Alternate Account System

-Upside-

Hey there fellow Scratchers!

I find it a hassle to switch from one account to another to edit a post, edit a project, etc. It's especially annoying when I'm signed in on one account, but I'm working on a project on another account, and all of my progress isn't saved when I close the project without realizing I was signed in on another account. I'm sure you've experienced something similar on Scratch.

I'm proposing an alternate accounts system to help fix this.
Through your Account Settings, you can link your alternate account to your main account, enabling you to edit your secondary account's forum posts, projects, and perform other actions you'd normally be able to do only on your primary account.

In order to link two accounts, you'd need to enter the password of the second account and confirm your password for the account you're currently on. Once that's done, you have to then confirm linking the accounts by logging on to the second account and clicking a Confirm link in Messages.

Revisions:
- An linked alt can only edit the shared projects and visible studios of the original, and vice versa
-

Some mockups -

Account Settings Page
The Account page in Account Settings with the new Link Account option

Second AS Page
The second page in Account Settings where you enter your and your second account's password to link both

Confirmation Alert
The alert that you get when another account tries to link to your account, always stays on top of messages

Instead, you get an email now asking for confirmation.

That's my suggestion, thanks for reading.

Last edited by -Upside- (May 20, 2019 23:03:37)

Truck11111

Support, but bans and mutes should apply to all accounts linked.

-Upside-

Truck11111 wrote:
Support, but bans and mutes should apply to all accounts linked.

Maybe not. There is a case where this shouldn't happen - what if a parent has their account linked to their child's account, and the child gets banned? Wouldn't it be unfair that the parent gets banned too? (Or vice versa

)

Last edited by -Upside- (May 18, 2019 21:32:44)

Za-Chary

-Upside- wrote:
what if a parent has their account linked to their child's account, and the child gets banned? Wouldn't it be unfair that the parent gets banned too? (Or vice versa )

Then the parent should contact the Scratch Team using “Contact Us” to try to explain to the Scratch Team what happened.

To be honest, I believe this system could lead to a lot of problems. Someone could send an “alternate account request”, and the user could accidentally hit “Confirm”, or hit it without knowing what it does, and the original user could then get that user banned.

Such a system could also be a huge gold mine for private messaging, which the Scratch Team certainly wishes to avoid.

Moreover, making many new accounts is discouraged for the most part, anyway. Generally, everything I need to do on Scratch, I need one account for. I think the risks outweigh the benefits on this one.

codeman1044

I understand when Za-Chary is saying, and I have some might-work-might-not-work ideas to counteract the problems listed.
Instead of sending it to your messages, it would send it to the linked email. If it was a new scratcher with no linked email, you wouldn't be able to link accounts.
Also, when you hit confirm, it would require you to type in your password, just to make sure that you can think about what you're doing.

If you have an account linked to another, you wouldn't be able to reply to the other account if they posted something. You would have to reply on the same account.

If it would encourage making multiple accounts, then you would need a cooldown of, say, two weeks before your account can be linked to an alt. The alt account wouldn't have a cooldown, but the original account would. If you tried to link it, it would say something like “You need to have owned this account for 2 weeks to link an account.”
You would also be limited to like 1 or 2 alts per original.

My final opinion: semi-support.

Last edited by codeman1044 (May 18, 2019 22:18:15)

Flipped_

Za-Chary wrote:
Then the parent should contact the Scratch Team using “Contact Us” to try to explain to the Scratch Team what happened.

The problem is that the ST has no way of knowing if the person appealing is telling the truth about being a parent or not.

Za-Chary wrote:
To be honest, I believe this system could lead to a lot of problems. Someone could send an “alternate account request”, and the user could accidentally hit “Confirm”, or hit it without knowing what it does, and the original user could then get that user banned.

I think I need to clarify something; in order to even send a request, you'd have to know the password of the other account.

Za-Chary wrote:
Such a system could also be a huge gold mine for private messaging, which the Scratch Team certainly wishes to avoid.

I suppose there should be restrictions on what you can do with linked accounts. How about you only being able to edit shared projects and visible studios? Those two are the only ways of private messaging I can think of.

codeman1044 wrote:
Instead of sending it to your messages, it would send it to the linked email. If it was a new scratcher with no linked email, you wouldn't be able to link accounts.
Also, when you hit confirm, it would require you to type in your password, just to make sure that you can think about what you're doing.

Both are good ideas. To take your idea a little further, both the linked alt and the primary accounts have to be a Scratcher.

codeman1044 wrote:
If you have an account linked to another, you wouldn't be able to reply to the other account if they posted something. You would have to reply on the same account.

