For over two months, recent maintenance work had impacted greatly within the front page. Crunching down the time and resources one by one, there were several revisions made throughout the site, one of which was closing down the “What The Community is Loving” section momentarily.

However, this event itself had caused me to ponder about if this section, existed for over a decade, and then became incidentally closed, was a necessity, or totally a waste.



1. Why do projects need more attention if they have already gained enough?

I know that people are going to think that I'm obsessive about fame and such, but to put it to retrospect on the Scratch Team: they inherently try to feature projects with very little attention, they create studios for newcomers to have their work noticed by other Scratchers, they (now don't regularly because of the aftermath of server maintenance) showcase diverse themes on the Scratch Design Studio, and selected projects out of random odds to framed up onto the front page every hour or so, and similar, yet effective methods. So why in this certain scenario, it showcases already popular projects among the community.



2. Top Loved have similar and identical issues that arise from Trending.

What the Community is Loving, has all the positive and heavily discussed negative traits that come straight from the ever beloved “Trending” section on the Explore page. Does it contain content that may not be “super creative?” Can it be exploited via unethical methods? Do all the factors of getting featured on Trending follow up to a near complete dice roll? The answer to all of those questions is indeed, yes, and not all, but a majority of the concerns that arise come about on Trending too. Even with the recent realization of Trending being a complete disaster to many individuals, this could also go the exact same way with “What the Community is Loving.”



In conclusion, I think it's not beneficial for Scratch to implement “What the Community is Loving” all over again, because of its questionable existence and flaws that it creates for Scratch as a whole.

If this is a duplicate, please provide me a link to it. If you have any concerns, don't be hesitant to bring them up in this thread.


Oh, and my intent with this thread is to JUST remove the “What the Community is Loving,” unlike similar areas in Scratch including “What the Community is Remixing.” You can feel free to discuss whether or not the Top Loved should be removed, ALONGSIDE with the “What the Community is Remixing” here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/680865/

This shakes up a whole part of an oncoming update happening.

Trending does that but I think it might be fix with the issues with an upcoming update.

Good suggestion tho.

With reading the post, I agree. There's already Trending and Featured Projects, so why re-implement something else? Support.

“What The Community is Remixing” could help to find contests and stuff, I don't really see the point of “What The Community is Loving” though.

Speaking as a project-creator, I've found it easier to make it on Top Loved* than Trending. I think Top Loved has less possibility for abuse than Trending (e.g. Trending reshare glitch, misused tags). The Top Loved row hasn't been freezing up nearly as often as Trending. There also seems to be a “time limit” for Top Loved, where a project can only be in the Top Loved row for at most a week, whereas I suspect such a limit does not exist for Trending. Combined with the fact that the Top Loved row isn't exactly harmful, I see no reason to remove it permanently.

*Top Loved is shorthand for “What the Community is Loving.”

Za-Chary wrote:

Speaking as a project-creator, I've found it easier to make it on Top Loved* than Trending. I think Top Loved has less possibility for abuse than Trending (e.g. Trending reshare glitch, misused tags). The Top Loved row hasn't been freezing up nearly as often as Trending. There also seems to be a “time limit” for Top Loved, where a project can only be in the Top Loved row for at most a week, whereas I suspect such a limit does not exist for Trending. Combined with the fact that the Top Loved row isn't exactly harmful, I see no reason to remove it permanently.

*Top Loved is shorthand for “What the Community is Loving.”

True, it seems people misuse trending a lot just to get fame and Top Loved doesn't work like that, giving small scratchers a way to get their projects front paged without spamming “#Animations” in the Notes & Credits.

INSERT-USER_NAME wrote:

“What The Community is Remixing” could help to find contests and stuff, I don't really see the point of “What The Community is Loving” though.

Yeah, that's the main reason why I didn't include “What the Community is Remixing” in the crossfire, as it's actually somewhat convenient compared to Top Loved.

Za-Chary wrote:

Speaking as a project-creator, I've found it easier to make it on Top Loved* than Trending. I think Top Loved has less possibility for abuse than Trending (e.g. Trending reshare glitch, misused tags). The Top Loved row hasn't been freezing up nearly as often as Trending. There also seems to be a “time limit” for Top Loved, where a project can only be in the Top Loved row for at most a week, whereas I suspect such a limit does not exist for Trending.

I've always thought that Top Loved was excruciatingly similar to Trending. I have to take your word about Top Loved versus Trending, as I've never been close to getting on Top Loved, nor receiving much popularity altogether. At the moment, I wouldn't really care much if Trending or Top Loved got removed, but I just found that Top Loved seemed to be less effective.

waitwhat2288 wrote:

I've always thought that Top Loved was excruciatingly similar to Trending. I have to take your word about Top Loved versus Trending, as I've never been close to getting on Top Loved, nor receiving much popularity altogether. At the moment, I wouldn't really care much if Trending or Top Loved got removed, but I just found that Top Loved seemed to be less effective.

Personally I've had some wonderful memories of being on Top Loved while also having some overwhelming trauma from being on Trending. Indeed, from a project-creator's viewpoint, between the sheer number of comments and the risk of “mass reporting,” I think Top Loved would actually be less stressful than Trending. So I would much rather see Top Loved stay and Trending leave, if one of them had to go.

But a fundamental argument for keeping Trending is that you can see much much more projects at one time and even sort by genre and language.

