Let's look at the cons.

Cons: Causes unwanted competition

I hardly see any kind of competition for following. Even if there is, the competition doesn't even affect anyone greatly. If someone comments on your profile, just delete it.

Unnecessary if an account is made for the sole purpose of following

People have different interests. Calling people out as useless or calling their actions out as unnecessary is unwarranted. Maybe these users enjoy doing what they like, just like AE-ers like adding projects to their studios.

Does not entail fame if the user's only desire is to acquire followers

?

Distracts the user from the purpose of Scratch: learning to program

As I said in the beginning, it doesn't really distract anyone. If someone is commenting on your profile, just delete it. What people do is their business.

Encourages new Scratchers to spam on others' profiles/projects asking for followers

I can understand how Following4Follows can be a detrimental influence, but there are worse issues. And this minor consequence hardly requires a complex solution.

Some may lie to gain followers, often saying they'll follow too

IMHO, this is a good thing. Once a user realizes there are con artists in the Follow4Follow midst, that user will probably hate/distrust the F4F stuff.

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Well, there's my take on this issue.

I support 2 and 5.

I also support 5 in addition to 2 & 4.

[ v]

I'll support section 2 , 4 and 5 .

I think scratchers getting fame is bad. The whole point of scratch is making and posting projects for your fellow scratcher's entertainment. Getting fame means you made a good project, but famous scratchers consider themselves “powerful” and “smart”. Sometimes a famous project can just be a remix, and you shoud'nt get fame for that. But otherwise, still, if you are a famous scratcher, please still be respectful and not feel like you are higher then your fellow scratchers. But I agree, fame shouldn't be a problem on scratch! Thank you

EH7meow wrote:

How about making it so that there aren't rows on userpages about who's following who (like how you can't see who is following a studio on the studio page). Maybe leave a number, but no more. Also, how about making it so the person being followed can only see a number, and doesn't get messages. Although users should be able to see a personal list of who they're following.

The advantage of this would be that it removes the ability to find out if they followed you, making follow4follow rely on trusting the person to follow you back. The only disadvantage would be that you couldn't “recommend” a user, however, I don't think this really happens anyway and if you really want to publicise certain users, or say what sort of users you follow, can't that be in your “about me”?

Another advantage would be that users can't boast that “Incredible-Amazing-User” or “Cool-project-maker” is following them.

um…

2 and 4. I'm a supporter.

I'm surprised to see this bumped back up!

Let's see… I support 2, 4, and maybe 5. What would the message for 5 look like?

AonymousGuy wrote:

I'm surprised to see this bumped back up!

Let's see… I support 2, 4, and maybe 5. What would the message for 5 look like?

I don't know, it's up to the ST. But I'd guess it be something like:

Make Friends - Scratch is a place to learn and share together. Follow other Scratchers you want to keep in touch with.

This would imply that following is quintessentially for keeping in touch with friends, not for the heck of it.

ProdigyZeta7 wrote:

AonymousGuy wrote:

I'm surprised to see this bumped back up!

Let's see… I support 2, 4, and maybe 5. What would the message for 5 look like?

I don't know, it's up to the ST. But I'd guess it be something like:

Make Friends - Scratch is a place to learn and share together. Follow other Scratchers you want to keep in touch with.

This would imply that following is quintessentially for keeping in touch with friends, not for the heck of it.

I guess that would work… So I support 2 4 and 5.

I support 2 and 4.

All but the odd-numbered ones. In other words, 2 and 4.

Support-ish 5, but it's kind of vague right now (not that I have any better ideas right now )

Scratch IS NOT FACEBOOK AND SHOULD NEVER BE!!! Yes, a little fame is good, because wanting to be popular is humanly. But, Scratch is not meant to be a contest. Everyone should treat Scratchers the same, regardless if they have 100+ followers or not. If anyone treats u different based on your fame, they are NOT the kind of Scratchers u want to hang with!

when green flag clicked
support 2 and 4//looks control

I don't think I did that right, but I support 2 and 4

can i change the 24 hr limit to 1? many f4f will workaround 10 cap.most non-f4f will be able to workaround 1.

i will talk in underlines.

dracae wrote:

Let's look at the cons.

Cons: Causes unwanted competition

I hardly see any kind of competition for following. Even if there is, the competition doesn't even affect anyone greatly. If someone comments on your profile, just delete it.
noooo! report it so scratch team can see it!!!!!!

Unnecessary if an account is made for the sole purpose of following

People have different interests. Calling people out as useless or calling their actions out as unnecessary is unwarranted. Maybe these users enjoy doing what they like, just like AE-ers like adding projects to their studios.
ok

Does not entail fame if the user's only desire is to acquire followers

?
?