I don't think this would accomplish anything. All comments are open and not private, so not being able to reply wouldn't help.

codeman1044 wrote:
If it would encourage making multiple accounts, then you would need a cooldown of, say, two weeks before your account can be linked to an alt. The alt account wouldn't have a cooldown, but the original account would. If you tried to link it, it would say something like “You need to have owned this account for 2 weeks to link an account.”
You would also be limited to like 1 or 2 alts per original.

The New Scratcher limitation idea would work like this, since if your pretty active it takes a couple of weeks to become a Scratcher. I think 2 alts is a good limit.

I'll revise the OP to add fixes for the flaws everybody pointed out.

I find it ironic how I wanted to edit my post directly from this account xD

Last edited by Flipped_ (May 20, 2019 22:11:13)

Truck11111

bump even though its not my topic

46009361

Truck11111 wrote:
bump even though its not my topic

I agree. Anyways, I also am wondering, what if two accounts have the same password?

LegoManiac04

kChiaEC19 wrote:
Truck11111 wrote:
bump even though its not my topic
I agree. Anyways, I also am wondering, what if two accounts have the same password?

nevermind

Last edited by LegoManiac04 (Dec. 3, 2019 07:40:37)

45afc4td

What if a user types a password that many users happen to have?

Arceu

45afc4td wrote:
What if a user types a password that many users happen to have?

They still have to confirm it through an email confirmation.

LegoManiac04

Arceu wrote:
45afc4td wrote:
What if a user types a password that many users happen to have?
They still have to confirm it through an email confirmation.

But who gets the email? If multiple users have the same password, won't all of them get a confirmation email?

Starstriker3000

LegoManiac04 wrote:
Arceu wrote:
45afc4td wrote:
What if a user types a password that many users happen to have?
They still have to confirm it through an email confirmation.
But who gets the email? If multiple users have the same password, won't all of them get a confirmation email?

Maybe have the user type in the username as well?

Tallented-Code-bot

One thing I am wondering:
Would these accounts still be independent? For example, what would happen if they were both playing the same multiplayer game.
Would they both be counted as one account, or would they be separate.

Nambaseking01

LegoManiac04 wrote:
But who gets the email? If multiple users have the same password, won't all of them get a confirmation email?

That's a valid point, but we could use @Starstriker3000's method.

Either way, BFF's normally share their online passwords with each other with the trust they have in each other (at least, I do so with my friends) so someone close to you could just send a confirmation email to you. If your friend has been on Scratch longer than you, you wouldn't know what the confirmation email would do. You would just see your friend's username and happily confirm it not knowing they are linking accounts and then when the friend gets banned so do you.

This could also potentially lead to private messaging, like @Za-Chary said, and most importantly, why do we need alts? I spend most of my time on my main account, and sometimes I forget my alt even exists. I'm even planning on deleting it soon!

Instead of going through the hassle of linking and a whole serious process, you can just develop patience in your mind.

--Explosion--

Nambaseking01 wrote:
LegoManiac04 wrote:
But who gets the email? If multiple users have the same password, won't all of them get a confirmation email?

That's a valid point, but we could use @Starstriker3000's method.

Either way, BFF's normally share their online passwords with each other with the trust they have in each other (at least, I do so with my friends) so someone close to you could just send a confirmation email to you. If your friend has been on Scratch longer than you, you wouldn't know what the confirmation email would do. You would just see your friend's username and happily confirm it not knowing they are linking accounts and then when the friend gets banned so do you.

This could also potentially lead to private messaging, like @Za-Chary said, and most importantly, why do we need alts? I spend most of my time on my main account, and sometimes I forget my alt even exists. I'm even planning on deleting it soon!

Instead of going through the hassle of linking and a whole serious process, you can just develop patience in your mind.

Just saying, you should probably stop doing that. I think that in the email there shoud be a detailed explanation of what this does and there should be a “manage accounts” button instead of link accounts where you can both link another account and remove a linked account. As for playing multiplayer games on the top bar where your username and profile pic is in the dropdown you should be able to select your other account's username, changing which account you use. For mystuff, the backpack, editing projects and studios both users would share privileges, for example if one user curates the studio, when the accounts are linked they would both be able to, same with projects and backpacks.

Nambaseking01

--Explosion-- wrote:
Just saying, you should probably stop doing that.

But my friends are intolerable…

--Explosion--

Nambaseking01 wrote:
--Explosion-- wrote:
Just saying, you should probably stop doing that.

But my friends are intolerable…

lol, so you tell them your passwords?

monkeybeans21

I do not have a bottom saying link accounts in settings

Mesteryman

monkeybeans21 wrote:
I do not have a bottom saying link accounts in settings

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