Etellex wrote:

Potential for bullying? Well why not take down the forums then?

-CyberArtist- wrote:

To the ST,
I have a suggestion for the messages mailbox: Maybe there could be color coded numbers of messages? Like studio activities in a different color as comments and love/faves. Because scratchers can find it a bit disappointing when they open their inbox which says “30 messages” and find all of them are just studio invites/activities. (there's actually many projects on “messages in a nutshell”, that are top-loved, they are speaking of the frustration and disappointment when it comes to messages)

Thanks for taking the time to read,
-CyberArtist-

jvvg wrote:

Before making a suggestion, be sure to check this topic for stuff that's already been suggested. The reasons listed here are all by the Scratch Team. If any responses are at all inconsistent with what they have said, please tell me and I will correct it.

This is just a list of the most common suggestions. For a more comprehensive list, see the complete list of rejected suggestions.

Suggestions that have been rejected
1. Allowing free chats with cloud variables
Allowing “free” chatrooms (i.e. where users can type in whatever they want) - for now, they are not allowed because of the potential for bullying, and there is no good way to moderate them. If you want to make a chat program, you may make a “safe” chat, where users can only select from a few messages.

2. Private messaging
When communication is public, people are more likely to be respectful because they know that everyone can see it. However, when posting PMs, people know that only the intended recipient can see it, so don't think as much before posting. Even if a “Flag PM” function is implemented, the Scratch Team currently does not have the resources to moderate it, because of the reason I said before there would be a lot of inappropriate/disrespectful messages.

3. Disabling “See inside”, restricting sharing, etc.
Several people want to be able to lock their projects so that they are read-only, and other people can't see the code to copy their scripts, sounds, or artwork. However, the motto of Scratch is "Imagine - Program - Share". By putting a project on the site, you give anyone who sees it the right to see your code, all data in it, and potentially copy it. Part of the whole goal of Scratch is remixing. If you do not wish to allow this, then you are welcome to publish the project on your own site (once the downloadable Scratch 2.0 comes out).

Restricting sharing (i.e. sharing a project so only some people can see it) is also not going to be implemented.

Paddle2See wrote:

We depend very heavily on our community to help us keep an eye on things and make sure that the Community Guidelines are being followed. Reducing the number of people that can see a project increases the likelihood that inappropriate content could be shared without being reported. That's a risk that we are not willing to take. Keeping everything out in the open is the best way we have found to help keep Scratch friendly and safe.
(source)

4. Rating projects
While this would be a nice idea to see how good your project is, it has a major drawback. Often, when a user posts their first project, it is something fairly simple (for example, mine was a modified pong game). If a user posts a simple project to start, and then gets a lot of low ratings because it isn't a very advanced project, then they will want to quit because they will think their code is bad.

5. Removing 60/120 second rule, New Scratcher status, etc.
While all of these things may seem annoying, they are extremely effective shields against spam.

6. Delete your comments on other peoples' projects
This is so that people can't post troll comments and then delete them, while you aren't likely to troll people on your own projects, studios, or profile. On the forums the solution to this is that you can only delete posts 24 hours after they have been posted, and deletes are not permanent (although I don't think they're permanent for comments either).

7. 3D Scratch
Scratch is a language that is designed to be as easy as possible for beginners to pick up. Adding 3D would make the language extremely complicated, and much more difficult for beginners to understand. There is a sister program to Scratch that contains 3D features, called Starlogo TNG. However, a different group has started developing a 3D version of Scratch that you can see at www.scratch3d.org. You can also try Alice, which is different from Scratch but has a bunch of stuff in common.

8. <broadcast [ ] received> boolean
There is way too much ambiguity to how this would work. Would it return true of the broadcast was fired at any point since the project was created, since the green flag was clicked, since something else was broadcasted, etc.? If you really want to do something like this, instead just make a variable and set it to 1 and use the equals block.

9. Game badges/achievements
(Thanks Faillord!)
This would harm Scratch's purpose, and people would determine their social worth on the site based on achievements in games, and some users would act as if they are more important than others merely because they have more game badges.

10. Changing your username
It would be very difficult to keep track of people if the could change usernames, and users would likely be confused when someone they follow changes their username. Additionally, that would add another layer of difficulty to the moderation of the website, making it harder for the Scratch Team to follow what a user is doing.

11. Off-topic/misc. section on forums
One used to exist (available here), but it was shut down due to a large amount of “flame wars” and difficulty moderating.

12. A 13+ version of the website
Scratch is designed for all ages, and dividing the community would not really help anybody.

13. Digital currency
Digital currency might be cool for some Scratchers but can cause problems such as competition and not focusing on Scratch's purpose. Scratch itself is not a game.

