I think that most of us have Facebook, or at least some. If so, don't you just love customizing your own cover for your profile? This is what I want to do. I just think that we should have a picture that you choose that's the background of your profile picture, Featured project, About Me, What I'm Working On, and activity log. I can think of a few things that I would do if this was added. I could add my OC standing, resting her arm on the Featured box, and another picking it's teeth with a toothpick leaning against the About Me and What I'm Working On boxes. Also, keep in mind that the world's biggest social networking website has this, so why can't Scratch have this? (Don't play the “Scratch isn't social media” card here, guys. That's another story. And as DaSpudLord said, Scratch is, by all definitions, social media.)Don't you want this? Tell me down below and I'll try to count the Supports, Semi-Supports, and No Supports.

Supports: 9
Semi-Supports: 1
No Supports: 3

Things that I've seen for reasoning:
1: Even though this may just be a distracting, unnecessary picture, think of what purpose it serves - representing yourself and what you do on your profile. Ex.: You do lots of Warrior Cats projects, so you'd make a Warrior Cats profile Cover.
2: Can you imagine the shops' production if this got added? How could they keep up with it? The business would be booming for a VERY long time, and it would end up being like the banners and profile pictures we see now.
3: You cannot say that this is not needed and too flashy, because what are banners? What do they have to do with coding?
4: What are profile pictures, banners, ect. for? To represent and express yourself. What better to do that than on your home page, where people go to learn more about you?
5: You can't say that this is again, not needed, because do we need the featured box? Obviously not, we didn't have it in 1.4. Nor did we have profile commenting, studios, ect, ect, ect.

You can use a featured project (don't unshare it though, then you can potentially make an unreportable project) on your profile, but it doesn't really change much. Support for changing the backgrounds of the stuff on our profiles using images or a color palette.

Sheep_tester wrote:

You can use a featured project (don't unshare it though, then you can potentially make an unreportable project) on your profile, but it doesn't really change much. Support for changing the backgrounds of the stuff on our profiles using images or a color palette.

Yes, that'd be exactly what it would be. But with a featured project well, I like to show off my wolf RPG and other projects, like it's supposed to be used. I'm thinking more of a background.

No support. I know you said not to play the “scratch isn't social media” card, but, it's true? Scratch is not facebook, and just because facebook has it, doesn't mean Scratch should have it, because for 1, scratch isn't facebook(like I said before), and 2, facebook has that because it's more about social media. Scratch is about CODING. And also, this isn't necesssary. You can customize your profile enough already.

-Cherri- wrote:

No support. I know you said not to play the “scratch isn't social media” card, but, it's true? Scratch is not facebook, and just because facebook has it, doesn't mean Scratch should have it, because for 1, scratch isn't facebook(like I said before), and 2, facebook has that because it's more about social media. Scratch is about CODING. And also, this isn't necesssary. You can customize your profile enough already.

Actually Scratch is social media (hint hint discussion forums, sharing projects, comments, loves, follows, remixing, etc.) because the social aspect of Scratch apparently helps you learn stuff. Anyways it kinda does work…

Sheep_tester wrote:

-Cherri- wrote:

No support. I know you said not to play the “scratch isn't social media” card, but, it's true? Scratch is not facebook, and just because facebook has it, doesn't mean Scratch should have it, because for 1, scratch isn't facebook(like I said before), and 2, facebook has that because it's more about social media. Scratch is about CODING. And also, this isn't necesssary. You can customize your profile enough already.

Actually Scratch is social media (hint hint discussion forums, sharing projects, comments, loves, follows, remixing, etc.) because the social aspect of Scratch apparently helps you learn stuff. Anyways it kinda does work…

It's not MEANT to be social media. It's meant to be a coding site. THIS suggestion, will make it even more like social media. (it does work doesn't it)

Sheep_tester wrote:

-Cherri- wrote:

No support. I know you said not to play the “scratch isn't social media” card, but, it's true? Scratch is not facebook, and just because facebook has it, doesn't mean Scratch should have it, because for 1, scratch isn't facebook(like I said before), and 2, facebook has that because it's more about social media. Scratch is about CODING. And also, this isn't necesssary. You can customize your profile enough already.

Actually Scratch is social media (hint hint discussion forums, sharing projects, comments, loves, follows, remixing, etc.) because the social aspect of Scratch apparently helps you learn stuff. Anyways it kinda does work…

Thanks :-) And think about it, even as Sheep Tester said, Scratch is social media, be honest: Would you want to customize your profile page? And, A LOT of things aren't necessary. For example, Meow and Edible Scratch isn't necessary, but we still have it. Tags aren't necessary, but we have it. Heck, the Featured projects on the front page and everything else on Scratch aren't necessary, but it just adds to the site and it's characteristics. Again, don't you want to customize your profile background? And I was only using Facebook as a reference, as I got the idea from there.

