I am a curator of the “Propose Projects to be Featured” studio. When proposing a project, there is a list of rules that the project must obey in order for it to be added to the studio. Perhaps the most important one is:

A project CANNOT be submitted if it was created by you or your family member. This means that you CANNOT submit your project or a project by someone in your family.

Myself, and many of the other curators, do our best to make sure that this rule is enforced. Unfortunately, a lot of Scratchers try to use their alternate accounts to propose projects. In particular, some Scratchers create new accounts just to propose their own project, and sometimes it's very obvious that they are trying to get around the rules.

Of course, these Scratchers do not exactly enjoy being accused of being an alternate account. The question is, are they actually an alternate account? Or are they a New Scratcher who joined and just so happened to discover a project and propose it? Moreover, what about projects created by New Scratchers? Could they simply be an alternate account?

To get rid of this ambiguity, I propose that the following requirement be added to the “Propose Projects to be Featured” studio:

A project CANNOT be submitted if it was created by or proposed by a New Scratcher.

I once asked @Paddle2See about this, whether we should be adding projects created by or proposed by New Scratchers. Here was his response:

Paddle2See wrote:

We did have a rule about no suggestions from New Scratchers - this was an attempt to reduce the number of proposals from people using alternate accounts to try and get around the “don't suggest your own projects” rule. Also, I don't think we want to be featuring projects by New Scratchers - that much publicity for a person new to the site might be completely overwhelming.

It seems like @Paddle2See might be on board with this suggestion. If this was once a rule, why isn't it still a rule? The only rule I can see that was once in place (and now dropped) was a rule where the project had to be at least one week old — and that's not what I'm suggesting here.

Reasons Why This is a Good Idea

1. The main benefit is that it prevents Scratchers from creating new accounts just to propose their own project. Like with the 120-second rule or cloud variable limitations, it would greatly reduce the number of false suggestions, and perhaps even the total number of suggestions (some Scratchers have noted that the studio is a bit inactive at times — and this suggestion might help with that). Also like the other New Scratcher restrictions, people will be less inclined to make a new account to propose projects if they have to wait at least 2 weeks in order to do so.
   
   
2. As @Paddle2See says, New Scratchers probably shouldn't be featured anyway since the large amount of publicity would be overwhelming. When I got featured, I had been on Scratch for 7 years, and it was still overwhelming. I imagine it would be the same, if not more, for New Scratchers.
   
   
3. With this rule, it would be a lot easier to reject a proposal under the basis that it is proposed by a New Scratcher, rather than the basis that it seems like an alternate account. It would also eliminate a lot of arguments (e.g. “I can't believe you're accusing me of being an alternate account, you nerd!”). Rejecting a proposal because the user is a New Scratcher is a lot harder to argue about — they're a New Scratcher, and someday they won't be — problem solved.
   
   
4. One of the reasons why the studio is inactive at times is that it takes a lot longer to add a project than you think. We have to check the accounts of both the creator and the proposer, to make sure that there are no alternate accounts or family members involved. But, if one of them is a New Scratcher (which is easy to check), then we can make our decision right there: the project can't be added.
   

Reasons Why This Might NOT be a Good Idea

1. New Scratchers already have restrictions. They can't use cloud variables, they have the 120-second rule on forums, and I hear they get muted a lot more if it seems like they're spamming comments. It's pretty important for this sort of spam to be blocked from the website, but proposing a project is not quite as important. It doesn't spam the website or cause harm in a large way, so maybe it's not really important to rectify. Curators (like me) could just do their job themselves.
   
   
2. You never know, sometimes a New Scratcher creates or proposes a project that's really good. We can always accuse someone of being an alternate account, but at the end of the day, we can't be 100% sure that it is an alternate account. Maybe it really is just a friend of the creator of the project. Perhaps we, as curators, could stand to give these users the benefit of the doubt, and add the project.
   
