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An Account or User Icon trend is a trend related to information on the profile of the participating user or the user icon of the user. If a "famous" Scratcher joins or starts a trend (especially for Icon Trends), the popularity of the trend may spread rapidly.

Trends

var0 User Icon Restyles

An example of an icon which has been restyled by var0. The link to the original is in the description of the file.

A user, var0, launched a project accepting requests of user icons.[1] This was first unknown until djdolphin requested a restyle of their icon. This passed on to other Scratchers who then requested a restyle of their own icon, due to the simplistic and hilarious results. This trend transformed a small user icon shop into a base of this popular trend.

However, due to account migration by var0, the shop was closed and this trend is no longer alive.

Fake Locations

Via Inspect Element, getting back to "Location not given" was possible.

This started by using locations with interesting names or relatively small populations such as "Antarctica", "Heard and McDonald Islands", "Christmas Island", and then reverting to "Location not given". In addition, Scratchers had discovered that two-letter country codes (must exist to work) could be set as a location in place of traditional countries, such as "United States", which could be changed to "US" with Inspect Element.[2] It was also discovered that users could go to account settings and double-click on the "Save my Changes" button to set the user's location to "Location not given".[3] This was a way to make an account look interesting or even funny.

An example of a fake location

Such unusual locations are possible in Scratch because every ISO 3166-1 country code (which includes dependent territories, including ones with no population), can be selected as a location when signing up for Scratch.[4]

One of the most popular country code locations was "ST"[citation needed], a joke reference to Scratch Team. In reality, however, ST refers to São Tomé and Príncipe. Many Scratchers who were active in the Advanced Topics forum set their location to "AT" (Austria).[5] The ways to get two letter locations or "Location not given" have since been fixed.[6]

Roleplaying Accounts

Some users have created accounts specifically for roleplaying as their own characters. They'll usually roleplay as the featured character and post projects about their character. It's common for fan characters and existing canon characters[7] to be role played by account but rare for original characters.

LGBT Icons

In the month of June, it is a common tradition to have an icon in a theme of LGBT pride, which means to include rainbows in their icons. Many user icons were revamped to have a rainbow background.

Some Scratchers who were against the LGBT pride converted their icons to black-and-white. This practice has been turned down already by the Scratch Team.[citation needed] In 2017, the "Scratch Christian Month" trend was introduced and people began putting crosses on their icons as a Christian-friendly alternative to the LGBT icon trend.[8]

Other users may not know about Pride Month, but switch their icon to a rainbow because they may like it. It is also common for Scratchers to change the background of their profile picture to the flag of their own sexual orientation or gender identity, or to the Straight Ally flag.[citation needed]

Licky Icons

An example of a licky icon

Many users' profile pictures feature an animated animal/object licking the screen, most often a cat. This trend is still very popular today and is widespread on the Internet as a meme.

"(username)Rises/Revives"

In this trend, when a user reaches a certain number of projects, they'll create a new account called with the same username but with "Rises" at the end. When they reach a certain number of projects on the new account, they'll create a new account with the username used for the first account, but with "Revives" at the end. This practice may repeat at certain times.

This practice received some criticism[9] because some users may think of it as spam, much like namesnipes.

Some users have received alerts from the Scratch Team for project spamming, where they create a large number of projects simply in order to boost their number of projects.[citation needed]

Calvin and Hobbes

There has been a trend in which something related to Calvin and Hobbes, such as an icon, is used. This is not very popular and commonly used by "ATers", users who spend much time in the Advanced Topics forum.[problematic][citation needed]

Joke Accounts

This trend is similar to the "Roleplaying accounts" trend except joke accounts are created for fun and aren't used much. Joke accounts may represent either a character or a feature and they may act like it. Many joke accounts are abandoned after a while and are sometimes considered namesnipes. There are also a few evil kumquat joke accounts.[10][11]

Glitchy Logos

This trend was started by TrapHD when they made a tutorial on making a "Glitchy Logo".[12] This taught how to simply turn your user icon into a glitchy mess. Almost everyone who commented on the tutorial has a glitchy icon. People used this tutorial to impress other users or just make their user icon better.

t r x y e Logos

This trend was started by -Pineapple- when they made the project "t r x y e meme-thing".[13] It is based on Troye Sivan's album cover for TRXYE. Many users remixed this project[14] and made their own, and most of them used their version as profile pictures.[15] This trend has died down, and now very few users have a t r x y e logo.

