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This article or section documents something not included in the current version of Scratch (3.0). It is only useful from a historical perspective. |
- This article or section documents an outdated version of Scratch (version 1.4). For this article in the current version (version 3.0), see Project Downloading (3.0). For this article in Scratch 2.0, see Project Downloading (2.0).
Project Downloading occurred when a Scratch project was downloaded from the Scratch Website and opened in the Scratch program. This opened many opportunities, such as remixing or learning from the scripts that the project contained. The amount of downloads of a project was shown in the Project Statistics. This feature was mostly replaced with the See Inside feature in Scratch 2.0.
How to Download Projects
If a user viewed a project's page on the Scratch Website and looked to the upper-right corner, they would see a box that allowed them to download the project. It listed how many sprites and scripts the project contained, allowing a faint idea of how large the project is, however, it did not show how large the project file was. It also displayed a version number on the top right of the download pane showing what version of Scratch the project was created in. To view the project without any obsolete blocks, it was recommended that the version was shown, but a newer one would work too.
If the first link was clicked while the user was logged in, depending on the user's web browser, a download window may or may not have appeared and/or given options for the downloading user. If the user was not logged in, a window would appear asking them to log in. If a user did not wish to log in, but wanted to download a project all they had to do was add /downloadsb to the URL.
Benefits of Downloading Projects
Downloading projects was useful in a variety of ways:
- Allowed a user to see how the project was made
- Allowed users to learn from the scripts that the project contained
- Allowed users to collaborate on projects more easily
- Projects could be downloaded, edited and then uploaded as remixes
- Allowed users to help others with projects
- Allowed the user to still be able to use the project without having to go online
- Used a project without the glitches from the Java Player or Flash Player
- Increased project speed and performance from offline performance
- PicoBoards and LEGO Education WeDo Robotics Kits only worked offline
- Played a project in Presentation Mode or Turbo Mode*
- Used art and music
*In the Flash Player, there is a full-screen mode similar to Presentation Mode; and a turbo mode option which is faster than the offline one.
Locking Downloads
Many users supported the idea of an option to lock downloads on a project — it would prevent others from stealing their work, allow private scripting, and so on.
However, the suggestion was rejected by the fact that it goes against remixing. It is also against the Creative Commons license that all projects uploaded to the website are under.
Several quotes had been mentioned here, including:
| “ | But wouldn't the option to refuse download be against Scratch's motto to imagine, program, and share? Honestly, if I didn't want other people taking the art and music form my projects, I would post my projects on my own personal site and set my own Creative Commons/copyright license or not upload my project to the Scratch website at all. | ” |
– cheddargirl[1] | ||
Despite the explanations, the idea was still heavily supported because of the ease of preventing plagiarism. Some people had attempted to make projects that are not downloadable, but none of them work very well. Some methods force Scratch to close if it is offline.
Top Downloaded Row
- Main article: Top Downloaded Lately
There used to be a row on the Front Page called "Top Downloaded Lately", that showed the projects with the highest download count. It was removed in the renovations of May 31, 2009.[2] It was removed as Scratchers realised they could download their projects as many times as they liked. Also, this row could inadvertently show inappropriate projects.
