ApothicFlash has recommended a Bioshock collection. Looking through what I can find on NG, I've made this list so far:

Biosock
Bioshocking
BIoshlock
HaloShock
BioShocked
ADAM!

Not QUITE enough to warrant a collection, but I'm hoping we can round up a few more. Is anyone aware of any other Bioshock Flash?

At 12/4/07 04:48 AM, ShirtTurtle wrote: Or is the point of it's winter-sidedness so that it caters for users who don't embrace xmas?

We're considering a warm and cozy more Christmas themed layout closer to Christmas, but it's still up in the air.

At 12/3/07 09:07 PM, Atgod88 wrote: The new layout is sweet, but who is the guy on top of the right side above Pico and P-Bot?

It's one of the dudes from Castle Crashers!

At 12/3/07 07:12 PM, americanidiot2f wrote: Yea nice layout there.
I don't think I should submit something for winter, I gotta still work up my flash skills.
So, did you create F-bot, or did some random user did?

F-Bot was built by the team for an upcoming feature. MindChamber constructed her outward appearance.

The Max Games Flash Game Contest ends on December 15th! You have two weeks left to enter and potentially win the $10,000 grand prize! There are $40,000 in total prizes, so your chances of winning something are pretty good.

Also, the Armor Gaming Challenge ends on December 31st! The grand prize here is $5,000, but with added bonus prizes you can win much more!

In contest related news, it's monthly voting time! The top 2,000 NG users from last month should be able to log in and see a link to vote for the best of November. As per our monthly rules, ten winners will each receive $250, a t-shirt and an award certificate.

You don't need to win any contests to get a Newgrounds shirt - you can go buy one in the store! This is a great time of year to buy NG shirts for your friends, too. CONSUME!!!!!!!!

We haven't come to any consensus on how to show our support of the writers strike (I blame myself, this time of year gets hectic but that's no excuse), but coincidentally Fire-Iron has come to their aid with his music video supporting the writers.

If you make your own support video, let me know! You can also announce it on your user page and more people will see it, thanks to the handy new news showcase page! Even the bots have been posting there.

So how does everyone like the icy winter layout by JohnnyUtah?

At 12/3/07 05:37 PM, Sk8erGirl13 wrote: I think it's the best layout Tom has made so far.

Jeff (JohnnyUtah) made it!

I don't get to play games anymore, but when I do, it's on the office Newgrounds account.

Am I really that elusive?

At 11/28/07 04:08 PM, Casualty wrote: I understand you must be busy all the time and stuff, and I feel bad saying this because it might sound arrogant, but why haven't you replied to my post then?

I've actually been ignoring questions about the criteria because we might keep tweeking it, or people might try to game the system, etc. etc... But if you win a daily award, you get front page access. If you have a few non-award winning submissions that have been popular on the site, this also gains you front page access.

At 11/28/07 02:03 PM, DFox wrote: Yeah I would like to know the requirements also. And does the once every 7 days apply to the people who are allowed?

There is a mix - people are either allowed every 7 days or every 14 days.

At 11/28/07 01:54 PM, Casualty wrote: Psh, Tom, how about actually reading people's replies, or at least quickly scan them in order to check if there are interesting posts you could reply to?

I scan.

At 11/28/07 01:20 PM, LazyMuffin wrote: Am I important Sir Tom?

...Yes!

At 11/28/07 11:42 AM, SeizureDog wrote: CORRECTION, TOM: Daily Day is in two days.

DAMMIT... Fixed it. I keep thinking today is Thursday for some reason...

At 11/28/07 11:14 AM, SeizureDog wrote:

At 11/28/07 10:31 AM, TomFulp wrote: Of course, I made this post BEFORE noticing Stamper already posted about the contest last night around 3am... But I have other news anyway:

This just doesn't make sense.

Do you type up your posts a day ahead of when you post them or something?

I actually posted my front page post without noticing Stamper had posted about LiLg, so I edited my post to include that line.

Although I do write out parts of my front page posts ahead of time... Usually as small notes. For example, I had made a note about Daily Day so when I finally wrote up the post, I would include it.

At 11/28/07 10:42 AM, BlueHippo wrote: If you lose your ability to post on the frontpage, can you ever earn it back at some point? I don't make news often enough to fear this, but was thinking about others ;P

Once you get front page access, you can't currently lose it. Some day we may need to add a block list, but right now everything seems to be running smoothly.

LiLg needs your votes! He is a finalist in a Kraft cheese contest on Myspace.

GO HERE AND VOTE: http://www.myspace.com/haveahappysandwic h

LiLg's cartoon is the fourth one in the row under the promo movie. It's a picture of a grilled cheese sandwich at a tanning bed. You can go ahead and view the other movies and pick your favorite, but hopefully your favorite will be LiLg. :)

Of course, I made this post BEFORE noticing Stamper already posted about the contest last night around 3am... But I have other news anyway:

Friday is Daily Day! Go read this post about it so you know what is happening when it happens.

