Membership

I’ve read through the 20 previous pages. My eyes glazed over so I decided to write my own very long summary that will cause other people’s eyes to glaze over.

My summary is that most people don’t think membership tags and special features on this site is a good fit for the Scratch culture.

The Scratch Team has worked really hard for the past 20 years to created a culture that removed distractions and that presented an environment where creativity could flourish. They constantly shutdown any contentious discussions, squash anything that is mean, judgmental, or disheartening. Even though they allow some exclusive studios, they often moderate these. And the things that they asked us to do were not uncomfortable.

That has changed and people in this topic are pointing that out.

First there is the money issue. The Scratch Team is putting the touch on everyone for a $50 per year donation and they are saying that it’s not a lot of money for what most people get out of using Scratch. However, several people have pointed out that other commonly-used websites are also making us feel uncomfortable if we don’t give to them. How many times can a Scratcher go to the well for various websites and ask for a donation? Does making Scratchers feel like they have to become donation agents for Scratch get in the way of developing their creativity?

The public tags are useful to keep pressure on the community to join but they tend to create resentment in the community for people who have not joined and have reasons for not joining. The Scratch Team might be violating the guideline to keep the site friendly and therefore going against the Scratch culture.

Even though it’s not truly official it has been an unpleasant shock to the community that several membership changes contradicted the censorship topic (TLORS). We thought this topic represented a mutual understanding between the Scratch community and the Scratch Team and that appears to have been flushed down the toilet when the desire for more money came along. That does not feel respectful and therefore the Respect community guideline domino falls.

There seems to be some bad feeling about ‘much needed revenue”. Scratch has existed for 20 years from the money it received from donations and grants. They say something vague about the future but nothing concrete. I think people see this vagueness as manipulative and perhaps violates the community guideline about honesty. However, more recently they have said that Scratch 4.0 won’t be released without the membership support by the community. https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/862597/?page=2#post-9065453 Are they giving us enough reason to care?

I think their membership drive project needs to be recycled. They need to look at lessons learned. Increase the input from share holders. Try again with something that gives value to having a membership but also respects the 20 years of Scratch culture.

Semi-support. They must be able to choose in settings OR you get to choose if you want to see it in settings::cat

5C1AdrianAu wrote:

Semi-support. They must be able to choose in settings OR you get to choose if you want to see it in settings::cat

WindowsAdmin wrote:

Well if i bought the scratch membership, I would want to stand out

WindowsAdmin wrote:

Well if i bought the scratch membership, I would want to stand out

Michael_M_Games wrote:

5C1AdrianAu wrote:

Semi-support. They must be able to choose in settings OR you get to choose if you want to see it in settings::cat

I have a feeling that they already have this option.

10goto10 wrote:

It’s part of the membership drive, which will apparently decide if Scratch 4.0 is released or not https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/862597/?page=2#post-9065453

Michael_M_Games wrote:

What do you mean as in membership drive?