Bump

Bump

Support, (and there should be a report option if it's bad though.)

Okie dokie. Here goes.

First off, you're right. Scratch is social media. By the definition of social media, Scratch is, in all respects, social media. But you know what Scratch isn't? Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Scratch is none of those. Scratch is not one of those sites. Scratch is a unique form of social media, meant to help users create better projects, and for those users to then help others create better projects. Scratch is not that site where you go to post that awesome selfie that you took this morning. (#NoMakeup #YeahRight.) Scratch is that site that you go to post that awesome project you made this week. Scratch is not that place where you go to tweet about every meal that you ate. Scratch is that place where you go and make an awesome project about your favorite food. Scratch is not that place where you go and talk about how OMG! I, like, totally heard Jimmy and Jane, like, totally broke up! OMG! Like, really? OMG I just totally can't even right now. Like I literally can't even. I am, like, literally going to die. Scratch is not that. Comparing Scratch to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram is not a good comparison at all because Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all social networks with extremely different purposes than Scratch. Yes, Scratch is technically social media. But it is not Facebook. So your argument for “Facebook has it so Scratch should have it” is invalid.

You are probably thinking:

But just because Facebook has it doesn't mean Scratch can't have it, right?

Well, you're right. So that brings me to my next point. The boundary between what Scratch needs, what would be nice to have, what we don't need, and what should never be added.

As -Cherri- has gone on to mention, Scratch is a coding site, and this suggestion does not exactly help with that. More specifically, this suggestion does not fit within or help us reach the design goals of Scratch. Sure, these design goals don't really cover this kind of suggestion. The ones Lightnin talked about in his post are really more geared towards suggestions about the Scratch editor and programming with Scratch, especially block suggestions. So… where does that leave us? Well, the design goals of Scratch actually are sitting right in front of us. They're available in the Scratch Motto. And that motto is Imagine, Program, Share. Words to live by. Certainly this suggestion fits within the first and third parts, imagine and share, as you get to imagine how you want your background to look, and share it with whoever visits your profile. But what about the most important part? Program? After all, Scratch is a programming language. That's what it was made for, and if you stripped Scratch down to its core, that's all you have left- a programming language. But designing a wallpaper for your profile… Um… Yeah, I don't see the programming aspect here. Is it just me? I don't think so. This suggestion has nothing to do with programming, and is 100% unnecessary. This suggestion wouldn't be useful or beneficial to the design goals of Scratch at all.

rocco32 wrote:

…A LOT of things aren't necessary. For example, Meow and Edible Scratch isn't necessary, but we still have it. Tags aren't necessary, but we have it. Heck, the Featured projects on the front page and everything else on Scratch aren't necessary, but it just adds to the site and it's characteristics. Again, don't you want to customize your profile background? And I was only using Facebook as a reference, as I got the idea from there.

Tags are actually very useful. They help users find a specific type of project. Featured Projects? Useful for finding good projects. And finding projects does lead to the design goals, in multiple ways. Firstly, finding a project helps plant a seed of an idea in your head. Additionally, if you need help programming something, clicking “See Inside” and looking at how someone else made it is a good way to improve your own coding skills. Or maybe you can do something to help the other person. Maybe there's a bug in their project that they can't fix, but you know exactly how to fix that. This can lead to socialization, which can lead to friendship, which can lead to a collab, which can lead to more programming.

You are now thinking:

But what about Meow and Edible Scratch? And emojis? We don't need those to program. But we still have them.

You're perfectly right there. Certainly the main point of Scratch is programming, but what's a kids site without a little bit of side action to have some fun? Emojis and joke languages are simply bits of fun- little easter eggs- that the ST have hidden around the site for users to have fun with. But what separates them from customizable profile backgrounds in this context? Well, it's really about how intrusive and distracting from programming they are. Certainly emojis and joke languages contain plenty of fun within themselves. But these are small easter eggs that mostly go unnoticed. You may occasionally include an emoji in a comment or two, but the emojis are mostly unused. How often do you see people using emojis on Scratch? And the joke languages? That's all they are. Jokes. They last for a couple weeks after the ST adds them, and then they fade out of the spotlight. The dedicated user may still use them, and some people may occasionally switch over to these languages as sort of a throwback, but really, they're not too intrusive. There's really only two on the languages list, anyway- they're not super obvious, especially considering how little most users touch the languages list. Compare that to a big picture slapped on the back of a web page. Definitely obvious and definitely distracting. Before you know it, users will be obsessing over their backgrounds photos, who has the awesomest background, etc, and all of that hubbub will distract users from programming. Sure, we don't need emojis, and sure, we don't need joke languages, but honestly, what harm are they doing? None. And now I don't know how to conclude this paragraph because I suck at essays, so I'm just going to talk about how I don't know how to conclude this paragraph because I suck at essays.