Distracts the user from the purpose of Scratch: learning to program

As I said in the beginning, it doesn't really distract anyone. If someone is commenting on your profile, just delete it. What people do is their business. ok

Encourages new Scratchers to spam on others' profiles/projects asking for followers

I can understand how Following4Follows can be a detrimental influence, but there are worse issues. And this minor consequence hardly requires a complex solution. here's a solution: block/ignore user

Some may lie to gain followers, often saying they'll follow too

IMHO, this is a good thing. Once a user realizes there are con artists in the Follow4Follow midst, that user will probably hate/distrust the F4F stuff.again: block/ignore user
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Well, there's my take on this issue.

I support 2, 4, & 5.

[

ProdigyZeta7 wrote:

How do we get rid of unwanted fame?

Fame isn't a bad thing by itself, but it becomes bad if abused/misused. That's why I want to discuss some ways we can reduce or discourage the want for fame without eliminating the good side of it. I understand it won't be easy, but allow me to present my ideas, some moderate, some radical:

Solution 1: Elimination of Following
This is the most radical solution, but if Scratchers don't get to follow anyone, there won't be any reason to get famous this way. In fact, since when is someone famous for the number of followers they have? I understand lots of you will hate this idea because you don't get to keep in touch with your friends, but I'm sure you can find ways around this. This will stop the creation of accounts that are made for following “everyone” (obviously, that's impossible), as well as render the current ones useless.
Supporters:

Solution 2: Allow the Reporting of Comments that Request for Followers
I think some of us have had enough of users begging for followers on others' profiles, so we should be allowed to report this type of spam. Say a user has spammed “follow me” on 5 profiles, all are reported, so the user gets a one-day mute from Scratch, disabling them from commenting. Then he/she receives an alert that says “Please do not let fame distract you from programming” or something like that. Continuous spamming may result in longer mutes and/or temporary bans.
Supporters: firedrake969, Zaneki, mitchboy, joshuaho, Centrifugal, darkness3560, A-no-meep, cobraguy, billybobscratch, davidkt, BigBlueBlock, Poosheku, PhirripSyrrip, 1234abcdcba4321, AonymousGuy, GyroscopeBill, Deerleg, VoltageGames, savaka

Solution 3: Cap the Number of Users you can Follow *Updated*
I believe there should be a limit as to how many people the user can follow. It must be set high enough to allow for people to follow everyone they want to follow, but also low enough to discourage over-following. I'd say a good starting limit would be 250 users any one person can follow, but the limit can be changed with the consent everyone. THIS DOES NOT LIMIT THE NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS SOME ONE CAN HAVE.
Supporters:

Solution 4: Limit the Number of Users You can Follow Each Day
Similar to solution 3, but this affects how many users someone can follow in 24 hours. I'd say that the limit should be 10 people to follow a day (this is subject to change if you have a better limit). After they've followed the limit, they must wait 24 hours before following more. There are very little repercussions with this method, so I'd say it's the best solution we have.
Supporters: firedrake969, Zaneki, Mokat, turkey3, joshuaho, Centrifugal, darkness3560, A-no-meep, cobraguy, davidkt, BigBlueBlock, 1234abcdcba4321, AonymousGuy, GyroscopeBill, Deerleg, VoltageGames, savaka

Solution 5: Adding a “Popularity” Rule to the Community Guidelines
Courtesy of stevetheipad, this suggests that a change, either a totally new point or a small rewriting of words, be made to the CG's. By referring to the etiquette of Scratch for the regulation of fame, Scratchers will be less interested in turning Scratch into a social network and more interested in expanding the popularity of Scratch around the world.
Supporters: stevetheipad, BigBlueBlock, Poosheku, mitchboy, PhirripSyrrip, AonymousGuy, Firedrake969(?), savaka

I support 1, as you could easily do without it by periodically checking the user's page.

I support 2, except the mute would apply to the FORUMS, PROJECT NOTES, AND INSTRUCTIONS ON SHARED PROJECTS. And first mute would last 3 days.

I support 3, except the cap should be 25.

I support 4, with a cap of 3 follows a day.

I support 5, just say love/fave/follow only users that you like. And if someone asks you to follow them arbitrarily (not as part of a collab they were in), they could be banned for 1 day (after a warning), multiplying by 2 every time the person broke this point. And after the ban exceeded, say, 15 days, they would be permanently banned. If they made a new account and proceeded with the asking for follows, then they would be IP banned. This ban could be removed if the user that was asked for follow confirmed they were a friend, said that they were going to follow them but forgot, etc.

I support 2 and 5.