Hey guys!
Welcome to The Scratch FAQ! Here you can find commonly asked questions on this forum and it is strongly recommended that you try and find your question here before making a topic.

And before we begin, I just want to say one thing:

If you ask a question here, it will be ignored.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• How do I make a new topic / discussion / thread?
  
  
• How do I close a topic / discussion / thread?
  
  
• How do I reopen my topic / discussion / thread?
  
  
• How do I make a signature?
  
  
• What are stickies?
  
  
• What are ITopics?
  
  
• How do I become a Scratcher?
  
  
• Questions about Cloud
  
  
• What is necroposting?
  
  
• What is bumping?
  
  
• What is spam?
  
  
• How do I get featured / curated?
  
  
• How do I propose someone to get featured / curated?
  
  
• How do I find a project / studio?
  
  
• How do I find a user / forum?
  
  
• How do I make games like griffpatch?
  
  
• Where do I post my topic on the forums?
  
  
• Project / studio questions
  
  
• How can I get to the Scratch Team?
  
  
• Questions about banning / why someone was banned
  
  
• Help with scripts
  
  
• Copyright questions / remixing questions
  
  
• How do I get noticed?
  
  
• What does (abbreviation) stand for?
  
  
• How do I change my username?
  
  
• Questions about teacher accounts
  
  
• How do I change the thumbnail of my project?
  
  
• Is (…) inappropriate?
  
  
• A user is being mean to me! Help?
  
  
• What is NFE?
  
  
• Why does my project / studio not show on search results?
  

HOW DO I MAKE A NEW TOPIC / DISCUSSION / THREAD?
To make a new topic, simply go to the forum you want to post on, then click on the button that says “New topic”. Then type in the title of your topic and the contents of the first post.

HOW DO I CLOSE A TOPIC / DISCUSSION / THREAD?
If you want to close your topic, you have to wait 24 hours before you can close a topic. To close a topic by yourself, wait 24 hours, then there is a button below the message box that says “Close topic”. Click on the button, and your topic will be closed. Alternatively, you can report the first post as ask the Scratch Team to close it for you.

HOW DO I REPOEN MY TOPIC / DISCUSSION / THREAD?
If you accidentally close your topic or you decide to revive an old topic, simply report the first post saying that you want to reopen your topic. The Scratch Team will then repoen the topic for you.

HOW DO I MAKE A SIGNATURE?
To make a signature, go to the Discuss homepage, then scroll all the way down. You will see some text on the bottom saying “Change your signature”. Click on it, then type the contents of your signature. Click “Submit” and it will now appear on all of your posts.

WHAT ARE STICKIES?
“Stickies” are forums that appear on the very top with a push pin icon next to it. It's very important that you read these stickies before making a topic; they contain very useful information and answer many questions. Also, stickies cannot be necroposted on (see “WHAT IS NECROPOSTING”) You can learn more here.

WHAT ARE ITOPICS?
“ITopics” are topics with helpful information, just like stickies. However, ITopics are only created when there are too many stickies in a forum. Usually topics that are ITopiced are former stickies that are linked to by stickies. Like stickies, ITopics cannot be necroposted on (see “WHAT IS NECROPOSTING”) You can learn more here.

HOW DO I BECOME A SCRATCHER?
The “Scratcher” rank is the “graduation” of the New Scratcher status. It proves that a user is helpful and active on the Scratch website. When you become a Scratcher, there are things that are changed:
-You can use cloud data.
-Instead of waiting 120 seconds to make a forum post, it's only 60 seconds.
-Instead of waiting 30 seconds to make a comment, it's only 3 seconds.
-You can edit forum posts.
-You can close your own topic.
-You are able to post certain links outside of the Scratch website.

To become a Scratcher, you have to make at least two projects, several comments, love and favorite projects, and have been registered for at least two weeks. After you meet the requirements, you will get an alert-like comment inviting you to become a Scratcher. Remember to follow the Community Guidelines! Learn more in this sticky.
Another thing to note: the requirements are not exact, as the Scratch Team did not give the “requirements” away. So just try to be active and be nice to others.

