Discuss Scratch

rdococ
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

There has been an endless stream of number of suggestions for new features to be added to Scratch. Yet, most of them have not been implemented, and many awesome suggestions are outright rejected. Here's why:

The Scratch Team has a very clear vision of what they want Scratch to be. Scratch is designed to be incredibly simple; kids as young as 8 years old must be able to pick up Scratch on their own and express themselves with stories, animations and games, as well as understand each other's code well enough to use it in their own projects.

Flexibility and power are also goals, but they take a backseat to this core vision. Any suggestion you make has to be so good that it outweighs the challenge of 8 year olds facing it for the first time, useful enough for Scratch's core vision of kids creating stories, animations and games, as well as supporting the sharing of projects, collaboration, and kids learning from each other's code, as well as outweighing these factors enough to justify the weight of simply having an extra feature.

Let's look at the two largest features added to Scratch since 1.4: clones and custom blocks.
  • Clones are simple. You have your sprite with its scripts, now there's more than one of them. They are a massive help in making games, allowing you to have as many enemies or collectibles as you want without requiring a mangled mess of lists and pen. Clone techniques for stories, animations and games are pretty simple, like using local variables to detect “am I a clone?” or giving each clone different HP values, and easily learnable.
  • Custom blocks are relatively simple. You have these blocks, now you can make your own with input slots and, optionally, “run without screen refresh”. They're good for organizing code in complex animations and games, and also for recursion in advanced projects. They're a bit tough to understand for an 8 year old, but you don't have to grapple with the more advanced parts like custom block inputs until you're ready.
Both features' flexibility & usefulness for stories, animations and games outweigh their complexity to a Scratch novice, and there are plenty of simple techniques you can pick up from other people's projects even if you're 8 years old. This is not the case for the vast majority of the features suggested in this forum today, and that's why they haven't been added to Scratch.

Last edited by rdococ (April 6, 2023 21:11:21)

Caroix
New Scratcher
500+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Good guide, I think this seems like one of the other guides too much, so you could rename it to “Examples of Good Features” or something, I mean putting some features of Scratch and trying to suggest something like them is a plan that will surely succeed.

Also you got permission for this right? (Also I am going to report this to be stickied)
rdococ
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Caroix wrote:

Good guide, I think this seems like one of the other guides too much, so you could rename it to “Examples of Good Features” or something, I mean putting some features of Scratch and trying to suggest something like them is a plan that will surely succeed.

Also you got permission for this right? (Also I am going to report this to be stickied)
I need permission? :skull:
Caroix
New Scratcher
500+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

rdococ wrote:

Caroix wrote:

Good guide, I think this seems like one of the other guides too much, so you could rename it to “Examples of Good Features” or something, I mean putting some features of Scratch and trying to suggest something like them is a plan that will surely succeed.

Also you got permission for this right? (Also I am going to report this to be stickied)
I need permission? :skull:
Hmm, I mean I disagree that there are too less guides but I do understand, clutter is why there are less guides and that's why you need to get permission from an ST Member before you can make a guide.

Before when there weren't that many guides, I think anyone could just made one but now there are a lot and a lot of guides, I mean if you didn't get permission, no worries but this guide could be stickied or not, that depends on the ST.

You can help more people using the QAS forum, the BAG forum or the HWS forum!
Paddle2See
Scratch Team
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Well put! You can hear some of these same themes in this very old sticky topic as well - worth a read!
GIitchInTheMatrix
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

This is really well written, and is something that gets repetitive to say.
And the rest i said, luckily, doesn’t apply anymore. I can definitely see this getting linked on so many occasions!

Last edited by GIitchInTheMatrix (April 5, 2023 12:17:13)

INSERT-USER_NAME
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

I know everyone has said this, but congrats on getting this pinned!
GIitchInTheMatrix
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Can you add a note about i how it ain’t easy for a small team of engineers to add so much?
Theres only 5, and they program everything(I barely remember to compile my code before running, so I’m impressed already) and maintain the servers.
7s3s
Scratcher
89 posts

Why most suggestions fail

Maybe consider adding this other sticky as a link in this topic to check out in the OP, since these two seem sort of relevant to eachother.
horizontal_shading
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Congrats on the sticky dude!


(Not a suggestion)
In my opinion, it would be better if they made a new extension for block suggestions, rather then just adding them in.
It would look something like this.

k0d3rrr
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

horizontal_shading wrote:

(Not a suggestion)
In my opinion, it would be better if they made a new extension for block suggestions, rather then just adding them in.
It would look something like this.

-snip-
Well, everything except for the rejected suggestions.
WindowsMeRules2000
Scratcher
500+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

this post is fax, and congrats on the sticky

Last edited by WindowsMeRules2000 (April 11, 2023 11:41:11)

Little_Mittle12345
Scratcher
100+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

wow
medians
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

Little_Mittle12345 wrote:

wow
realistic

k0d3rrr wrote:

horizontal_shading wrote:

(Not a suggestion)
In my opinion, it would be better if they made a new extension for block suggestions, rather then just adding them in.
It would look something like this.

-snip-
Well, everything except for the rejected suggestions.
Though it could be confusing if there were a whole bunch of unrelated blocks in one suggestion.
humaymammadly
Scratcher
100+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

+ Scratchers suggested scratch team to never set clone limit but this is failed
+ This suggestion is from 2020
kleemiya_the_furball
Scratcher
500+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

rdococ wrote:

Let's look at the two largest features added to Scratch since 1.4: clones and custom blocks.
  • Clones are simple. You have your sprite with its scripts, now there's more than one of them. They are a massive help in making games, allowing you to have as many enemies or collectibles as you want without requiring a mangled mess of lists and pen. Clone techniques for stories, animations and games are pretty simple, like using local variables to detect “am I a clone?” or giving each clone different HP values, and easily learnable.
  • Custom blocks are relatively simple. You have these blocks, now you can make your own with input slots and, optionally, “run without screen refresh”. They're good for organizing code in complex animations and games, and also for recursion in advanced projects. They're a bit tough to understand for an 8 year old, but you don't have to grapple with the more advanced parts like custom block inputs until you're ready.

Scratch has already done lots of things so they need a break.
medians
Scratcher
1000+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

humaymammadly wrote:

+ Scratchers suggested scratch team to never set clone limit but this is failed
+ This suggestion is from 2020
Uhm, what do you mean? Also, this was a sticky from the current year. If you're talking about some other topic, why?

Last edited by medians (April 22, 2023 13:55:43)

_Geography__
Scratcher
30 posts

Why most suggestions fail

Nice info!
help_the_animals
Scratcher
100+ posts

Why most suggestions fail

I'm late lol but this is a really good sticky
MatthewGamer01
Scratcher
35 posts

Why most suggestions fail

U literally have an axolotl pfp bro!

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