Chibi Harry Potter Logos

This trend was started when ceebee, a well-known user and member of the Scratch Team, changed their icon to a chibi Harry Potter. Many people took it and recolored/edited them and used it as an icon.[citation needed]

Halloween Logos

Scratch used to have a feature named Scratch Holiday Logo, however, that feature was removed because it was very difficult to change the Scratch Logo[citation needed]. Since then, Scratchers have gotten creative and started doing a Halloween profile picture. Scratchers would decorate their User Icon using other Scratchers' icons. For example, UserA has a picture of a cat they drew, UserB has their Original Character for their User Icon, and UserC has their logo for their icon. UserD takes UserA, UserB, and UserC's User Icon and makes the icons switch between UserA, UserB then UserC's picture.

What's in the Peanut Butter Jar

In Summer 2017, some users started saying "What's in the peanut butter jar?" Instead of saying "What's up?"[citation needed] This prompted many users to switch their icons to peanut butter jars or add peanut butter backgrounds.

x__0 Style Accounts

In June of 2017, an account named x__0 was created.[16] This account posted projects with animated thumbnails, and was considered "spooky" by some of the Scratch community.[17] Some users were inspired by x__0 and decided to make accounts similar to x__0, with a similar concept and username.[18][19]

Thanos Cat

See also: Scratch 3.0#Negative reception

Shortly after the release of Scratch 3.0, the community started to realize the departure of several Scratchers, including famous ones. To raise awareness about this, a user named Optifict created a studio called Thanos Cat Snapped Half of Scratch From Existence!, whose icon quickly became popular. The title and icon of the studio are a metaphor for the exaggeration of how the release of Scratch 3.0 drove many of Scratch's users away.

Some Scratchers have created an alternate trend in which they change their icons to say "Trust the ST!"[citation needed], a popular hashtag as of January 2019, and "Go 3.0!" rather than the negativity of 3.0 portrayed by Thanos Cat.

Chair Icons

In February of 2019, Scratch user NilsTheBest created a studio called "Chair of Republic"[20], which eventually started catching attention. The main topic of the studio was chairs. Users wanting to join the studio had to have a chair profile picture; as such, many people changed their pictures to become a curator[21]. The studio's projects are also all chair-related.

Planet Logos

Document.png Please expand this article or section. You can help by adding more information if you are an editor. More information might be found in a section of the talk page. (May 2019)

On May 4th, 2019, a user named Brad-Games changed their logo to a planet image[22] created using an image editing software called GIMP. Many Scratchers quickly joining the trend influenced many other Scratchers to join. As of early 2020, this trend still goes on but is not as popular as before.

  1. Download GIMP
  2. Import the image you want to use
  3. Click filters
  4. Go to Animation > Spinning Globe
  5. Choose the number of frames the animation would have (35 is recommended), then click "OK"
  6. Give it time to render your desired image
  7. Save as an animated gif via File > Export As
  8. Add ".gif" at the end of its file name
  9. Another box will come up. In it, tick "As animation".
  10. Set your user icon to that image

Default Style Logos

In the later middle months of 2019[23], some users started changing their icons to "default" logos. This refers to the icon that users get automatically when they first start Scratch. The background is updated to a (typically gradient dark-to-light) sky blue, with a white silhouette of the user's OC or logo on top. This trend's popularity rose immensely when a studio named "Let's Just Casually Default The Planet" was created by the user ninjanightfury.

"TEAM CAPITAL;" Logos

Za-Chary's "TEAM CAPITAL;" logo

On March 31 of 2020, then-Scratch Team member Za-Chary set his profile avatar to a "Default Style" logo with inverted colors for April Fools' Day. He created a studio called TEAM CAPITAL; and since then, the style caught on and spread like wildfire and many users have set their avatars to "TEAM CAPITAL;" logos.

"Lancer Face" Icons

In April of 2020, a user named MusicManJoe changed his profile picture to include the face of "Lancer"[24], a character from the videogame "Deltarune". Lots of users began seeing the new profile picture and decided to edit their own to include the face, making the trend grow rapidly.

"Rocket" Icons

The "Rocket" icon.

In May of 2020, the user -TheGreenNinja- shared a project called "Let's Confuse Rocket," which said "Let's change our profile pictures to -Rocket-'s for no reason at all!". This led in many users changing their profile pictures to the -Rocket- icon. -Rocket- then responded by releasing a project titled "Lots Of Me", causing the popularity of the trend to increase even further. The original project by -TheGreenNinja- was unshared for unknown reasons.

Rotating Cube Icons

As of June 2020, a recent trend has suddenly grown, with unknown origins, in which Scratchers make their profile pictures into rotating cubes. These profile pictures can be made using a website called "3D Gif Maker." Originally, it was Rotating Spheres, but evolved into Cubes.

