List of Commonly Suggested Ideas

This page lists a number of commonly suggested ideas, along with the Scratch Team's opinion. Scratchers request ideas typically in the Suggestions Forum or in a project to alert the Scratch Team of the community's desires. Part of running the Scratch community is knowing what the community wants changed to both the program and website. Many of these have been rejected by the Scratch Team.

Ideas

Accepted

Cloning

Main article: Cloning

Cloning is a suggestion that would let you have multiple copies of sprites, without needing to make new sprites. This would be useful for 1s1s projects, although partially defeating the purpose.

Cloning became available in Scratch 2.0.

Custom profile page

Some creative Scratchers have suggested to have their own custom profile page, which they could edit the way they wanted, by adding buttons, images, other sections, etc.^{[citation needed]}

The Scratch Team accepted the idea of sections and implemented the About Me and What I'm Working On sections in Scratch 2.0. They planned to implement widgets but it never made to Scratch 2.0.

Rejected

Note:

This list does not contain all of the rejected suggestions. A full list of rejected suggestions can be found here.

Main article: List of Officially Rejected Suggestions

Bringing Back the Community Moderator Program

According to this forum post, the Scratch Team said that they will retire the Community Moderator Program, and the Scratch Team now entirely monitors the forums and the website. Many people requested that the Community Moderator Program should be brought back; however, all those requests were rejected.

It is 7.4 on the list of rejected suggestions.

Chat Rooms or Private Messaging

Chatrooms, along with private messaging, have been requested for a long time, but the answer has always been no. This is because people can say anything without any moderation. The only exception is safe chats, which have a predefined lists of phrases that users can say. Because they are based on cloud data, New Scratchers cannot use them. With private messaging, multiple reports to ban would be impossible, and 1 report to ban would be exploited. The ST would not be able to moderate everything.

“	As you might know some members have created their own websites with forums and even chatrooms. You are free to do that as it is outside the realm of what Scratch is about. You might also have noticed that a few users were arguing about the list of chatrooms. So if that happens just with a list of chatrooms imagine what happens with the chatrooms themselves :)	”
– andresmh

The Scratch Team also discourages using projects, studios, and the like as chatrooms.^{[citation needed]}

It is 3.1 and 7.1 on the list of rejected suggestions.

Rating System

Many users have suggested a 5 star rating system to rate projects, similar to what originally was on YouTube. However, the suggestion has been denied, as low ratings are discouraging and may cause users to quit Scratch.

It is 4.2 on the list of rejected suggestions.

Disabling Remixes/Downloads

Main article: Project Downloading#Locking Downloads

Due to people stealing art, scripts, and sounds from projects and using them as their own, many people have suggested locking or disabling remixes and downloads. However, it would be against the Scratch motto, "Imagine, Program, Share".

“	But wouldn't the option to refuse download be against Scratch's motto to imagine, program, and share?	”
– cheddargirl, Scratch Team at MIT

It is 3.2 on the list of rejected suggestions.

() Received (Block)

A boolean block ( v) received?::events boolean has been suggested multiple times and has always been turned down or ignored. One part of the reason is ambiguity. It is unclear whether it would be true if the broadcast were received since the project was created, since the green flag was clicked, for only a millisecond, since another broadcast was received, etc. The following workaround can be used to replicate this block:

when green flag clicked
set [message 1 v] to [false]

when I receive [message 1 v]
set [message 1 v] to [true]

<(message 1) = [true]>

However, blocks like wait until ( v) received::control stack or

repeat until ( v) received{
}::control

are not rejected. They have similar workarounds to the above making them easily replicated.

Some Scratch Modifications have this block.

An alternate suggestion sometimes found is <(broadcast v) received in the past (1) secs::events> which has not yet been commented on by the Scratch Team.

It can be replicated using the following script:

when green flag clicked
set [message 1 v] to [0]

when I receive [message 1 v]
set [message 1 v] to (days since 2000)

<(((days since 2000) - (message 1)) * (86400)) < [number of seconds]>

It is 1.1 on the list of rejected suggestions.

Changing Usernames

Many Scratchers want a way to change usernames.The Scratch Team has rejected the changing of usernames because the software architecture would not be able to cope. It would also confuse people, and cause many issues and misunderstandings. A common way of changing usernames is to create a new account and move all projects over, usually by remixing.

Removing the New Scratcher Status

Many scratchers want to remove the New Scratcher Status.^{[citation needed]} The New Scratcher status is an effective way to stop spam attacks and to verify if the user is legitimate. New Scratchers will have to wait a set amount of time between forum posts and comments so if they are a spammer or spam-bot, they will be slowed down.

Banning Add Everything Studios

Main article: Add Everything Studios

The suggestion to remove all Add Everything Studios from the site^{[citation needed]}, and disallow the creation of more, caused a lot of debate and discussion in a thread in the Suggestions forum.^{[citation needed]} Many users considered the type of studios to be spam. In the end, the suggestion was rejected simply because the studios didn't take up a lot of space, or break the Community Guidelines.

Undetermined

Previous Costume Block

Main article: Next Costume (block)#Workaround

This has been suggested a number of times. It is like the "Next Costume" block but it would do the opposite. However, it was said the people could use the following scripts for switching to a sprite's previous costume:

switch costume to ((costume [number v]) - (1))
switch costume to (previous costume v)

It is easily workaroundable, although some people say that it should be implemented since there is a "Next Costume" block. The block was also implemented to a previous version of Scratch, although it was removed sometime after.^{[citation needed]}

Onion Skins

Onion skins are a feature in some animation programs. While editing a given frame, a transparent version of the last frame is shown. This allows for easier animation. If onion skins were added to Scratch, the "frames" would be costumes. Many users have suggested that onion skins be added to Scratch, but there has yet to be an official statement by the Scratch Team on whether they are working on the feature or not. However, Scratch Team member Paddle2See made a statement on the suggestion:

“	It has been a requested feature for a long time - and it has been highly placed on the list of “things we would like to do”. But yet, here we are - it is still not a feature. This is because other priorities have bumped it down the list. I can not predict when or if it will make it to the top and get made. I would love to see it though.	”
– Paddle2See

"Leave Studio" Button

Many Scratchers have suggested a "Leave Studio" button. Although there are slight variations on certain parts of this suggestion, like where it would be located or what it would be called, the core idea of the suggestion is the same: it would be a button that would remove the user from a studio when clicked.

Sprite Folders

Many users have suggested the ability to organize their sprites in folders. Some users have created images to show what the feature could look like. Others have suggested block(s) that could take advantage of the feature, such as a "touching sprite in [folder]" block.

"Recommended For You" Section

Some users have suggested a "Projects Recommended For You" section on the Front Page. Other users have suggested a similar feature, but as a separate page, or as part of the Explore page. These suggestions vary slightly. For example, one user said that the projects would be based on the tags of projects a given user had viewed in the past, whereas other users said that the projects would be based on the tags of projects a given user had loved or favorited.

Demote Button

A button in the curator tab of a studio that could be used to demote managers back to curator has been suggested many times. Some users say that only the host of the studio should have access to this feature, while others say that any manager should be able to use it.

Dark Mode

Many users have suggested adding a dark mode to Scratch. Many users believe it would be useful to be able to use a dark mode at night, or that it causes their eyes to hurt. The Scratch Team has not officially decided to release a dark mode feature yet.

See Also

• List of Officially Rejected Suggestions

External Links

• A list of rejected suggestions on the forums