For real. Does anyone remember the absolute brutality of a place in terms of reviews this used to be? Or even in the forum section. Like the pass the portal was an absolute gauntlet. Kids seem to have it pretty good these days. But idk, it did really push me to get better, something about proving them wrong fueled my flames. Also you did have a handful of really useful reviews amongst the crap. So I ask, is something lost by this place not being such a toxic shithole? (From those of you that remember anyways?) It almost feels kinda weird and unproductive everyone being so goody goody all of a sudden. My personal heyday was 2009- 2013ish. Before the porn influx of the Tumblr migration anyway. Share your thoughts.
My kind of soldier you can ride on my shoulders when you've won.
Esty
@Eastbeast
Age 33, Male
Animator
University of Arizona
Boston MA(FormerlyTucson)
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Does anyone else remember how brutal this place used to be?
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Heres a truth for you. If you are fucking on a crocadile, 27% of the time that same crocodile will bite your asshole off and prevent you from shiiting for the rest of your life. He'll just rip your asshole clean from your ass and in 7 days you will die from non shitting.
I'm very generous with my reviews, as I usually give out 5s and 4.5s. A lot of that has to with me sticking with stuff and artists I already like and just keep giving them favorable reviews since they keep putting out stuff the clicks with me. Sometimes I'll venture out into the stuff that's under judgement on the front page and that's where I give out 3-3.5s. Stuff that would proabably be rated lower than 3 just doesn't compel enough to rate and I've only ever rate something 0 one time. Plus I've only been using this site since summer of 2022 and made an account that September, so I'm far too new to expereince harsh criticism being part of the cultural zeitgiest of NG.
@SlaveOnAStick Any guesses as to why you think that shift happened?
@Hitman80010 Ah, the Wild West days of the Internet. How I wish I could've expereinced more of it prior to it being brutally snuffed out circa 2017.
I wasn't there, but I would assume the former tweens and young adults of 2009 either grew-up or moved on to a different website.
Word on the street is is that Tumblr has also been mellowing out, presumably because the crazy zealous users flocked to Twitter after the NSFW ban and the remaining userbase itself is also aging.
I was born in 2004, so I didn't really experience the "golden age of the internet" in it's heyday, but I totally feel you. Whenever I go back and watch online content from the 2000's - early 2010's, it all just feels.. so fun and full of life. It feels like people were more intense and passionate back then about the stuff they were putting on the internet. Not only the content itself, I agree the general freedom of speech was staggering for a time. The internet as a whole has definitely become softer as more of the general public got into it, and as it quickly became more monetized.
Also while I'm cool with porn being on here (free speech n all), I agree that there is definitely more than enough of it to go around for a lifetime and it's kind of annoying sometimes seeing that all the most played games are porn games, and that drawing hentai (with all due respect to the talent and skills of the artists) is an easy ticket to loads of followers if you're good enough at it. I mean, look at most of the most followed artists on this site.
Anyways, while I am all for people being kind to each other over the internet, I do want to see more of a tough edge sometimes as well. People don't seem to realize that a slight amount of toxicity is good. It spices life up, and sometimes you need the brutal honesty of a harshly worded comment, y'know? It's the kind of thing you appreciate later.
Yeah that's a point of view here I relate to quite a bit. I know quite a few people who's mental health would have been better too in some ways if this place was a bit nicer to them in their youth. A lot of those reviewers and users were straight up psychopathic towards each other, threatening violence, doxxing and arson threats which happened to someone I know. But in a weird way it did amp up the "Costs" and standards in the portal. Don't get me wrong, I would love the current more upbeat atmosphere here if I was just starting out as well, but one might miss a few of those reviewers that really cared under all the pressure of this place. A pressure that did really mold a lot of the animators we know today we consider legends.
Also always cool to see someone doing Paper Mario art as well. Sending ya a nice toxic welcome here✌️
I only joined in 2008 but I do remember how unforgiving the portal and forums used to be. Newgrounds was definitely edgier back then, and standards were muuuuch higher back then than now. That's both because there are far fewer people voting now than before, and also because the internet as a whole has by and large mellowed out compared to the 3edgy5me days. I think that's in large part because the culture of the internet has itself changed, like in the past it used to feel like one big toxic family where it was being "in" on the "joke" to be edgy and at times cruel to others. Nowadays with a lot more people not having that shared background, it's much more out of place, and it's good that it is.