   
3. Some Scratchers are already annoyed at the requirements that currently exist. In fact, some say things like “This studio makes the unnoticed Scratchers sad.” Of course, the studio isn't exactly used to feature “popular” Scratchers, but removing the ability for New Scratchers to create or propose projects to be featured could further limit the number of unnoticed Scratchers to be featured. Plus, as overwhelming as it might be, I suppose it would be cool for someone to post their first project, and then get it featured.
   

To be honest, I think the benefits outweigh the downsides. It would be better, and easier, if we could reject a proposal due to the user or creator being a New Scratcher. It would limit the amount of imposters trying to propose their own project, which could make us curators in the studio more productive as a whole.

Anyone think this could be added as a requirement?

XayCraft360 wrote:

The account MUST NOT be younger than 3 weeks old and the project MUST NOT be younger than 2 months old

The problem with the second half of this is that there used to be a “1-week” rule, that the project had to be shared for at least one week before it could be proposed to be featured. This was since removed. I don't think the Scratch Team would suddenly want to bring it back in the form of a “2-month” rule.

Source: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/111286/?page=4#post-981480

The other thing about going on an undiscovered alternate account is that they would have needed to maintain two accounts at once in order to get both accounts to the Scratcher status (did that make sense)? I don't think many Scratchers are willing to go through that effort just to propose a project that might not even get featured (although I could be wrong).

I agree. This would be a very good rule, as it would eliminate people trying to cheat. I know it must be hard in that studio. People always give projects there.

I think this is probably a good idea - a new user could always wait if they think a project should be featured.
I also agree with the fact that it could potentially be overwhelming for a new user to get featured. I've never been featured (or really front paged at all) but I have occasionally had projects favorited/loved by popular users (and a fairly popular user followed me) - it can honestly be pretty overwhelming sometimes since that can mean one of my projects can suddenly get a fairly big surge in loves/favorites, and I've been on this site for nearly 3 and a half years. Imagine a new user experiencing this!

I’d also like to point out that a lot of new scratchers don’t know how projects are featured or how to find it (well unless you immediately think you want that and try all you can to get there). I think this is a good rule idea

Wahsp wrote:

I’d also like to point out that a lot of new scratchers don’t know how projects are featured or how to find it (well unless you immediately think you want that and try all you can to get there). I think this is a good rule idea

Good point!

I am also on board with this idea. However, I do not agree with the “project MUST NOT be younger than 2 months old” rule. While it is helpful in detecting alternate accounts, some Scratchers suggest other projects to be featured right when they are shared. I apologize if this has been already mentioned, but I do think that the rule can be applied if the project is being suggested by a New Scratcher. But if the project is less than 2 months old and is being suggested by a real legitimate Scratcher, I think it should be fine. Hopefully that makes sense If it doesn't, feel free to ask.

EDIT: I'm just going to add the fact that it takes me a very long time to go through all the suggested projects and make sure they meet the requirements. The first thing I check is whether it's an alternate account or not. Of course, we as curators don't know for sure if they're actually alternate accounts, making the process twice as tedious and difficult. Hopefully if this rule is implemented, the process will be smoother.

Full support. I think that with this whole alternate account story, there is already way too much confusion and too many doubts. This would definitely lower the amount of both misunderstanding and faking.

Bump!

Bump.

Semi Support. It would help with Alternate Accounts, but it could just be that the New Scratcher is just pretty good at coding.
I'm also a new scratcher so…. ._.

XayCraft360 wrote:

The account MUST NOT be younger than 3 weeks old and the project MUST NOT be younger than 2 months old

Absolutely NO SUPPORT for this. That's not a good rule at all. If there's a 1 week old project that's really good, and made by a Scratcher, it would likely never be featured because it would just be forgotten about. Most featured projects couldn't even be featured because they've been made in less than 2 months before being suggested.

Bump?

Bump…

…bump.

Apologies for the necropost, but I just figured I'd let you know that this suggestion has been implemented! The “Propose Projects to be Featured” studio now has a different list of rules — and you are now required to be a Scratcher to propose a project.

Thank you to all who supported. I'll be closing this topic now. Scratch on!