QUESTIONS ABOUT CLOUD
Cloud variables are variables stored on the Scratch server. To make a cloud variable, go to the “Variables” section in your project and make a new variable. There should be a checkbox saying “Cloud Variable (store on server)”. Click on it to make a it a cloud variable. If you don't see this checkbox, then you are a New Scratcher / not logged in, and unfortunately you cannot use the cloud.

Here's how the cloud works. If two people were viewing the project at the same time, and if the cloud variable was set to 2, both people would see the change. You can learn a lot more about cloud variables in this ITopic.

You might also be wondering: “Why aren't there cloud lists?” The reason is, there are some moderation issues, such as using them for chatrooms, as well as technical problems, as the servers cannot handle these. For now, you have to use a cloud variable to simulate a cloud list, or you can search one up.

WHAT IS NECROPOSTING?
Necroposting is posting something off-topic to a topic that has not been responded to for several months. Posting on an old topic is okay as long as you are adding relevant, new information to the topic. This topic explains “necroposting” very well.

WHAT IS BUMPING?
If you see someone reply to a topic saying “bump”, they aren't spamming; they're bumping their topic. Bumping is basically “forum slang” for Bring Up My Post. This means that when their topic doesn't get a lot of views / replies, they will say “bump” to bring it to the first page so more people are able to see it. For more information about “bumping”, see this Scratch Wiki article.

WHAT IS SPAM?
Spam is a post that is irrelevant to the topic at hand. Spam can apply to forum posts, comments, and even projects / studios. Spam is a reportable and bannable offense. There are different types of spam, not just

asgvzasevtuagecrywaeucyrtkxvbaieurycbzxsorsgcmoiawybroamxweyiktgawec

You can learn more about spam here and here.

HOW DO I GET FEATURED / CURATED?
A “feature” is a Scratch Team selected project that will show up on the front page. You can suggest projects to be featured here. Remember, you cannot suggest your own project to be featured.

However, getting curated means a selected Scratcher chooses your project to appear on the front page. A new curator is elected every week. Unlike featured projects, you can suggest your own project to be curated. You can learn more here. Usually you can go to the curator's profile and look for an FPC project / studio where you can request to curate projects.

HOW DO I PROPOSE SOMEONE TO BE FEATURED / CURATED?
It's nice of you to suggest another Scratcher to appear on the front page! It's the exact same process for featuring and curating (see above). Nothing much else to do from there except hope that it does get featured / curated.

HOW DO I FIND A PROJECT / STUDIO?
To find a project or studio, simply use the search bar and type the name of the project or studio. Then you can use the “project” and “studio” filters. Alternatively, you can go to the URL bar, and go to https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/(project id) or https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/(studio id) You can also use Google and search

“scratch” + (project name) + (user who made it )

or

“scratch” + (studio name)

I highly recommend you also check out this sticky to learn more about searching stuff on Scratch.

HOW DO I FIND A USER / FORUM?
You may have noticed that you can't use the Scratch search bar to find users or forums. You can, in theory, search for users through the search bar by searching for one of their projects and finding their username. However, you must use Google to search for forum topics:

(name of topic) site:scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic

I highly recommend you also check out this sticky to learn more about searching stuff on Scratch.

HOW DO I MAKE GAMES LIKE @GRIFFPATCH?
First, @griffpatch is an adult and a very advanced programmer, who pushes Scratch to its limits. However, it will take a lot of practice and dedication to code like him. It's good to start out slow. The Scratch built-in tutorials will help you. You can also go to someone's project and click “See Inside” to look in their scripts and learn from them. This is the best way to learn Scratch.

WHERE DO I POST MY TOPIC ON THE FORUMS?
That is a good question, considering there are 146239784612398475123491625 35 forums on the website. Here's a quick rundown of all of the forums:

• Announcements: These are, well, announcements made by the Scratch Team. You can't post topics here, though
  
• New Scratchers: This forum is for New Scratchers to come introduce themselves. If you are a Scratcher, there's not much point in making a topic here, unless you're making a tutorial of some sort.
  
• Help with Scripts: This forum is for getting help with scripts in your project, like asking how to make something or fixing a bug in the project. This is commonly mixed up with the Bugs and Glitches forum, and sometimes the Questions about Scratch forum.
  
• Show and Tell: This forum is for showing off your project or studio for others to see. So far this forum has the most topics out of any forum.
  
