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At 6/20/09 11:05 PM, Evark wrote: What're some positive impacts Newgrounds has had on your personal development?

HAHAHAHAHAHA...OK, sorry...
Other than the cheesy roast, I guess I could say it's made me more open-minded to some things. The way news stories come in every once in a while, I get to see how messed up this world is.

At 6/20/09 11:05 PM, Evark wrote: What're some positive impacts Newgrounds has had on your personal development?

I'd say it helped me to mature.

I signed up (on a different account) at the age of 11 in late '06. I shortly found the BBS and started posting. I was probably the most immature unintelligent user on the forums at the moment. After about 430 idiotic posts, I was banned... UNTIL JULY 2009. The purpose of the ban was to keep me off the BBS until I was old enough to be here. I was pissed.

But now, i'm glad I was banned. Whoever banned me prevented me from making an even bigger idiot out of myself. After reading those old posts, I'm really glad that I didn't make any more.

And no, The purpose of this account is NOT to get around that ban. I had actually noticed that the ban was over early about a year ago on my old account, But I was too afraid of making an idiot out of myself AGAIN to post. I don't know why the ban ended early, maybe the mod lost intrest, (the 2 year ban was actually a series of 30-day bans) or maybe he/she was de-modded.

I'll bet that if I never had been here so early, I probably wouldn't be much more mature right now than I was then.

Of course, NG is still a waste of life, but to be honest, I don't think I ever had one :P

At 6/20/09 11:05 PM, Evark wrote: What're some positive impacts Newgrounds has had on your personal development?

I met a pretty cool guy here and talk with him almost everyday :3

As you already know, I've met a bunch of people IRL from this site, yourself included. Shit, I hang with Asthmatichamster all the time now. I used to hang with other as well, but they've kinda drifted away... anyways, point being, I've met some pretty interesting people on this website. Online and offline.

Thanks to Newgrounds, I don't feel lonely, alienated, or nerdy!
There's so many others here like that, we all connect!

I find that people's aggressive internet behaviour usually only transfers over intot real life behaviour when a lot of internet people get together in one place so they can nerd it up.

When confronted with a group largely composed of real people, they tend to be way way more docile.

At 6/21/09 12:40 AM, absent wrote: "Hello, my name is this and that, and after receiving you update and reviewing your file, it gives me great pleasure to offer you admission to Princeton University for the class of 2013..."

See, that's pretty fucking cool.

... and half of you guys have some snide remark about how useless this place is instead of being imaginative enough to make it a positive thing. Just apply yourself to this place as if you care about your self-image, and apply this place to your life as if you're proud of it simply because it's yours. That's all it takes.

I'm not proud of an online Hentai den.

Well um... You're welcome? :) Not really sure what to say to all that...

You'd think it would have the opposite effect, but ever since I started coming to the forums, my grammar skill and vocabulary have greatly increased. My typing speed and accuracy has also at least tripled.

Also, I learned not to take the internet, or idiots in general, seriously.

No one's going to read this, but I'll write it anyways.

Newgrounds has helped me figure out how to word my opinions in ways that actually make sense. Arguing with people on topics helps me develop my opinions on those topics and it helps me learn how to put it into words.

Newgrounds has taught me not to freak out when things aren't politically correct, a quality that I find so unbelievably annoying in other people.

Newgrounds has taught me not to pretend like I know everything in my debates.

Newgrounds has connected with my the friends that have been there for me in the last three years at times when my social situation has been... not so great. These are people I can to go for advice any time or just screw around with in ways that I'd never do with my irl friends.

I've learned a lot about politics from lurking through threads.

I've gotten great flash advice and feedback from newgrounds. Hell, ng is what got me into flash in the first place. Though, I haven't had a lot of time to work on flash this school year and I don't finish most of the projects I start. But still.

And in general, ng is a great way to pass time.

I probably will think of more after I post this post.

At 6/22/09 03:04 PM, InsertFunnyUserName wrote: I probably will think of more after I post this post.

And what do you know.

Newgrounds has taught me the way of the troll. It has taught me how to deal with people being asshats for the sake of it.

My typing speed has increased a lot since I started using the forums. I can type faster than I ever could beforehand just because of the amount of practice that I've gotten with it.

My vocabulary and grammar have gotten better. Though that may be attributed also to the fact that I've developed my mechanics in school, I think it also has to do in part with the fact that I'm using a forum full of grammar nazis.

I've gotten better at editing for typos. I know now that I should always read back a paragraph before I move on. I've gotten a better eye for spotting them.

Also, I signed up 11 days before my 12th birthday. That means that when I started posting, I was posting in a community full of people who were older than me and expected me to act their age, not mine. As I kept lurking and posting, what became my knowledge of what was acceptable for these forums was expectations that were higher than that of which is typically asked of a 12 year old.

Keep in mind that where I lurked the most of 06 was politics, not general, though I did post in general.

