the current state of scratch (+announcement)

Instructions

hihi its jade :) this project is definitely going to be a little different than my previous ones ^^" i personally do not prefer to create projects like this which contain still images and heaps of text/discussion, it doesnt promote engagement nor is it a productive use of this platform. I really like coding and definitely wanna improve my skills in that area. but I honestly think I have a lot of opinions I want to address that will take too much effort with very little time I have on my hands. without further ado, ,, I'm going to be discussing what in the world is going on with this website rn!!!! ( however before I officially begin , Id like to warn you that this may or may not appear or come off as rude, brutally honest, or insensitive, and I apologize in advance ) as someone whos a huge advocate for any form of creativity through coding, which is most of what this website stimulates, I feel like there is little to none of this type of content anymore. that is definitely an exaggeration, but from what I have noticed, being on the website for about 6 yrs now (on and off) I feel its lost its touch. its seemingly more of a place for nostalgia and childhood joy, which most people are longing for nowadays and successfully finding within the website. with that however, it raises some concerns.. as people grow, interests tend to as well. and scratch went from a simple coding platform to a form of social media quickly. this is inevitable and could arguably a good thing. artists, writers, musicians, & other creatives are able to expand their fanbases and share such interests through computer programming. but (in some rare cases) I've seen unruly comments made about the scratch team and complaints regarding their filter/way they manage their website. of course the filter bot has its annoyances, it isn't fair most of the time but its meant to be that way, I feel. the majority of the platform is inhabited by children/minors who are actually exposed to the dangers of the internet through this website since it closely contains huge similarities to social media platforms; commenting, posting, liking, following, etc. I think people who are teens and above feel that scratch should be catered to them, but that isnt necessarily right imo. as I stated before in my 'scratch inactivity epidemic' project, a lot of scratchers "famous" ones at that, had graduated to actual social media platforms and share their creations there as it fits their needs more. now I can understand that scratch probably is filled with tweens and younger kids creating projects in the "art" "aesthetic" "writing" communities. and this is how their interests evolve and blossom. I think thats great! however,, moving on to what I was getting at, Im seeing a pattern of projects that just feels odd to me. piles upon piles of "aes" projects with overwhelming amount of pngs, and just profiles fitting specific conformity which go against entirely what creativity stands for. yes you can argue that these profiles are in fact creative, UNDENIABLY!! I totally agree that they are, but that doesnt mean we should be boxing other people and feeding popularity to those who fit that box. that isn't creativity. its just a replica of the phenomenon which is going on a social platform called "TikTok", where people are overusing buzzwords like "niche" "chic" and romanticizing being "different but the same" there's a new uprise in a style of studios within this community as well, or "comms" as I should say, there is a "comm" for absolutely everything now,, that's cool that people are connecting abt various interests, but they /almost/ always include "aes" in it, what's sucks is that I don't think you need to be aesthetic to enjoy an interest or take part in a community of like-minded people. examples are names like "aes taylor comm" "aes olivia comm" "aes" this "aes" that, it gets tiring. yea, my profile is deemed "aesthetic" I've grown up using websites like pinrest and spotify, and definitely fell thru that rabbit hole tbh I've grown out of scratch and block coding, and already studied java script , but I love coding and have made some good friends which im not eager to leave behind so I'm def a victim of wanting that nostalgia l l v