Personally, I have never use trending until the past year or so, while i've been looking at projects on top loved since I first made my account 6 yrs ago

I do like that the “What The Community is Loving” section has no current glitches or issues, but it honestly feels redundant.
If the Trending bugs are fixed, Scratch could just replace that section with a shortened version of Trending which shows the first 10 projects.

ajskateboarder wrote:

I do like that the “What The Community is Loving” section has no current glitches or issues, but it honestly feels redundant.
If the Trending bugs are fixed, Scratch could just replace that section with a shortened version of Trending which shows the first 10 projects.

Personally I still like the “what the community is loving” page, the trending page has nearly nothing I enjoy, while the loving row actually has some nice stuff. The 2 sections actually seems to have 2 different sets of projects with relatively different content

blablablahello wrote:

ajskateboarder wrote:

I do like that the “What The Community is Loving” section has no current glitches or issues, but it honestly feels redundant.
If the Trending bugs are fixed, Scratch could just replace that section with a shortened version of Trending which shows the first 10 projects.

Personally I still like the “what the community is loving” page, the trending page has nearly nothing I enjoy, while the loving row actually has some nice stuff

The WTCL section is curated by the Scratch Team (I believe), so that makes sense
^ This was wrong, so I guess the algorithms for the sections are different?

ajskateboarder wrote:

The WTCL section is curated by the Scratch Team (I believe), so that makes sense

That's not true. “What the Community is Loving” is determined by an algorithm.

Za-Chary wrote:

ajskateboarder wrote:

The WTCL section is curated by the Scratch Team (I believe), so that makes sense

That's not true. “What the Community is Loving” is determined by an algorithm.

I was just about to say this, WCL updates every day, so I'm pretty sure it isn't the ST updating it.

1. Why do projects need more attention if they have already gained enough?
I know that people are going to think that I'm obsessive about fame and such, but to put it to retrospect on the Scratch Team: they inherently try to feature projects with very little attention, they create studios for newcomers to have their work noticed by other Scratchers, they (now don't regularly because of the aftermath of server maintenance) showcase diverse themes on the Scratch Design Studio, and selected projects out of random odds to framed up onto the front page every hour or so, and similar, yet effective methods. So why in this certain scenario, it showcases already popular projects among the community.

Because more it's good and deserves more. Plus it would help give more good feedback and such. And can even help them see how well it is.
It's a good point there is a thing called enough fame. But this is actually a really good point with in it. So this does make some sense. It's better off being not too overrated.

2. Trending is already a good enough alternative for this section.
What the Community is Loving, has all the positive and heavily discussed negative traits that come straight from the ever beloved “Trending” section on the Explore page. Does it contain content that may not be “super creative?” Can it be exploited via unethical methods? Do all the factors of getting featured on Trending follow up to a near complete dice roll? The answer to all of those questions is indeed, yes. Even with the recent realization of Trending being a complete disaster to many individuals, this could also go the exact same way with “What the Community is Loving.”

Trending is not really a good workaround. With the fact it's really glitchy and has a lot of problems here and there. First it was frozen. Now tag spam. So it's not the best way to replace something that already is good enough. It's not worth removing it for that reason.

So semi-support. number 1 I agree with. but number 2 I don't agree with.

Crispydogs101 wrote:

1. Why do projects need more attention if they have already gained enough?
I know that people are going to think that I'm obsessive about fame and such, but to put it to retrospect on the Scratch Team: they inherently try to feature projects with very little attention, they create studios for newcomers to have their work noticed by other Scratchers, they (now don't regularly because of the aftermath of server maintenance) showcase diverse themes on the Scratch Design Studio, and selected projects out of random odds to framed up onto the front page every hour or so, and similar, yet effective methods. So why in this certain scenario, it showcases already popular projects among the community.

Because more it's good and deserves more. Plus it would help give more good feedback and such. And can even help them see how well it is.
It's a good point there is a thing called enough fame. But this is actually a really good point with in it. So this does make some sense. It's better off being not too overrated.

Yeah, with a community as large as Scratch, the amount of attention a project can receive is essentially limitless, so it would make sense if people would want more feedback and criticism on a project to ensue. Although, I've just found this weird, given that Scratch's retrospect on “fame” and “popularity” is rather strict.

Crispydogs101 wrote:

2. Trending is already a good enough alternative for this section.
What the Community is Loving, has all the positive and heavily discussed negative traits that come straight from the ever beloved “Trending” section on the Explore page. Does it contain content that may not be “super creative?” Can it be exploited via unethical methods? Do all the factors of getting featured on Trending follow up to a near complete dice roll? The answer to all of those questions is indeed, yes. Even with the recent realization of Trending being a complete disaster to many individuals, this could also go the exact same way with “What the Community is Loving.”

Trending is not really a good workaround. With the fact it's really glitchy and has a lot of problems here and there. First it was frozen. Now tag spam. So it's not the best way to replace something that already is good enough. It's not worth removing it for that reason.

I swear the trending page a few months ago wasn't as hectic and prone to abuse as nowadays. I've just come to realize that Trending isn't much of a carbon copy as Top Loved, so my opinions on this have changed a bit, and might I add that this section is a bit outdated now considering how versatile Trending and Top Loved are from each other.

I should probably state this section in a much more negative connotation.

waitwhat2288 wrote:

I swear the trending page a few months ago wasn't as hectic and prone to abuse as nowadays.

It has always been like this. If anything, Trending should be the one being removed as it is beyond obvious that Top Loved is far superior.