[ written by a friend, not the owner of the account ] I know we’ve all seen the studios that have ‘Invite Only’ in the titles. You may or may not have received an invite to such a studio before. Can I ask you an honest question? If you’ve received an invite to one of those kinds of studios, did it make you feel better about joining it? Did it make you feel better when you accepted the invite? Probably not. Now, this isn’t how everybody responds, but when I received an invite like that, I checked the curators tab. Now, this may seem like a rude thing to do, but what do you expect? I mean, I wanted to see if this studio was important enough to join. When you see an invite only studio and aren’t invited to it, how do you feel? Probably not great. That’s expected. If you accept an invite only studio invite and are hanging out there, does it feel better then a more public studio? I would say no. When people create those types of studios, it can make a kind of a clique. The definition of a clique is “a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.” This means it’s becoming a group of people, who to the outside world they seem like they think they’re better then you. If you see a small group of people at your school talking in quiet whispers, don’t you feel interested in what they’re saying? Even if they’re talking with normal volume voices, you still feel inclined to stalk them. That’s the same thing that happens on scratch. People are huddling together in a ‘more private’ place, and it doesn’t do anything but make people jealous. And trust me, if you are reading this and were/are a part of a group like that: more secretive then normal, talks in specific studios or private places, etc. you’re going to feel at least a little bit secretive. Not usually in a good way. It claws at your conscience, making you feel guilty about what you’re doing. So next time you receive an invite to a studio like this or see one around, go ahead and say something. Don’t feel bad, just as long as you’re respectful and are kind and not harsh, you can get your point across. Link this project if you find it helpful! Kindly talking through things that are bothering you over with people can help a lot; maybe more then you might think.
Thanks to @tropiicaI for the suggestion of Invite Only Studios. Also, I (owner of this account) would like to just say that I know this is a fairly controversial topic in Scratch, and many people have different views on it. Even within our team, there are differing opinions on this topic, so this message does not reflect the views of the entire team. In my personal opinion, invite only studios are kind of meant for organization or to celebrate a certain friendship rather than to be exclusive, and with the secret places, in my opinion, there are some things you'd trust only a few people enough to tell them, so a secret place might be good. However, I do agree with the person who wrote this for in cases where these are not the case, such as an invite-only studio for a broad topic, or a secret place for casual conversation. Remember, this account is just for a team of Scratchers who have different opinions we want to share, so take everything with a grain of salt, and please remember to think for yourself instead of just read what we all have to say. :)