Not to say that it's so much better, I mean just look at twitter. That's today's 4chan but worse.
Yeah,it did lose it´s flair and personality.Tumblr joining was like a monkey paw wish.It did rejuvenate it but at what cost?Also the Forums are just ´´toxic´´ in the other direction now.Cannot say any mean shit without getting banned, dunno i guess it lost its sincerity in all this Forced Positivity.If you care diverge from the standard behaviour of Asskissing carebear mentality, you won´t be treated all that fairly i reckon,if you even give a shit about that, concerning the Forums.I am still serving 7 out of the 10 years because i dared to post an edited picture of a pride flag made to look like the spastica for example.
TLDR:The people did not change only the direction the wind is blowing now.
I know what you mean about the feel of the "forced positivity" haha. The vibe behind the it is almost aggressive and controlling. Back in the day do you feel your prideflag edit would have flown under the radar? A ten year ban for that does seem excessive, jeez.
I did not participate directly in the NG community in the early days, but I did visit the site sometimes and was aware of the atmosphere here. I think part of the difference between then and now is, NG used to be a primary pillar of the wild-west internet, at a time when the internet was dominated by 4chan culture. Now, we are just a moderately sized community of creators who seem to, for the most part, like or at least have a basic degree of respect for each other.
I didn't really pay much attention to NG in the interim between those two phases, so I don't know if the change was gradual or there were certain things that set it off (I'd imagine a little of both) Another thing to note is, many of the older members having gotten more mature with time, and the newer ones not even being old enough to remember those days or to have experienced that culture at all.
I wouldn't say Newgrounds has lost its edge completely though. I still see people here regularly saying things that would get them "cancelled" anywhere else (though a bit less so ever since the General and Politics forums were closed, which in hindsight I personally feel was an overall beneficial decision) And there are still a few people leaving quite brutal reviews on things. I definitely get a lot more criticism and critique on my works here than I ever got on social media or other art sites.
@Eastbeast There would still be people being mad about it, but no bans or whatever i think it would be mostly laughter with some jeer,maybe a few would make it their User PFP but it that is about it.I chalk it up with losers making the Internet their new reality,since their real one is so lacklustre and one-note.Now everything super srs and the High School clique mentality most people don´t grow up from is really getting enforced now.
yeah, those were the golden days, shame things got so different
2003-onward NG user here. Sure, it used to be more harsh, but so was most of the internet. Youtube comment sections used to be almost guaranteed flamewars on just about any video.
I really think a lot of potential decent artists & animators might have gotten screwed out of ever getting into the craft because of constant shitty reviews and trolls. It might have "fueled your fire" but folks are different. Lot of us will simply find something less annoying to spend our time on.
I think here on NG the cause for the change was how much the users like myself really value the folks on here. If you're on NG, you're probably pretty cool, probably not a hardcore snowflake & you probably share some of my interests in creative work. Not to mention, it feels like an oasis away from all the garbage social media with all the same old mindless bad behavior, so I think we automatically use better behavior cause the site feels special & we don't wanna screw it up.
Btw, I enjoy your work, dude. Cool to see you still active here.
Hitman80010
I didn’t remember cause I was a bit too young back then but my older brother remembered, and it was like an infinite flame war. People are having a but my older brother remembered and it was like an infinite flame war. People are having a perfectly good conversation and then all the sudden some asshole decided to insult Wayne Fulp for no reason this was just after 9/11 and newgrounds was getting a lot of attention for its morale boosted animations against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. This happened in a forum about exactly that but for some reason that guy insulted him for no reason. back then on Newgrounds, and even on YouTube you can pretty much post anything and it was really popular today there are some videos that I remember so much that her age restricted or banned for no reason whatsoever. The people at YouTube are just a bunch of snowflakes.
Eastbeast
I do recall the post 9/11 animation phase lol. "Come Mr. Taliban, Tally me banana" was a line that always stuck with me. Thanks for the reminder. Oddly quiet on the political front now with everything going on it seems. But yeah D.A and youtube were some of the softer sites back then it seems (Still). Almost seems like NG wants to forget those edgier days.