So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Whew! That was long…

DaSpudLord wrote:

-So-
So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Holy *! You say you suck at essays? I can't believe you. I bow down to your essayness! Yes, you are completely right. I don't think I have been on Scratch long enough to gain the experience as you have, and I'm probably not as smart, either. But all of your points are valid. So, do I have the premission to close the topic, sir SpudLord? XD

I support this.

rocco32 wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

-So-
So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Holy *! You say you suck at essays? I can't believe you. I bow down to your essayness! Yes, you are completely right. I don't think I have been on Scratch long enough to gain the experience as you have, and I'm probably not as smart, either. But all of your points are valid. So, do I have the premission to close the topic, sir SpudLord? XD

Well, I'm not saying you have to close the topic. Perhaps the ST might see past my logic and like the idea, or perhaps someone might provide a valid rebuttal. Either way, my argument really wasn't meant to force you to close the topic- it's really more to provide insight to others and to express my views. Whether or not you want to close the topic is entirely up to you.

I support, Not gonna go into why, Cuz im lazy, but i support.

Support!

DaSpudLord wrote:

rocco32 wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

-So-
So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Holy *! You say you suck at essays? I can't believe you. I bow down to your essayness! Yes, you are completely right. I don't think I have been on Scratch long enough to gain the experience as you have, and I'm probably not as smart, either. But all of your points are valid. So, do I have the premission to close the topic, sir SpudLord? XD

Well, I'm not saying you have to close the topic. Perhaps the ST might see past my logic and like the idea, or perhaps someone might provide a valid rebuttal. Either way, my argument really wasn't meant to force you to close the topic- it's really more to provide insight to others and to express my views. Whether or not you want to close the topic is entirely up to you.

No, I know that. I just meant that I don't see any point in keeping this topic open if I can't give any good reasons XD

rocco32 wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

rocco32 wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

-So-
So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Holy *! You say you suck at essays? I can't believe you. I bow down to your essayness! Yes, you are completely right. I don't think I have been on Scratch long enough to gain the experience as you have, and I'm probably not as smart, either. But all of your points are valid. So, do I have the premission to close the topic, sir SpudLord? XD

Well, I'm not saying you have to close the topic. Perhaps the ST might see past my logic and like the idea, or perhaps someone might provide a valid rebuttal. Either way, my argument really wasn't meant to force you to close the topic- it's really more to provide insight to others and to express my views. Whether or not you want to close the topic is entirely up to you.

No, I know that. I just meant that I don't see any point in keeping this topic open if I can't give any good reasons XD

That doesn't mean other people can't give good reasons!

It's your choice. The close topic button is right below the submit reply button if you were wondering.

DaSpudLord wrote:

rocco32 wrote:

DaSpudLord wrote:

-So-
So all in all, no support. Sorry.

Holy *! You say you suck at essays? I can't believe you. I bow down to your essayness! Yes, you are completely right. I don't think I have been on Scratch long enough to gain the experience as you have, and I'm probably not as smart, either. But all of your points are valid. So, do I have the premission to close the topic, sir SpudLord? XD

Well, I'm not saying you have to close the topic. Perhaps the ST might see past my logic and like the idea, or perhaps someone might provide a valid rebuttal. Either way, my argument really wasn't meant to force you to close the topic- it's really more to provide insight to others and to express my views. Whether or not you want to close the topic is entirely up to you.

Well; Backgrounds CAN show more about you; and what if you have, say, a Warriors background when you make Warriors stuff? It provides that whole theme to your profile, and it wouldn't do harm. Another example that I haven't seen mentioned is that some YouTubers have banners at the top of their page that go with what they do/are doing. Again, it expresses the user, and it could help people with similar interests or personalities get together… and who says something great can't come out of that? I think in this day and age, where being online is almost a necessity, you need a way to show who you are.

I semi-support this; but only because I can see some reasoning behind it.

But… DaSpudLord was right. It is not necessary and could be distracting. I doubt, however, that it would be as bad as he described. I mean, you can change your icon and project images (in a roundabout way, in some cases); aren't those as prominent as the background?


I just posted this as food for thought; please do not flame me for it.

liam48D wrote:

rocco32 wrote:

-Snip-

That doesn't mean other people can't give good reasons!

It's your choice. The close topic button is right below the submit reply button if you were wondering.

Thanks