@muelly started the topic Bring Back Discuss to try to bring back the Discuss button on the header. The first post on that topic can be seen at the bottom of my post. Many people on both sides got the disscussion a bit heated. The topic is now about 45 pages long, with about 900 posts. I don't want to replace the old topic, I just want a discussion topic to have calm discussion, not heated discussion. You're welcome to post your opinion, but please do so in a not-heated way. Thank you. And welcome to the topic Bring Back Discuss 2.0.

muellly wrote:

Discuss was the button on the header of Scratch that led to the forums. However due to resent updates and the small number of people who clicked it, it was moved to the footer. If a new Scratcher needs help with something, has a question, wants to show off a project, sees a glitch, or needs an idea they will not know where to look. This will lead to some more spam on the featured/ other famous projects. Discuss should be brought back (possibly as forums) to the header or there should be some other non-obscure way to find the forums.

Here is a good way to do this that WoldCat67 wrote.

WolfCat67 wrote:

I know how to make everyone happy.
Bring back the Discuss bar on the top page, but don't remove Tips! Instead, make the search bar a little smaller to make room. (After all, the search bar is HUGE and just seems to be so big to take up the remaining space you've got there.) Discuss could either be before tips or after tips.
This would work, and would probably satisfy a lot of people. After all, it takes a long time to find the forums anyway when you first start Scratch unless you actually try clicking everything, but putting it in the footer is an even worse idea, because trust me, nobody looks there, except for people trying to link to the CG or Terms of Use in the forums or people trying to find citations for the Scratch Wiki

They also made a good argument about why the discuss button should be put back.

WolfCat67 wrote:

Dear Scratch Team,


Please, just consider bringing “Discuss” back. I used Inspect Element, fixed it in three seconds (with the link and everything), and took the screenshot. It shouldn't be difficult at all to just add the link inside of the page. Especially considering the fact that it would take up the same amount of space as it used to in the old header, as “Tips” has the same amount of characters as “Help”. Even in other languages, I highly doubt it would be that big of an issue.

Now, about the argument that the Discuss link being removed encourages Create and Explore, as well as becoming a better Scratcher, that's strictly not true. After all, the place was already pretty obscure (now becoming even more obscure), so of course it did not deter a lot of people from creating projects or checking out others. However, even if they did go to the forums, it'd be extremely helpful to anyone needing help. What's better: A page full of tips for Scratchers, or asking for help and getting exact specific answers to help them out from experienced Scratchers? That second place is what the forums can be for almost anyone. You can also advertise, making your projects more popular, ask basic questions, and get ideas for projects.

And no, don't just think “well they can check out the footer”, because that's just not something people do. Trust me, the forums were quite obscure before due to the “Discuss” name not being specific (if it were to come back, just name it “forums”), but now that they're in the footer, nobody will view it except the people who were already here. Nobody new will be trying to join. Believe me, NOBODY checks the footer except for people looking for the wiki, wiki editors checking for references, or people just linking to the Terms of Use or Community Guidelines, which is a small amount of people relative to the vast amount of people on the Scratch website.

And about the reasoning that “It doesn't get enough clicks”, removing it doesn't seem to solve any problems here. You're just taking something that was obscure… And making it more obscure? Why would that be a good idea?

Please consider this entire thing. Thanks.

Anyway since this is about few people using the forums I'm going to put a supporter count here. Supporters: 93

Counters to the Scratch team's reasoning.
1. It wasn't getting many clicks.
This is because discuss was an obscure option that helped Scratchers a lot when they clicked it. Now it will get even less clicks.
2.It's now in the footer.
The problem was that it was obscure, making it more obscure won't help anything.
3.The scroll bar gets small in some languages such as german.
What about when it there was 5 buttons? How is now different. Also you could put another, bigger, search bar in explore because there you are exploring Scratch.
Also stickfiregames has a possible solution to the scroll bar being to small

stickfiregames wrote:

If they don't want the buttons to take up too much space they could always merge About into Tips, since it's nearly useless once you've joined Scratch. Better still, show About if you're logged out or Tips if you're logged in.

4.Removed it to emphasize other options.
Those options were already well known, discuss was not and it will not help if you make it even more obscure to find. Also discussion is an extension to tips once you already use all it can give you.
5. Only 0.08% of active Scratchers viewed the forums last month
Are those all active Scratchers or active Scratchers that know the forums exist. I feel that it is a bit unfair to include people in a statistic if they do not even know what the statistic is about in the first place.
6.It might overwhelm new Scratchers
How? Maybe posting in the wrong forum however the forum Scratchers will kindly tell them where it belongs. In the long run it greatly helps New Scratchers learn about Scratch and coding as they can ask whatever they want instead of relying on the tips and the FAQ and not knowing what to do if the answer isn't there. Also can't we add a little guide to the forums on a Scratcher's first visit to help them feel less overwhelmed about the forums? There is a topic suggesting this here.

makethebrainhappy has another solution to this problem here
1a3c5e7g9i has an other possible solution to this problem here
There is a studio here trying to get the discuss button back.
Auroura_Wolf complied a list of important concepts.
zuwel made a chorme extention for the users who want the button back, however it still does not solve the problem of new users never learning about in the first place so don't use it for support against this suggestion.

You didn't fix the incorrect spelling of my username in the second paragraph…
I don't feel like this is really needed. I mean, the old one is perfectly fine. Sure, there's quite a few, erm, passionate people there, but there may still be some good points being brought up. This topic is essentially a duplicate.

WolfCat67 wrote:

You didn't fix the incorrect spelling of my username in the second paragraph…
I don't feel like this is really needed. I mean, the old one is perfectly fine. Sure, there's quite a few, erm, passionate people there, but there may still be some good points being brought up. This topic is essentially a duplicate.

I totally agree, but the other topic is also really big. If you wish, I can close it this topic soon.

i support this AND the old one

I think this topic is a good idea - because the old one was so big. Hopefully the flame war will not move, but it probably will. Let's try to avoid that happening - we can all talk calmly and politely even if we have different opinions.

Climbing_Ivy wrote:

I think this topic is a good idea - because the old one was so big. Hopefully the flame war will not move, but it probably will. Let's try to avoid that happening - we can all talk calmly and politely even if we have different opinions.

I'm glad someone understands my reasoning for a new topic.

I don't think we need an exact duplicate of the first topic - I don't see how that is going to add anything useful to the conversation. Let's continue using the original topic for general conversation - thanks.