teal08 wrote:

Maybe, as well, put a link to the forum in the new tips section and put it there in such a way that New Scratchers realise that they aren't all alone and there are people that will quite happily answer any specific questions. Which is important if they want to challenge themselves to coding levels above the basic projects in the “tips” section

MrSuperGamer wrote:

i do prefer #bring-it-back, but if that never happens, I will stick with this. there should be an extension that puts the button back

makethebrainhappy wrote:

Statements by the Scratch Team regarding this issue

• "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!"
  
  
• "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."
  

Many Scratcher's have found this decision to be controversial because of these issues:

1.) The inconvenience of scrolling to reach the forums.

2.) The difficulty for New Scratcher's to find the forums.

I believe that I have come up with a solution that is compromise between both sides.



I would suggest putting the “Forums” tab or “Discuss Tabs” on the right hand side of the messages header. Currently no link/text occupies this space. This is a compromise because

1.) While it make's the general forum page easier to access for users while browsing messages, it does not hinder the promotion of project creation, especially after one has viewed someone else's project.

2.) It make's it much easier for New Scratchers to find the forums. The messages tab is the same place where they go if they need to accept a Scratcher Invitation, so it is logical that they should need to access to the same tab in order to find the forums.

3.) It would not change the size of the search bar in any way.

4.) The Scratch Team made this change to “get new users started on becoming full fledged Scratchers!” Adding this compromise would not hinder this mission in any way.

makethebrainhappy wrote:

MrSuperGamer wrote:

i do prefer #bring-it-back, but if that never happens, I will stick with this. there should be an extension that puts the button back

That already exists

I would suggest putting the “Forums” tab or “Discuss Tabs” on the right hand side of the messages header. Currently no link/text occupies this space.

SimpleScratch wrote:

I would suggest putting the “Forums” tab or “Discuss Tabs” on the right hand side of the messages header. Currently no link/text occupies this space.

This is obviously a reasonable way of compromising access to the forums

And since the Scratch team can and do read posts -then they must have seen it

Since it would be a trivial change (and not negate any of their stated reason for removing access from the front page) - the fact that they've not done it really indicates the true reason to relegate forums to the sub-basement

They want to stop their use

I would have a lot more respect for the Scratch team if they would come out and admit this and not hide behind other statements

Of course, if this is not true and that adding link to forums from the message tabis (for some reason unbeknown to us) very tricky to do then- fair enough
But……………

Simon (an old Scratcher that has seen many a young Scratcher benefit enormously from these forums which are unique in the programming world)

Tildo wrote:

i'd support, except it'd be difficult accessing the forums when not logged on. let's say you havent made an account yet and want to get a feel for the community. how would you access it?

MathlyCat wrote:

I don't understand why you people persevere for an option that has a minority in it. Scratch is about programming.
Discussion forums is not to be discovered, and doesn't need to be.

People can ask questions on each other's profiles, and all evidence says that small small small portion of Scratchers who use the forums are so insignificant to 99% of Scratch. (Wiki)

ST did it because of majority. If you don't like it, you'll have to live with it. Do you think every decision a government made was 100% agreed upon?

FancyFoxy wrote:

MathlyCat wrote:

I don't understand why you people persevere for an option that has a minority in it. Scratch is about programming.
Discussion forums is not to be discovered, and doesn't need to be.

People can ask questions on each other's profiles, and all evidence says that small small small portion of Scratchers who use the forums are so insignificant to 99% of Scratch. (Wiki)

ST did it because of majority. If you don't like it, you'll have to live with it. Do you think every decision a government made was 100% agreed upon?

Thank you. Someone else who agrees with me.
I mean, seriously. The only people mad at this update are people who use the discussion forums frequently(as they're probably the only ones who actually noticed the change).