• Project Ideas: This forum is for getting ideas for your next project. You can help others with ideas or ask for ideas. This is commonly mixed up with the Suggestions forum.
  
• Collaboration: This forum is for collaborating with other Scratchers on a big project. If you want to start a collaboration, post a topic there!
  
• Requests: This forum is for requesting for stuff such as logos, banners, scripts, BBCode, you name it. You can also start your own shop so people can order!
  
• Questions About Scratch: This forum is for asking questions about Scratch in general, such as “what does favorite do?” or even “how many scratch projects are there?”
  
• Suggestions: This forum is for suggesting ideas that could improve Scratch. It used to be an entire site (if I'm correct) but it has been downgraded into a forum
  
• Bugs and Glitches: This forum is for reporting bugs in the Scratch website or the Scratch editor. You can also report cloud data glitches.
  
• Advanced Topics: Also known as the ATs, this is for the more mature people that use programming languages other than Scratch. They do stuff like Coding Challenges, Scratch Mods, and much more.
  
• Connecting to the Physical World: This forum is for topics related to hardware that you can connect to Scratch (like the PicoBoard or the LEGO WeDo™)
  
• Developing Scratch Extensions: This forum is for getting help with Scratch extensions. An extension is a version of Scratch that has new blocks or features added by the user(s) who created it. There is also a site for Scratch extensions.
  
• Open Source Projects: Even though no one posts here, this forum is for Scratch's open-source projects, where people can work on the Scratch website and the editor, and improving it as we speak.
  
• Things I'm Making and Creating: This forum is for talking about things that you are making outside of Scratch, such as art, music, programming, etc.
  
• Things I'm Reading and Playing: This forum is for talking about things that you are reading or playing, like books, TV shows, movies, or videogames.
  
• Scratch in Other Languages: If you have a foreign language, there are 17 languages to choose from! You could even post on there if you are taking a language class and want to practice There is also topics that suggest languages to be added as forums, and for asking questions about translating Scratch.
  

Whew, that was a mouthful (or in this case, textful)

PROJECT / STUDIO QUESTIONS
There are many questions about projects and studios. Many of them are answered in the Scratch Wiki. See this article for projects and this article for studios.

HOW CAN I GET TO THE SCRATCH TEAM?
If you want to work for the Scratch Team, you have to be at least 18 years old. You also, for some jobs, need to be at MIT. You can learn more here. There is also an official Jobs site for Scratch.

QUESTIONS ABOUT BANNING / WHY SOMEONE WAS BANNED
A ban is a period of time when you cannot use Scratch. This may be because you broke the Community Guidelines or the Terms of Use. Bans can be as short as a week, or they can be permanent. You can learn more about bans here.

It's discouraged to make a topic asking why you / someone you know was banned. It's recommended that you use Contact Us for asking these types of questions.

HELP WITH SCRIPTS
If you need help with a script in your project, you should ask in the Help With Scripts forum, instead of here.

COPYRIGHT QUESTIONS / REMIX QUESTIONS
For people asking about copyright issues, it is perfectly okay to use copyrighted material, because it is under Fair Use, according to the ToU.
Also, every project is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. This means anybody can remix, even copy your project. You are able to report copies of your project. If you do not want people to remix your project, then don't share it.

If you are going to use sprites, costumes, scripts, sounds, or any other asset from another person's project, you are allowed to do this, but you must give credit to the user.

Learn more about remixes here. There is also a guide to remixing.

HOW DO I GET NOTICED?
This is a big question. But remember, the main point of Scratch is to code and have fun. But if you want to be more well-known, there is a guide on the Scratch Wiki here.

But that aside, the number one rule of getting well-known is patience. “Patience is its own virtue”, some old guy once said, and it's true. If you cannot walk, you shouldn't expect to run overnight. When you are making a project, don't expect it to work the first time. You need patience and dedication if you want to succeed.

WHAT DOES (ABBREVIATION) STAND FOR?
There are many slang terms created among Scratch users. The most commonly asked abbreviation is MAP (Multi-Animator Project). There is a big list of them which you can find here.

If you have any more questions, please do not make a post here. Instead, check this sticky for more helpful guides on common questions. If your question isn't in either, you can make a new topic (see HOW DO I MAKE A NEW TOPIC)

HOW DO I CHANGE MY USERNAME?
Unfortunately, you are not able to change your username for a few reasons.

