Click the green flag a couple times for audio sync. Well, it's finally arrived. I've now been on Scratch for ten whole years. That's crazy. If I was told at the beginning of my time here that I would be here past middle school and even high school, I wouldn't believe it. When I joined Scratch, I was around eight years old and entering third grade. I used Scratch with its intended purpose... as a programming language. Now, I am around eighteen and entering college, and I can say that there's a lot more to Scratch than just its editor. I've anticipated this anniversary for about two years, but I didn't actually start this project until this January. So after 5 months and about 50 hours of work, I present to you my 10-Year Spectacular. Length: ~6:20
Credits are at the end of the project Sometimes I wonder how many hours I've logged on this site. Though I'll never know, I can estimate it's between 2000-6000 hours, for an average of 0.55-1.6 hours per day. It's a pretty wide range because I can't imagine the variation in the time I would spend each day -- from almost no time at first to all day at some points. I also took long breaks sometimes, such as in the beginning of 2019. Of course, the true number of hours could be outside this range, but it's surely in the thousands. Would I say I'm proud of this longevity achievement? Not really but also yes. I know I could've spent those hours learning and mastering a more useful programming language, although indeed I learned and am still learning more programming in school. But also, if I didn't spend that time on Scratch, I would've probably spent it on another network. I'm also pretty happy with the memories I've made here as well. So why did I stay on Scratch for this long? There are a few reasons. Scratch to me is a sandbox, where I'm able to express my creativity in more ways than art or writing, but also in animations and games and even collaborations such as remix chains. If there's something I want to make, chances are I can do it here on Scratch, at least theoretically. Although what I have created on Scratch has changed a lot through the years, what hasn't changed is the freedom to make whatever comes to mind, just like any other creative resource. Scratch has a large community... because Scratch is also a social network, albeit for kids. A lot of the motivation I got for making big projects around 2017 to 2020 of was not only to make a good product, such as a story or game, but also to see my numbers go up in the form of views, loves, favorites, and followers. I celebrated follower milestones such as 100 and 200 like a lot of Scratchers do. Because of that, I connected with others. Even though obviously those connections were entirely online, I still felt like I found people that I could share with and even collaborate with. The latter is mostly what I did for the last five years or so. Although Scratch isn't really an ideal place for teens and adults to connect, especially with posts being so coding-focused through projects, comments, and remixes, I was a kid at the time, and Scratch was (and still is) the best place for me to establish my online identity. If you've seen GC123456 elsewhere, that username started here. Lastly, weird scratch and its collaborators would motivate me in the form of long remix collabs to stay on Scratch after I left GC123456 in 2020. I connected with some of them in a more powerful way than Scratch (I won't give the details). Most of the memories I made on this site past 2020 were related to weird scratch. I've been through a lot during my ten years of Scratch. I got in trouble, I posted on the forums, I made many comments, I made many projects, I got curated in 2016 (it is still my most loved project by far), I almost got curated again in 2022, I made and participated in many different remix chains and collabs, I've connected with people, I became part of a Scratch group... and so on. My advice to newer Scratchers who watch this project is not to follow my path. Don't stay on Scratch for ten years. The reason is that Scratch is for kids. Although people of all ages visit Scratch for their own purposes, ultimately, kids ages 8-16 are Scratch's target demographic. As such, Scratch is an introductory block-based programming language that isn't really used for many applications outside of learning to code. Most of you won't follow my path as you'll grow out of this place eventually. But I haven't yet. I would say here's to another 10 years, but honestly, I don't want to stay here for much longer. I have to move on at some point, though that point hasn't really arrived yet. As I've grown, the age gap between me and the fellow Scratchers I see on this website grows larger and larger. Perhaps college will be the reason that I finally leave, though I won't be surprised if I'm still here for my 11th anniversary. In the meantime, I'll keep Scratching.
