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- This article is about the community of Scratchers who use Scratch. For other uses, see Community (disambiguation).
The Scratch community is a community of Scratchers who use Scratch. It is an opportunity to communicate, work, and interact with others on Scratch. Created with a small number of members in 2007, the community has since grown immensely, comprising over 76 million registered users[1] and is continuing to grow.
The Scratch Community strives to be equal, welcoming, and integrated. Everybody is welcome, and overall, the Scratch Community is a safe place to share and collaborate on one's ideas and communicate to learn the basics of coding.
History
- Main article: Scratch Timeline
The Scratch Community began in 2007 when Scratch 1.0 was released. It was a very small group of users who created projects and shared them on the Scratch Website. The community slowly grew, and by 2013, it had reached 3 million projects.[2]
The release of Scratch 2.0 introduced the online editor, which allowed projects to be edited online. This allowed the Scratch Community to expand and have new features, which allowed the community to rapidly expand. The release of Scratch 3.0 only accelerated that expansion.
Uses
The Scratch Community is a safe place to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and learn more about coding. Everybody is equal, and nobody is considered "higher" than anyone else. Scratchers can use the community to get help on projects, work on collaborations, and get inspiration.
Arguments
Even in a largely friendly community, arguments can still happen. Most are mild, but some occasionally become Flame Wars.
Division
People of the Scratch Community sometimes like and decide to split themselves into groups within the community itself. One popular sorting is based on the year that the user joined Scratch.[citation needed] These groups are named based on the specific year of joining, usually the forums ('11er, '15er, etc.). Another way of grouping is that the users divides themselves based on what they prefer to do on Scratch, such as game makers, artists, OS-creators, etc. These groups can be called sub-communities of Scratch. Usually there is not much friction between these categories, although there have been some arguments.
Arguments About Preferences
Arguments about personal preferences could happen between members of the community, though are not that common. Some popular argument topics include:[citation needed]
- What Operating System/Internet Browser is best?
- Media that certain users like/don't like. (e.g. Minecraft, My Little Pony).
Scratch's Basic Philosophy
Despite that fact that many members of the Scratch community have ranked themselves within these bounds, Scratch is a community ranging from all types of backgrounds, skills, and races, and arguments between the divides are uncommon. No one has a secluded rank except for the Scratch Team.
Sub-Communities
Despite the Scratch Team's efforts to make the Scratch Community equal and integrated, there has been some segregation of users.
Front Page Community
There are many users, often having a high number of followers, whose projects have been featured on the front page, as well as many users who often comment on many front-page projects. These users tend to band together to form a community.[citation needed] The front page is not an exclusive community, as thousands of people from all over the world view the projects on it. Whenever many people come together for a common purpose, they form a community, or in this case a branch of a community.
Forum Community
The forums are used by a small portion of Scratch users,[citation needed] but those users often become familiar with each other and stick with the forums. Communities on the forums are often formed by frequent forum users who use the forums often. The forums are used for large discussions among Scratchers, on related-to-Scratch topics and others. The forum community fluctuates as new forum users arrive and old forum users leave. Though small, the forum community has only thrived throughout the years.
Wiki Community
The Scratch Wiki is a community that helps provide information about Scratch to read, edit and discuss.
See Also
- Community Statistics — Statistics related to activity by the Scratch Community, such as number of users, etc.
- Community Guidelines — A set of rules all Scratchers must follow
