”. People can see what you are working on, which leads to the same problems as the lack of private messaging. Furthermore, Its problematic as other people may butt in the create noise when its only you and a friend working on a project. Each time a message is sent, the forum rises. Eventually, someone will spoil it.

Remix chain:
This is also legal. But it has the side effects of spoiling everything, as well as an extremely poor organisation (Is this the latest version? Is this version 56 or 59? Who does which part?). I get that Scratch wants us to do this, but dont forget they have NEVER had to collab to make a large project. They are also extremely opaque, and dont forget their ivory tower. Seriously. They dont know what we need on the flimsy grounds of safety against imaginary threats.

What suggestions could be possible?
1. Adding users to work on projects
2. Private sharing

Adding users to work on projects:
There's zero risk, its private and its almost perfect. Unfortunately, the ST being the ivory tower citizens they are, say:

2.1 Adding users to work on projects
Having multiple Scratchers work on the same project would be difficult to moderate not only due to technological limitations but also because it could lead to private messaging; for more information, see #8.1 on this list. This includes live editing (similar to Google Docs) and other forms of private collaboration. If you would like to work on a project with another Scratcher, you can remix each others' projects.

This is simply an excuse. Admittedly, it does not sound like one.

Private sharing:
There's also zero risk, its private and its effectively perfect. Lets see what ST's take is:

Private sharing so that only certain users can view the project is also not going to be implemented. It is important for projects to be publicly shared for everyone to see so people can report them if they are inappropriate. Only allowing certain users to view projects could increase the chances of inappropriate projects being shared on the website. ”Unlisted projects," similar to a YouTube feature, will also not be implemented for the same reason; for more information, see this post. It could also be used for private messaging; for more information, see #8.1 on this list.

Dont forget that people who the project is privately shared to CAN report if its inappropriate. The users not involved cant see the inappropriate projects being shared on the website, so it does not matter to them. They dont know they are there.

I give a final plea to improve collaboration abilities. Its basically impossible or bannable to collaborate: Quite ironic, given how the Scratch motto is “Imagine, program, share.” Sharing needs another person. But sometimes, you need a beta. And You dont need to whole world to see it.

The beta is a reason for collaboration. “Imagine, program, share.” need not be done alone. Some people may be better at one of these tasks than others: But by separating them, what have you achieved?

Think about it.

AdaVesta_

TOLORS wrote:
4.1 Disable “See Inside” or private sharing
Some users want an option to prevent Scratchers from looking inside their project and using their artwork, scripts, or sounds. However, the core ideas of Scratch are “Imagine, Program, Share.“ By sharing a project on the Scratch website, you are allowing others to see the code and potentially remix or reuse the data inside, as long as they give credit. This includes allowing others to use the backpack to use your creations in their own projects. That being said, please use the Report button on any project that uses content from another Scratcher without giving credit to them. If you do not want other users to see inside your project, then do not share your project on the Scratch website.

Private sharing so that only certain users can view the project is also not going to be implemented. It is important for projects to be publicly shared for everyone to see so people can report them if they are inappropriate. Only allowing certain users to view projects could increase the chances of inappropriate projects being shared on the website. ”Unlisted projects,” similar to a YouTube feature, will also not be implemented for the same reason; for more information, see this post. It could also be used for private messaging; for more information, see #8.1 on this list.

Last edited by AdaVesta_ (March 1, 2026 03:41:38)

HollyEuca

sour grapes who troll are rare

False. Unfortunately. Take it from me, I have been bullied and trolled an ungodly amount times by an ungodly amount of trolls. Though maybe it's because I participate in Scratch chatrooms more…

To answer your question, offline Scratch exists. If you want to collab on a project with a friend, you can make the project in offline Scratch, download it, then send it to your friend (assuming you can email or text a friend, and I mean real life friends, you should never DM strangers offsite). They can edit it and resend it and so on. Tada ;P

But, if you want to collaborate with another Scratcher, then your objective makes sense. It's really difficult to work in real time. But again, you can just remix as long as you're not making irrelevant remix chains. Example: Person A in the collab can create the first part of the project, then Person B can remix and add to it. Then, Person A can backpack Person B's work in a fresh project and add to it, and Person B can remix said project. This avoids remix chains.

Haycat2009

HollyEuca wrote:
sour grapes who troll are rare
False. Unfortunately. Take it from me, I have been bullied and trolled an ungodly amount times by an ungodly amount of trolls. Though maybe it's because I participate in Scratch chatrooms more…

To answer your question, offline Scratch exists. If you want to collab on a project with a friend, you can make the project in offline Scratch, download it, then send it to your friend (assuming you can email or text a friend, and I mean real life friends, you should never DM strangers offsite). They can edit it and resend it and so on. Tada ;P

But, if you want to collaborate with another Scratcher, then your objective makes sense. It's really difficult to work in real time. But again, you can just remix as long as you're not making irrelevant remix chains. Example: Person A in the collab can create the first part of the project, then Person B can remix and add to it. Then, Person A can backpack Person B's work in a fresh project and add to it, and Person B can remix said project. This avoids remix chains.

I have also been trolled an ungodly number of times. But its usually one person creating many alt accounts. Most people have better things to do.

As for the remix, theres still the problem of knowing which is the current version. I admire your way of solving it: I couldnt think of anything better in regulation.

CharPikMar

I don't really agree with this post.

Private messaging can lead to many bad comments, but sour grapes who troll are rare in comparison to serious users who use chat for serious reasons. We shouldnt let a minority control the decisions of the majority: Imagine a despotic tyrant. Dont forget, we have an auto-censor that significantly reduces staff workload and is effective. It will still work for private messaging, so thats why the risk is null.

The auto-censor is really ineffective most of the time, having the Gunthorpe Issue—and do we really want people to private message each other on a platform for kids—that explicity mentions not to link private messaging, even rejecting suggestions to private messaging?
Private Sharing projects will have many, MANY ISSUES with inappropriate or worse projects being shared to 8 year-olds. If you really want to do a private collaboration, if you are old enough along with your friends, use an external social media.

No support because private messaging and sharing is rejected.

Haycat2009

CharPikMar wrote:
I don't really agree with this post.
Private messaging can lead to many bad comments, but sour grapes who troll are rare in comparison to serious users who use chat for serious reasons. We shouldnt let a minority control the decisions of the majority: Imagine a despotic tyrant. Dont forget, we have an auto-censor that significantly reduces staff workload and is effective. It will still work for private messaging, so thats why the risk is null.

The auto-censor is really ineffective most of the time, having the Gunthorpe Issue—and do we really want people to private message each other on a platform for kids—that explicity mentions not to link private messaging, even rejecting suggestions to private messaging?
Private Sharing projects will have many, MANY ISSUES with inappropriate or worse projects being shared to 8 year-olds. If you really want to do a private collaboration, if you are old enough along with your friends, use an external social media.

No support because private messaging and sharing is rejected.

I wasn’t expecting your support: I just needed to voice out.

To clarify, this is not a suggestion. I couldn’t find a better place for this, but here’s the point: It’s not that bad. Yes, inappropriate stuff happens on private messaging. But tell me how many times you have been affected. In general, it is safe. And don’t forget, private messages CAN still be reported.

So what’s the issue?

Discuss Scratch