"theChAOTiC" Icons

As of August 2020, a trend that involved changing their profile pictures to the one of theChAOTiC was created Scratcher HaxRoyal_L12. The studio[25] was raided by an unknown Scratcher, but they managed to re-invite them back. theChAOTiC updated their "About Me" to say: "I see you all! #thechaotic army", causing more users to get involved with the trend.

"PetPet" Icons

An example PetPet icon.

As of September 2020, a new trend had developed where users would put their normal profile picture (usually an original character,) being pet by a hand. The website used by most to make a petpet is https://benisland.neocities.org/petpet/. The creator of this trend was the user FireMayro.[26]

Luigi Icons

As of November 2020, a new trend developed in which users would add a Luigi hat to their profile picture or original character. This trend was created by the user fdreerf.[27] Sometimes, users would even replace their whole profile picture with a picture of Luigi. It was also common to switch to a green background. There were many studios that had people with Luigi icons as curators.[28][29]

"Colored Coder" Accounts

In the year of 2017, a user named xXRedTheCoderXx created his account. The user became active in the website, and received a good amount of attention. This attention was noticed by the user Twin138956Scratch, who created the account xXBlueTheCoderXx in the year 2020. Users started trying to guess who the owner was, and they eventually succeeded.

A user by the name of JPOWERPUFFGIRLS soon made the account xXPinkTheCoderXx. After that, there was an extremely large amount of "colored coder" accounts, where users would make accounts similar to xXRedTheCoderXx, with a large variety of colors, and users guessing who owns the account.

Not long after, a studio was created by xXRedTheCoderXx, where users try to guess the account owner of a colored coder account. Usually, a colored coder introduces themselves either on that studio, or on xXRedTheCoderXx's profile, and xXRedTheCoderXx invites them to become a curator of the studio. A list of the colored coder accounts and their respective main accounts can be found here.

Carlos

At an unknown time,[when?] a user named NinjaBroMaking changed their user icon to an image of a fish with the word "Carlos" underneath.[30] This image became popularized by another user named Goldy675, who changed their profile picture to this roach named Carlos, as well as creating multiple studios[31][32]that invited users with Carlos profile pictures.

Soon after, this became a trend, and users started changing their profile pictures to Carlos. Users also created many more Carlos-related studios.[33][34] [35] [36] [37] Multiple studios have been based off of a character named Maurisio, who is supposed to be a rival or brother of Carlos, whichever one is uncertain. An example of such a studio can be found here.

Berd

In January 2021, Scratchers began using variations of the Berd character, a variation of a profile picture which combines an OC with a poorly drawn bird image, as their profile picture. It was started by the Scratcher Memekaryo, who started making berd versions of Scratchers' profile pictures.[38][39] This idea is similar in nature to the profile picture of the YouTuber named Berd.[40]

Berd Era

Similarly, there was a trend in which this idea was further pushed. Supposedly started by the late account of Berd_Boi and some others [citation needed], in what was known as the Berd Era, accounts and OCs that parodied the YouTuber, but usually did not parody Scratcher OCs (as they were the representative OCs of the Scratch account), were created en masse. The start and end of the trend is currently undocumented, but the Berd Era seems to have been dated back even before Memekaryo's trend, around 2020 [citation needed].

Shrek GIF

In May 2021, a user called misteray made a project with a link to the entire Shrek movie sped up and compressed into a GIF suitable for using as studio icons and profile pictures. Soon after, many people started using it as their profile picture.

Golden Icons

In this trend, people color their icons into a golden shade, due to the "Gold Supremacy"[41] in which they need to color their icons gold to enter. Most people just used a filter to change it to a golden hue.[citation needed]

An example of a golden icon

Friday Night Funkin' GIFs

After the game Friday Night Funkin' started to become popular, some users changed their icons to the characters in the game doing some of their iconic moves. Most of them switched to the main character "Boyfriend"'s GIF.

Laughing Mario GIFs

Originally created by the Scratcher medude11, lots of people changed their profile pictures to the "laughing Mario" GIF. It quickly gained popularity, becoming a popular trend.

The Laughing Mario GIF

Ukraine Flag Icons

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many users have added the Ukrainian flag to their profile pictures. A common format of this is putting their previous icon over an image of the Ukrainian flag.[42]

Technoblade Icon

Technoblade's Icon

Wikipedia-logo.svg  For more information, see Technoblade on Wikipedia.