Speaking of posts, has everyone seen this snazzy new page? It highlights ALL the user news here on NG (thanks, Ross!). The left column is dedicated to staff, the middle is dedicated to artists who contribute to NG, and the right column is dedicated to everyone else. Go check 'em out, and reward the good posts with responses.

The front page artist news has also been changed; the bar for access has been raised. We always intended to have tighter restrictions on who could post here, but decided to see what would happen if we let ALL the artists post. The result was a lot of spam and abuse (surprise surprise!) and when serious artists actually posted something important, it got knocked off the front page within hours or less. Now, artist news remains on the front page for more than a full day - making this space much more valuable to the artists who have access to it. Anyone can get access, you just need to submit enough good stuff for P-Bot or A-Bot to grant you access. Everyone else gets to be showcased here.

To the artists who still have front page access: Make good use of this opportunity! Write things that people will enjoy reading. If users expect to find crap in the artist news box, they won't check it out and the box will get scrapped. It's up to all of you to represent that space well. If you want to tell people you are working on a new project, include details about the process and the obstacles you are facing, or the inspiration behind it all! Dig deep. I don't mean to sound like a school teacher, but the better you represent that space, the more powerful that space will become for everyone. Half a million people pass through the front page every day and they could be reading about your latest work!

At 11/25/07 01:18 AM, rtil wrote:

and I think you misinterpreting Toms proposal, in the end of it all he and anyone else involved wants to have fun, and make fun of the situation. because no one is here to help change the world. Just laugh at it.
so yeah a good dick Joke is perfect idea for this situation. that or making video game parody flashs that parody flashers that make video game parodys. In the in its what ever makes your dick wet that matters.

that's...interesting. i never thought the strike was funny so that didn't cross my mind.

To pipe in here... Yes, I want people to have FUN with the project - simply because I don't imagine a lot of people getting behind something that isn't fun to make. But no, I don't mean for the project to be making fun of the strike... I want NG to show its support, hopefully in a way that is tasteful enough for us to be proud of (although depicting a bunch of TV shows resorting to dick jokes WOULD be funny), while also being fun enough that people actually get involved, rather than just say "Oh great idea!" and not do anything. And I was smiling in my front page icon because that is one of the random pictures of me that appears next to my posts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Everyone in the US, at least...

I've been talking to Xeneri recently about the Writers Guild Strike and what we can do to show our support. Xeneri is part of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and has been picketing with the writers in Hollywood to show her support.

To quote Xeneri: "What does this have to do with Newgrounds or flash? Nothing right now - this strike is about dvd, video and download sales. But it will eventually - especially if any of you hope to work professionally in animation or in computer gaming. Because in essence, this strike is about writers and artists being paid and given proper credit for their work. Right now, its about tv and film writers (that DOES include animation writers btw), but eventually, the corporations will try the same with writers of games, etc."

Take a moment to read about the strike and get an understanding of what the writers are fighting for. Newgrounds is a highly creative community (2/3rds of you consider yourselves creators rather than mere consumers, according to our last poll), so these are issues that could impact many future careers.

We've talked about having a contest or community initiative (a collab?) to make movies or games in support of the strike, but it's hard for me to say how to make that FUN. The strike organizers have been brought into the conversation and if NG users created content supporting the strike, they would be interested in showcasing it on their site - which could be a roundabout way to get yourself in front of some high profile industry folks (who knows).

Does anyone have any thoughts on how we can best show our support to the writers?

There have been some pop-ups appearing on the site - just wanted to let everyone know that they aren't supposed to be there, so I apologize.

I have notified the ad company they were coming from (via a third party ad through their system) and they should be gone soon, if not already.

At 11/15/07 02:01 AM, Blain-The-Pain wrote: If you've been to Africa, you probably realize that if these are given to the children, the parents will just take it from them and likely sell it again...

Well at least SOMEONE will end up with a computer.

At 11/14/07 10:43 PM, Peaceblossom wrote: It won't run flash, copypasted from the website:

The XO laptop runs on Linux, a free and open-source operating system.

Even on the nicer distributions, flash doesn't run particularly well.

It has already been noted to have Flash support, it's just a question of how well... That's what I wanna find out.

At 11/14/07 09:34 PM, squeakytoad wrote: In these third world nations, $200 of food goes a long way. When a good full plate of rice, veggies, and a bit of curry and fruit costs only 40 cents, you're giving them 500 meals.
However, money and food don't get to them very well in many of these African nations, due to oppression from the governments, military, and other groups.

Maybe they'll make a Flash game and get it sponsored so they can buy LOTS of food.

At 11/14/07 09:15 PM, squeakytoad wrote: Very noble.

But isn't it kinda counter-productive? I mean, you're donating, but then you get something back. Sorta defeating the purpose of donating?
Perhaps the amount you donate covers two laptops.

Yeah, only half the cost is tax-deductable. Basically, they know that regular people want to try out the laptops, so they are forcing you to donate one in order to buy one for yourself. I have a feeling they will be more available in the future, but I thought it would be nice to donate one anyway.

