I'm sorry people, but I believe that the forums were an extremely useful asset. It's where people could ask for help, or introduce themselves, it's where I got MY start! I may post later, when I calm down. Because right now I am not in a very good mood because the forums are harder to find.

Honestly, to me it feels like the Discuss section is getting brushed over.
First, you removed the option to search it from the search engine of scratch. This already limited everything. At least the button was still there so that new scratchers would have a chance to find their own things on there.
Now that the button is removed and moved to the footer, there is zero chance that anyone will find it who wasn't aware of it before. It'll likely fade into some large obscurity on the site. It's only accessible from one tiny link at the bottom of the page. No one will click it curiously, as many of us did when we discovered the forums from the button on the top bar.
Add back discuss. Put it in the profile dropdown if you have to. Put it next to tips, if you have to. I don't care. I just want the forums to stay alive and well.

cs156175 wrote:

Honestly, to me it feels like the Discuss section is getting brushed over.
First, you removed the option to search it from the search engine of scratch. This already limited everything. At least the button was still there so that new scratchers would have a chance to find their own things on there.
Now that the button is removed and moved to the footer, there is zero chance that anyone will find it who wasn't aware of it before. It'll likely fade into some large obscurity on the site. It's only accessible from one tiny link at the bottom of the page. No one will click it curiously, as many of us did when we discovered the forums from the button on the top bar.
Add back discuss. Put it in the profile dropdown if you have to. Put it next to tips, if you have to. I don't care. I just want the forums to stay alive and well.

I agree.

no offence, but, still no update to the search engine?
i wish the google one was optional

But i liked the discuss button :'(

ilovehamsters wrote:

But i liked the discuss button :'(

Me too.. (sigh) I literally thought the forums got shut down for a second.

LionHeart70 wrote:

ilovehamsters wrote:

But i liked the discuss button :'(

Me too.. (sigh) I literally thought the forums got shut down for a second.

same

I have written a suggestion which could be a solution for people anxious to have the discuss tab back.

Read more about it here: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/269304/?page=1#post-2711903

ceebee wrote:

WolfCat67 wrote:

I can't find the “Discuss” option inside of the footer. Is that meant to happen?

In the footer, under “Community”, you will see a link to “Discussion Forums”. You can also always access the forums with this url: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/

I dislike this. Honestly, practically nobody looks at the footer so I believe we are going to see a significant decrease in new forum users.

dietbacon wrote:

Hey everyone,

We are always looking for ways to make Scratch easier to get started with. Today we’re excited to announce that we’ve added lots of new resources to a new section called Tips! .



On the new Tips page, you will find interactive tutorials that can help you start making a variety of projects. There are also printable Activity Cards with detailed instructions on how to build any of the projects you are interested in.




In addition to the inclusion of the new Tips page, the site navigation menu has also been updated. We replaced the “Help” button with a “Tips” button, which will lead you to the new Tips page mentioned above. We believe this will help newcomers discover and use our new Scratch activities. We have also removed the “Discuss” button from the navigation menu. We made this decision based on usage (how often it was clicked) and to give emphasis to the other menu options like “Create” and “Explore.” You can still access the Discussion Forums by clicking the link in the footer at the bottom of every page or by going to https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/. These changes were made to help highlight project creation and get new users started on becoming full fledged Scratchers!

Scratch On!

- - - - -

FAQ:
Where is “Discuss” in the footer?
In the footer, under “Community”, you will see a link to “Discussion Forums”. You can also always access the forums with this url: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/

Can you make the search bar smaller to make room for discuss?
This decision was also made in part because the navigation menu is translated to many other languages, and in some of those languages there was just too much text to fit in the space.

