So, a few months ago, Scratch made an update to the website that added some new things: -A paid membership, and -Scratch AI in its alpha phase. Now, time for my opinion. I don't think Scratch should be doing this. In my first point, a paid membership makes Scratch seem useless in some cases. Children on here (Especially younger ones) will bribe their parents to pay a paltry sum per month, or year, or whatever. I don't have the membership so I don't know. But that small amount of money will build up higher and higher over time. But the point I'm making here is the fact a membership breaks the community into two: The people who have paid, and the people who haven't paid. This is the same community that ST has wanted to bring together. So why turn this website into one that decides whether you're good or not depending on a membership? It's not good at all, especially for people with FOMO, it could take a huge toll on their mental health if they don't have a membership like the rest of their friends. Besides, from what I've seen, the membership isn't even that good. Just get addons instead, it's much better. And it's free. My second point is AI. Scratch AI is a terrible idea. Scratch is supposed to promote creativity, not feeding projects made with effort and love into some machine that produces slop! You can't learn from AI ninety percent of the time, and letting it do all the work for you in a project you're "making"... when all that's done, does that project even belong to you anymore? No, no it doesn't. Scratch is about learning and having fun! Using AI to do all the dirty work for you is not learning! It's laziness. Now, now, it's true. AI can be useful. But it's a tool, not an automatic work machine. I really hope Scratch Team are careful with how they use AI in the future, as if they don't, this whole website will go up in flames and take us down with it.
Music is from FAST RMX, titled "Hangar Games"