At 11/14/07 07:43 PM, Officer wrote: I simply choose not to believe that you are supporting this cause and not receiving something in return.

Wow, that's pretty lame. I can assure you the charity laptop people aren't spending their ad dollars here on Newgrounds.

Between November 12 and November 26, One Laptop Per Child is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

I just copied and pasted that from their website because it sums things up pretty well. For the next 13 days, you can donate a laptop to a child in a developing country, and you will receive one laptop for yourself. The donation is $400 and I made ours last night, so the NG office will be receiving one of those crazy laptops that I keep seeing in all the magazines! I don't know how easy these things will be to get in the future, but for now it seems like it will be fun to have around the office - plus I want to see how well it can run Flash - it BETTER RUN FLASH.

And thanks to Newgrounds, one more child in a developing nation will have unfettered access to PORN.

NOTE: I see lots of people making comments about there being no electricity and internet in Africa. The laptop can be charged up by turning a crank, so you never need a power source. The bunny ear antennas create a mesh network, where you can share items with other laptops in the area, and if somewhere along the chain of laptops someone is picking up wireless internet (in a school, for example), the internet gets spread across the mesh network.

The screen has a full color mode and also a high res black and white mode for working in direct sunlight. There are built in speakers and a camera. People can take pictures and video and share it between computers. There is also software for drawing, programming, making music, writing, web browsing, calculating, gaming, etc.

We are already planning to make a second donation so that we can get two laptops in the office, and test out the networking and sharing capabilities!

In other news, AlmightyHans is putting together a comic book with NG artists! It's kinda like the NG Sketchbook Tour except it will be printed like a real comic. Go read his post for more info.

Also, check out RubberNinja's Gamer Tonight series! It's voiced by egoraptor.

At 11/8/07 11:47 AM, BoMToons wrote: Congratulations winners. I totally missed monthly voting. Was Trick or Treat Adventure on the list of contenders?

It wasn't - it was submitted too late at the end of the month so it will cross over.

The Monthly Audio Contest for November has been announced!

Monthly voting has ended and the results for best of October have been determined. Each winner will receive $250, an award certificate and a t-shirt from the store.

Top Five Movies:

1. Blockhead Ghostmas
2. Awesome Compilation Vol 4
3. Lemon Demon's "Bad Idea"
4. Spooky Scary Skeletons
5. :: Black Magic Metal ::

Top Five Games:

1. Portal: The Flash Version
2. Dark Cut²
3. The Visitor
4. Unreal Flash 2007
5. Bloons Tower Defense 2

Runner-up Movies:

6. Jinas 1: A New Friend
7. The Spirit of Halloween 2
8. Mario And Friends Goof Up
9. The Most Horrible Story
10. HIT THAT!
11. A Canvas And A Struggle
12. Hewoes
13. Hallogasm
14. Slaughterween
15. Oh Oh Oh Sexy Vampire
16. :: A-Gore-Aphobia ::
17. Edible Castle #3
18. Dawn of Sock
19. Mr. Peanut
20. Half Beard

Runner-up Games:

6. Momentum Missile Mayhem 2
7. HOST
8. Swept to the End
9. 13 Guardians
10. Mass Attack
11. Hangman Extreme!
12. Strategy Defense
13. Halloween Game Collab 07
14. Super Pilot
15. Phantom Mansion: Red
16. - colorwars -
17. Army of Destruction
18. Chris Crocker in Blender
19. 5 Differences
20. Spot the Difference!

The random voter of the month and winner of $100 is Raguel!

Winners should PM Bob with the following info:

1. Whether you are splitting the award with co-authors, and how that split works.
2. Your name, for the check.
3. Your name, as you want it to appear on the certificate.
4. Your mailing address (be sure to include zip code, country, etc.)
5. Your t-shirt size (S, M, L, XL, 2XL)
6. Your t-shirt preference. Pick anything from the store and make sure we have your size in stock!

Congrats, everyone!

At 11/7/07 02:20 PM, alicetheDroog wrote: Hey, who wants to tell me what the fuck happened to my Employee of the Month review?
I didn't here anything from M-Bot.

EM was originally submitted by an imposter, but the real Sebrat was cool with taking over the account and keeping it on NG. We were attempting to remove only the fake responses to reviews via a direct query to the database, but all the reviews from the first few days were deleted by accident.

At 11/6/07 09:46 PM, AshfordPride wrote:

At 11/6/07 09:37 PM, TomFulp wrote: It's not like we need to be part of Product RED to give money to fight AIDS.

Yeah, you can always make your own campaign.

That's actually what I had in mind... "GET ANGRY ABOUT AIDS!"

When did red become the official color of AIDS, anyway?

Just a heads up... We have created a dynamic blam threshold based on the number of co-authors on a submission. The more authors you have, the higher your score will need to be to pass judgment.

Some people have complained about their submissions being blammed with scores above 1.6, thinking it is because we are targetting them and deleting their Flash. We aren't - your Flash is just being held to a higher standard, the way something with a lot of contributors should be.