1. The servers cannot handle changing usernames; they would have to change it on all the comments, forum posts, projects, studios, etc. Now imagine how many of those you have made.
   
2. Even if the servers could handle it, it would be confusing to your followers since you changed your username.
   

The only option is to delete your account and/or register for a new one, and transferring some / all of your projects to that account.

QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHER ACCOUNTS
Since I am not a teacher, I don't know much about what teacher accounts are and what you can do with them. However, there are some really helpful pages including the Teacher Account FAQ, the Scratch For Educators page, and the Scratch Wiki page. You can use Contact Us to ask the Scratch Team for more information.

HOW DO I CHANGE THE THUMBNAIL OF MY PROJECT?
When you save your project, it will save whatever is on the stage at the current moment and will set the thumbnail to that. So to change your thumbnail, make your thumbnail show by using this script:

show
go to front
go to x: (0) y: (0)
set size to (100) % //this is optional
point in direction (90 v) //this is optional

then move a block or script and save the project. The thumbnail has now been changed.

IS (…) INAPPROPRIATE?
Scratch is a place for all ages, so it's important to keep any inappropriate stuff out so we can keep the site for all ages. Mostly projects that break the community guidelines are deemed inappropriate, and should be reported, but sometimes it's a bit harder to decide if a project is inappropriate. You can use this topic to help you decide if your project is appropriate to share on Scratch.

A USER IS BEING MEAN TO ME! HELP?
First, don't name and shame on the forums. Naming and shaming means posting someone's username in your post that makes them look bad. This is against the community guidelines, and could be reported.

Second, you shouldn't really be reporting a person in a forum; all you have to do is report the offending comment(s) and move on. If the user is still being mean to you, you can report him / her directly. You can also use Contact Us if the situation gets out of hand or if it's too complicated for you to handle by yourself. Remember, the Scratch Team is always there to help

Third, if someone is bullying you on Scratch or another site on the Internet, just report the comment and don't reply to them unless you're saying “Stop.” The mail goal of bullies is to get a reaction out of you, so replying to their comment is encouraging them. Saying for them to “stop” is fine sometimes, but if you say something else like “Shut up! I don't see you doing any better!”, you could be the one that gets reported! So the best thing to do is just ignore the comment, report it, and move on with life.

WHAT IS NFE?
NFE stands for “Not For Everyone.” NFE projects are inappropriate, but your project will not be removed, instead it will not show up in the search or the front page.

Don't worry, if you get an NFE tag on your project, you're not in trouble. Your project just may not be suitable for certain people (like, for example, a game with jumpscares.) You should consider changing some things in your project so it is suitable for all audiences (for example, replacing a bullet gun with a Nerf® gun.) Projects with animated thumbnails and studios can also be marked as NFE, too. You can learn more about the NFE status here.

WHY DOES MY PROJECT / STUDIO NOT SHOW ON SEARCH RESULTS?
It was most likely because it was marked as NFE (“Not For Everyone.”) You can learn more about this status above (^^^^^^^^^)

I hope this guide was useful to you! Scratch On!

I'll report this to be stickied.

Ok, stickied to replace the old one. With this trend of stickies falling out of maintenance I think we're going to need a more reliable solution eventually. Maybe a wiki article or an official forum FAQ?

Those arrow characters make this sticky more eye-catching than the others!

I am probably going to quote this if someone asks any of those questions.

You probably should sort in alphabetical order, to be easier to find something.

There was a deleted post?!? o_O

This is short…

explodingtoilet wrote:

This is short…

Then reply here once you made a bigger topic than this one

I reported this topic to be merged with this one by @Bright-Idea: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/213146/
He/she has a lot of other stuff not mentioned here, but I'm too lazy to transfer between topics

alexphan wrote:

I reported this topic to be merged with this one by @Bright-Idea: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/213146/
He/she has a lot of other stuff not mentioned here, but I'm too lazy to transfer between topics

I would want to actually make sure they're ok with that before doing so. It also would probably be better to consolidate do avoid duplicate entries. Maintaining a sticky isn't lazy work after all.