The death of famous YouTuber Technoblade was announced on the 30th of June 2022.[43] Many users switched their profile pictures to his YouTube icon in memory of him. Some users used his icon in colour but others used the black and white version of it.[44]

. o . profile picture

Example of the .o. profile picture trend

This trend was started by Giolaboman, in which a user has a profile picture of their OC sitting with legs open and having a ".o." like face. The original template can be found here, and one can make their own by changing the OC. Some users are following this trend and it has recently grown incredibly popular.[citation needed]

Mystery Accounts

This trend is when a user creates an account, and other users must guess the owner of the account. This trend has existed for a long time with no clear beginning, but it has inspired many accounts to come. [45][46][47][48]

The trend additionally greatly increased in popularity when the account Sliverus got the manager position in the "The Forum Helpers" studio. After this, many more new accounts were assumed to be mystery accounts that copied Sliverus.[49]

"Baller" Icons

An example Baller icon

In October 2022, the user THENaterNoob changed their icon to their avatar in Roblox form throwing a ball based on the popular "Baller" trend on other sites. Similar to the . o . icon trend, they later created a template project where users can remix it to create their own "Baller" icon. The trend quickly gained popularity after the project was shared.[citation needed]

Purple Icons

User profiles with purple

On June 28, 2023, the website colors changed from blue to purple. When this happened, many users changed their profile pictures to a purple icon. Several studios were made, where users could only join if they changed their icon to a purple one.[50]

Conversely, some users also changed their profile pictures to blue in opposition to the new update, saying that they preferred the site when it was blue.[51][52]

Pusheen Icon Trend

The user purple-sparkle started by changing their profile picture to one with a Pusheen. They also created a template project, and studio where managers must have an icon with Pusheen in it.[53][54]

"Stubby Lazy Eye" Icons

On February 12, 2024, the user LazyEyeTV changed their icon to a "stubby" version of their "lazy eye" OC. Later that day, the user CH3CK_M4T3 created a template project where users can remix it to create their own "Stubby Lazy Eye" icon. There were also a few studios dedicated to the icon.[55][56]

External Links

References

  1. projects:61290976[dead link]
  2. post:983446
  3. projects:75946968 [dead link]
  4. https://github.com/LLK/scratch-www/blob/486c0014e552f7b85e62a4d6c672a2d9e190608d/src/lib/country-data.js#L47 (for Antarctica)
  5. "{"country":"AT"}" https://api.scratch.mit.edu/users/DatOneLefty
  6. post:2897268
  7. users:Silver The Hedgehog-
  8. topic:265560
  9. topic:162882
  10. users:Evil-Kumquat
  11. users:Da-Evil-Kumquat-Lord
  12. projects:99095614
  13. projects:102646139
  14. projects:102646139/remixtree
  15. users:girlcandycane1
  16. x__0
  17. post:2875598
  18. x_____0
  19. users:cs161404
  20. studios:5986686
  21. studios:5986686/curators
  22. users:Brad-Games/#comments-57456957[dead link]
  23. projects:320081271
  24. https://web.archive.org/web/20200428143617/https://scratch.mit.edu/users/MusicManJoe/ a web archive from April 2020 showing the user using the lancer face
  25. studios:27317859
  26. "Accidental Influence" project that shows how the user accidentally created the PetPet Trend.
  27. post:4600370
  28. studios:28022931
  29. studios:28029375
  30. users:Goldy675/#comments-111459295[dead link]
  31. studios:28330757
  32. studios:28334881
  33. studios:28318428
  34. studios:28324919
  35. studios:28330230
  36. studios:28334881
  37. studios:28334881
  38. zahmbie1. (2021-01-15). "According to -aqua-mist, Memekaryo started the berd trend when he drew some scratchers but BERD." post:4780706
  39. -Aqua-Mist-. (2021-01-15). "me and @memekaryo for pfp[About Me section]" users:-Aqua-Mist- (archive)
  40. post:4780962
  41. studios:30199401
  42. https://web.archive.org/web/20220617155025/https://scratch.mit.edu/users/-Xanimation-/
  43. so long nerds
  44. https://web.archive.org/web/20220703083336/https://scratch.mit.edu/users/minikiwigeek2/
  45. users:goldenum
  46. users:Miguel_The_Musician
  47. users:CreamofWheat
  48. users:AgentWatermelon
  49. projects:727952900
  50. studios:33561599
  51. studios:33561599/#comments-227885803
  52. projects:832878917/#comments-342369399
  53. studios:34470008
  54. studios:34479807
  55. studios:34631225
  56. studios:34685177
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