To me, Newgrounds is a place where i can finally stretch my legs and relax. I tend to find myself being outcasted in many individual communities and social platforms simply because of my personal opinions (which aren't even that bad, nowhere close to extreme) and the type of subjects i enjoy. To me, this is hopefully a place where i can show off my art and discuss my characters and their world without having to worry about that.
Karma always keeps score
Age 34, Male
Joined on 9/28/08
- Level:
- 19
- Exp Points:
- 4,000 / 4,010
- Exp Rank:
- 13,591
- Vote Power:
- 6.14 votes
- Art Scouts
- 5
- Rank:
- Portal Security
- Global Rank:
- 21,522
- Blams:
- 53
- Saves:
- 412
- B/P Bonus:
- 8%
- Whistle:
- Bronze
- Trophies:
- 22
- Medals:
- 579
- Supporter:
- 11y 2m 6d
- Gear:
- 2
Wow, this is epic.
I remember coming to NG to play games back then, over time it left my address bar. I'm honestly glad to be back, even some of the old games are still here.
Newgrounds is a special place indeed. Sure, it might not be perfect - people do make mistakes after all; but I think the crew's doing their best and need all the help they can get. I'm sure glad I stuck around.
This is a damn quality post.
I believed that as a kid and I had worse experiences on DeviantArt than on Newgrounds. Everyone on NG was and still is far nicer than on DA.
Frankly, Newgrounds is the one and only place on the internet for small artists to actually be seen, get good community feedback, and be a part of a /real/ site-wide community. Thanks for making this post, you really summed up how I feel about this place.
Long Live NG
I call it old stomping grounds.
Hey buddy. Heard you're sick of censorship - of sterile, safe, spoon-fed crap. Wanna know what causes it?
Come closer.
It's profit motive, big guy! Safe stuff doesn't run the risk of driving off a wide audience - and when you're a big company, you need to satisfy your shareholders! Puritanism itself isn't what's doing it, it's the need to appeal to the masses and shareholders. Youtube has been alienating its userbase by hand-picking their favorites and getting celebrity endorsements so as to increase that mass appeal. Hell, Tumblr just died because it was trying to appease the Apple store and got desperate, and Apple didn't want to associate with Tumblr if it wasn't safe for wide audiences.
But Newgrounds doesn't care about that. Newgrounds isn't afraid to alienate the powers that be if it means they get to allow creativity, skill, and gumption to shine. Newgrounds has remained unprofitable for who-knows-how long because they've stuck by their guns and refused to compromise their integrity to thrive in the modern corporate environment of internet media. It's a scrappy, gritty underdog and that's something to be inspired by.
You're definitely right about there being a tipping point, where people have gotten tired of all this safe, *corporate* censorship. They just need to see it for what it is. For now, Newgrounds will have its day once more \m/
apple and google is far more insidious than you imagine
SnootAnon
Really nice post about this site fam. I honestly share pretty much the same opinions as you about this site, and I probably wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't for the Interactive Animation class I took in college pointing me to this site for inspiration five months ago. This does feel like the last places on the internet that one can be as creative as they wish without getting buttfucked by SJW's, pissed off soccer moms, advertisers, copyright strikes, and the political ideology of whatever private organization owns or has shares in the site one is using.
I can see why YouTube was so enticing to a lot of animators and musicians on this site back in the day. Anybody with a webcam, Windows Movie Maker 2.6, and an original enough idea could get popular, so it only made sense that talented creators also spread there content there, and it seemed to work for a lot of them. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case anymore, and people seem to be flocking back to this site to put out their content since YT is quick to "demonetize" and "age-restrict" (AKA: Censor and suppress) anybody that may deem even the slightest bit of a threat to their reputation with advertisers. PewDiePie vs T-Series is a perfect metaphor for what's happening to not just YouTube, but nearly every major social-media and creative outlet site in general. A lot of content creators seem to be flocking back to this site on the regular now, and it's a sight to behold.
Tumblr's exodus seems to be only the very beginning of what is to come of the internet in general, Twitter most likely being next to follow. As sites grow ever stricter and stricter with their policies of what is right and what is wrong, this site will grow evermore, most likely returning to it's former glory, and honestly, I look forward to it.