Harakou wrote:

alexphan wrote:

I reported this topic to be merged with this one by @Bright-Idea: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/213146/
He/she has a lot of other stuff not mentioned here, but I'm too lazy to transfer between topics

I would want to actually make sure they're ok with that before doing so. It also would probably be better to consolidate do avoid duplicate entries. Maintaining a sticky isn't lazy work after all.

Okay.

I've been working on mine for almost 2 months. Mine has been asked to be stickied many times, but the Scratch Team never followed through. I'm sorry to be like this, but I'm kind of upset. I feel like I did what I did for nothing. I could have at least been notified. And could someone from the ST explain why mine wasn't stickied after 2 months, and the owner of this FAQ actually reported mine to be stickied. This one has mostly the same content as mine, and the same name, and it's only been here for 2 weeks.

Bright-Idea wrote:

I've been working on mine for almost 2 months. Mine has been asked to be stickied many times, but the Scratch Team never followed through. I'm sorry to be like this, but I'm kind of upset. I feel like I did what I did for nothing. I could have at least been notified. And could someone from the ST explain why mine wasn't stickied after 2 months, and the owner of this FAQ actually reported mine to be stickied. This one has mostly the same content as mine, and the same name, and it's only been here for 2 weeks.

Sorry about that
That's why I asked it to be merged; you have stuff on here that my topic doesn't have, and I have some stuff that your topic doesn't have.
Or maybe we could get yours at least ITopiced?

alexphan wrote:

Bright-Idea wrote:

I've been working on mine for almost 2 months. Mine has been asked to be stickied many times, but the Scratch Team never followed through. I'm sorry to be like this, but I'm kind of upset. I feel like I did what I did for nothing. I could have at least been notified. And could someone from the ST explain why mine wasn't stickied after 2 months, and the owner of this FAQ actually reported mine to be stickied. This one has mostly the same content as mine, and the same name, and it's only been here for 2 weeks.

Sorry about that
That's why I asked it to be merged; you have stuff on here that my topic doesn't have, and I have some stuff that your topic doesn't have.
Or maybe we could get yours at least ITopiced?

It's okay. Can they even merge topics?
Just to let you know, I'm actually not frustrated with you, more with the ST.
Anyway, Congrats on the sticky. Feel free to copy/paste from mine, just please give credit. Thanks!

Bright-Idea wrote:

I've been working on mine for almost 2 months. Mine has been asked to be stickied many times, but the Scratch Team never followed through. I'm sorry to be like this, but I'm kind of upset. I feel like I did what I did for nothing. I could have at least been notified. And could someone from the ST explain why mine wasn't stickied after 2 months, and the owner of this FAQ actually reported mine to be stickied. This one has mostly the same content as mine, and the same name, and it's only been here for 2 weeks.

I'm sorry that we didn't directly respond, but we actually get quite a lot of sticky requests, many of which are duplicates of existing ones. I can't speak for other mods, but personally I'm not inclined to sticky something unless there's a real need, especially if there already is one in place that serves the same purpose. In this case, alexphan pointed out that the old one wasn't maintained.

Can any question be in this studio?

gusfen wrote:

Can any question be in this studio?

What studio?

Harakou wrote:

Bright-Idea wrote:

I've been working on mine for almost 2 months. Mine has been asked to be stickied many times, but the Scratch Team never followed through. I'm sorry to be like this, but I'm kind of upset. I feel like I did what I did for nothing. I could have at least been notified. And could someone from the ST explain why mine wasn't stickied after 2 months, and the owner of this FAQ actually reported mine to be stickied. This one has mostly the same content as mine, and the same name, and it's only been here for 2 weeks.

I'm sorry that we didn't directly respond, but we actually get quite a lot of sticky requests, many of which are duplicates of existing ones. I can't speak for other mods, but personally I'm not inclined to sticky something unless there's a real need, especially if there already is one in place that serves the same purpose. In this case, alexphan pointed out that the old one wasn't maintained.

Okay, thanks.

Harakou wrote:

Ok, stickied to replace the old one. With this trend of stickies falling out of maintenance I think we're going to need a more reliable solution eventually. Maybe a wiki article or an official forum FAQ?

I totally agree

Except of course the majestic Ultimate List of Workarounds…

Nice reference alexphan ;)