The search bar is flexible in size based on the language you are in. While it may appear extra large in English, this is not always the case. For example, change your language to Deutsch and see what happens. And this is with one item removed from the nav bar - imagine what it was like when there were five items in the nav bar before.

i want this update reversed.

how about you remove about?i don't think anyone uses it.and plus, that seems more likely to be in the footer of the page, not the header.also, if you want a long search bar, move the navigation menu all the way to the left, and the profile and stuff all the way to the right.BOOM!big search bar

WolfCat67 wrote:

muellly wrote:

Nooooooooooo. The discuss option was already the most obscure option. I didn't even know it existed until I saw a link in a curated project. And I didn't even know the full extent of what discuss was for until this year. Making it even more obscure is a bad idea. New Scratchers who need help with scripts that aren't in tips or have a question about Scratch aren't going to know where to look now. New Scratchers who don't know about the forums may try to post comments that were their function on featured projects creating more spam. I don't even see where the discuss is in the footer. Instead of pushing the forums aside you should promote them. Did you even do a poll to see if most people who didn't click the button didn't know they exists instead of them being not interested in them. I also don't see how this promotes the other options. All this appears to do is make the search bar bigger, and I used it even more rarely then the forums. I feel that removing the discuss button is a step back for Scratch, and I am hoping right now that this isn't the beginning of a road of step backs like another site I used to be on because I like to program in Scratch and I hope that updates won't one day take the joy out of it. That site was Roblox.

Hey, look at the bright side.
At least it has “forums” in the name on the link, now. It was confusing with it called “Discuss”, I initially thought it was just a place for parents to talk about how great the program is. Oops.

You are totally onto something. In the Scratch 1.4 era there was about just as much activity as there is now on the forums, yet there's probably 10X as many users now on Scratch. In Scratch 1.4 it said “Forums” at the top instead of “Discuss”.

kingof555 wrote:

how about you remove about?i don't think anyone uses it.and plus, that seems more likely to be in the footer of the page, not the header.also, if you want a long search bar, move the navigation menu all the way to the left, and the profile and stuff all the way to the right.BOOM!big search bar

Yes… Totally agree

kingof555 wrote:

how about you remove about?i don't think anyone uses it.and plus, that seems more likely to be in the footer of the page, not the header.also, if you want a long search bar, move the navigation menu all the way to the left, and the profile and stuff all the way to the right.BOOM!big search bar

nice idea!

yzyzyz wrote:

FancyFoxy wrote:

yzyzyz wrote:

FancyFoxy wrote:

yzyzyz wrote:

dietbacon wrote:

-snip-

nooooooooooooooo! I want the discuss button in the normal place. no one new will go to the discussions page! try to place it in the profile drop down menu.

Why would it be in the profile dropdown menu? It doesn't have much to do with your profile.

I was just suggesting something. you need to have it somewhere visible.

It is visible at the bottom of all Scratch pages.

but it's not that visible. at all.

Agreed. It looks like a link to another website. New Scratchers will be very confused…

yzyzyz wrote:

kingof555 wrote:

how about you remove about?i don't think anyone uses it.and plus, that seems more likely to be in the footer of the page, not the header.also, if you want a long search bar, move the navigation menu all the way to the left, and the profile and stuff all the way to the right.BOOM!big search bar

nice idea!

Woah, I didn't even think of this! Yes. I completely support this. Replace ‘About’ with ‘Discuss’ and move ‘About’ to somewhere on the bottom. Either that or put ‘About’ on the Tips page somewhere, so people who click on it can see that page from Tips.

muellly wrote:

Nooooooooooo. The discuss option was already the most obscure option. I didn't even know it existed until I saw a link in a curated project. And I didn't even know the full extent of what discuss was for until this year. Making it even more obscure is a bad idea. New Scratchers who need help with scripts that aren't in tips or have a question about Scratch aren't going to know where to look now. New Scratchers who don't know about the forums may try to post comments that were their function on featured projects creating more spam. I don't even see where the discuss is in the footer. Instead of pushing the forums aside you should promote them. Did you even do a poll to see if most people who didn't click the button didn't know they exists instead of them being not interested in them. I also don't see how this promotes the other options. All this appears to do is make the search bar bigger, and I used it even more rarely then the forums. I feel that removing the discuss button is a step back for Scratch, and I am hoping right now that this isn't the beginning of a road of step backs like another site I used to be on because I like to program in Scratch and I hope that updates won't one day take the joy out of it. That site was Roblox.

SUPPORT
Plus you have to scroll through the whole website to get to it.

Why not remove search bar and make it so, to open it, you click on a little search icon? Or something like that?

Carriage wrote:

Why not remove search bar and make it so, to open it, you click on a little search icon? Or something like that?

Feel free to suggest that in the Suggestions forum.

Nice tips page. But, removing discuss was a mistake.