14. Banning minor remixes
Remixes are allowed as long as at least something is changed, even if it's minor.

15. Adding a Rank Above Scratcher

DaSpudLord wrote:

Scratch is not a place for people to worry about ranks. The New Scratcher rank only exists to filter spam, and since it only takes 2 weeks to get a promotion, bullying and separation is minimal. Additionally, this would divide the community between those who have a high rank and those who have a low rank, and there would be lots of bragging and bullying coming from users of higher ranks.

16. Live editing

Paddle2See wrote:

I agree that it isn't something we can support right now, because of the moderation and technical issues, however I don't agree with the statement that it teaches bad collaboration techniques. Just because it isn't the way something is done now, or by most people, isn't always a good reason to reject it.

I do think it should be added to the rejection list because the moderation and technical issues are quite substantial and I don't think we should spend time discussing it until we have more resources available to address those.

Stuff that is still in progress but will be here later
Let me know when they are implemented!
1. Cloud lists and strings
I'm not quite sure what's going on with these. They were disabled originally due to a combination of server issues and questions over moderation (specifically chatrooms and similar communication tools that would be hard to moderate). I guess they're still working out those issues, but unfortunately there's no ETA on when (if ever) they will be back.

2. Scratch on mobile devices

Paddle2See wrote:

As for whether it is rejected or not - it may have been at one time. But times change and I know that our developers are currently working on tablet versions of Scratch. So I'll close this as an accepted suggestion.

3. Custom reporters
It looks like these are coming in Scratch 3.0.

Please tell me if there is incorrect/outdated information, or if there is something that should be added here!
Edit post

_NightmarePantherr_ wrote:

Hello, my friend made a topic here; https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/268353/ and she's requesting this to be added to the list if it is a rejected suggestion. She says she has seen possible confirmation of it being rejected, such as asking a Scratch Team member if it is.

_NightmarePantherr_ wrote:

Hello, my friend made a topic here; https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/268353/ and she's requesting this to be added to the list if it is a rejected suggestion. She says she has seen possible confirmation of it being rejected, such as asking a Scratch Team member if it is.

duckboycool wrote:

_NightmarePantherr_ wrote:

Hello, my friend made a topic here; https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/268353/ and she's requesting this to be added to the list if it is a rejected suggestion. She says she has seen possible confirmation of it being rejected, such as asking a Scratch Team member if it is.

You should take this up with the ST as jvvg won't edit it without confirmation, and the ST rarely looks here.

cheddargirl wrote:

scmb1 already gave our stance here on why we focus on diversity as opposed to neutrality. Closing thread due to rejected suggestion earlier.

(Source)

WolfCat67 wrote:

Scratch Team member cheddargirl has officially stated that “neutrality on topics”, or “not promoting different cultures and instead staying neutral”, has been rejected.

cheddargirl wrote:

scmb1 already gave our stance here on why we focus on diversity as opposed to neutrality. Closing thread due to rejected suggestion earlier.

(Source)

WolfCat67 wrote:

Scratch Team member cheddargirl has officially stated that “neutrality on topics”, or “not promoting different cultures and instead staying neutral”, has been rejected.

cheddargirl wrote:

scmb1 already gave our stance here on why we focus on diversity as opposed to neutrality. Closing thread due to rejected suggestion earlier.

(Source)

ThePalmTree_ wrote:

WolfCat67 wrote:

Scratch Team member cheddargirl has officially stated that “neutrality on topics”, or “not promoting different cultures and instead staying neutral”, has been rejected.

cheddargirl wrote:

scmb1 already gave our stance here on why we focus on diversity as opposed to neutrality. Closing thread due to rejected suggestion earlier.

(Source)

lol, I feel you got like 300+ followers just from your forums

SilverSamoyed wrote:

ThePalmTree_ wrote:

WolfCat67 wrote:

Scratch Team member cheddargirl has officially stated that “neutrality on topics”, or “not promoting different cultures and instead staying neutral”, has been rejected.

cheddargirl wrote:

scmb1 already gave our stance here on why we focus on diversity as opposed to neutrality. Closing thread due to rejected suggestion earlier.

(Source)

lol, I feel you got like 300+ followers just from your forums

?

ThePalmTree_ wrote:

-snip-

WolfCat67 has so many forums! So I feel that he earned all his followers just from that!

LionHeart70 wrote:

Everyone, repeat after me..

Stop quoting the entire OP.. stop quoting the entire OP.. stop quoting the entire OP..

LionHeart70 wrote:

Everyone, repeat after me..

Stop quoting the entire OP.. stop quoting the entire OP.. stop quoting the entire OP..