Newgrounds taught me how to go on a website and not have anyone find out. In about september or october or something of 06, my parents read through some stuff on these forums and forbade me from going on ng. Because of that, I taught myself the method of lying that is: keep newgrounds in a separate firefox window and switch to a different, benign website when someone can see what you're looking at. I still use this tactic to this day.

Newgrounds taught me to leave actual constructive criticism instead of just bashing the author.

And over the years, I've picked up some pretty good advice. From relationship advice in posts that I've picked out in between the "no gurlz on da internet" posts to how to fuck around in school and not get caught, I've actually learned some interesting things.

At 4/8/07 12:28 AM, Evark wrote: You're the BBS's saviour.

I remember.You said that. Remember

Positive impacts Newgrounds has had on my life? Well, for starters, it's like a giant entertainment system just waiting to be played, complete with all the hentai and games one could ever want . . . and I express my opinions nearly anonymously here, eliminating most of my anger problems. I did learn to type on these forums made a few friends. That's positive, right?

Anyways, I started writing stories and learning to make flashes and audio as a member here, so it boosted my creativity, I guess. So, you could say that NG has improved my life in ways that other sites wouldn't. No doubt, my life would be slightly less full and vibrant without it, and I probably would have ended up being an unintelligent jock if not for NG. It's good for my summer vacation, when I have insomnia attacks, I can tell you that.

Wow . . That came out more serious than I had expected it to.

Seriously? Newgrounds taught me how to hate everything, and how to suppress my hatred for people I know outside of Newgrounds and take it out on people inside of Newgrounds.

Jokingly? Newgrounds taught me how to become a better person, and how to spread my love around and plant the seed of my good-will inside of many others, both inside and outside of Newgrounds.

I've been coming here nearly five years, and it has been a positive influence in a lot of ways:

Most importantly, the community here has helped me during some of the toughest periods of my life. It may not even have known it, but the random banter and idiocy, the comic putdowns, the flash and audio, and the various characters on the forums are all a fabulous way to get away from real life. Some of you, and you know who you are, helped more personally with comments on my userpage or replies to posts, but generally just being away from the real world for a little while was what I needed most.

You lot are actually helping me on the long road of life. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with my life until recently, and eventually it dawned on me that I enjoyed interacting with you lot, most of who are a good deal younger than me. So I'm becoming a teacher. Obviously the situation and challenges will be different, but ultimately every time I teach a class I'll be wondering who amongst them visits this site- which of them are little spammers in the making, which of them are forum regs, respected by all including myself, and most importantly I'll know how to talk to them, and see them as equals even though I won't be able to show it as openly as I can here. I never thought so many people so much younger than myself could garner any respect at all from myself, but many of you are smart and funny in ways I could never imagine.

You've irritated me with your stupidity, sure, but for every poorly thought out argument there is one that has made me question my own. I believe that the ability to think about the world around us and question it is one of the most important skills a person can develop, and this place has been ideal for me to develop my own ideas and find some new ones, no matter how hairbrained. You've also taught me restraint- I'm less quick to attack another's ideas as invalid, and although rarely you have actually changed my opinion of something you have made me realise that I might be wrong.

I enjoy being part of a community (if a relatively little known one), and I enjoy helping it in my own small way. I'd like to think I've helped some people on here with problems in their lives, both on the forums and more personally, as so many of you have helped me. I enjoy trying to help Tom and the other admins in helping this site reach its potential, even if it is only by patrolling the portal and writing the odd review. I want this place to be the very best place it can be.

(And on a more mundane level I've become much more proficient with a computer, and a keyboard, but that is hardly something to get excited about!)

I certainly don't consider it 5 years wasted.

Positive impacts? Well... It introduced me to people that do the same things I do, drink a lot, swear a lot and take drugs a lot. I'll always be thankful for Newgrounds introducing me to people like altr, psycho-goldfish and mamatequila, which inadvertently led me to meeting people like Chant and Thin-H-Line, who are two of the most fucked up people ever and I love them for it. If I ever need a place to spout my feelings I go there and get told to bottle it up and rage inside instead of being a pussy, which is what I need to hear most times.

Newgrounds has helped me develop convosations in the real world with experiences i have had on this site. Also it helps keep me up to date with news, and also the banter that you get in these forums is second to none, i have been on loads of other forums (plz don't shoot me) and there so dull compared to the sheer random rambelings of mewgrounds which i have been told to remind you will soon take over the world.
PEACE......fuck that.

First and most importantly, it gave me the most important person that will ever be in my life. The value of the relationship is incalculable.

This site gives me a community to belong to. There's many people here that I love to see online because they're great posters and their topics are a pleasure to read. I am heartily disappointed that many of those have left the site this year or fallen into inactivity, or mysteriously had all of their posts deleted (what?).

I'm no outcast at school, but I stay on the outside because overall I don't fit in. Here, I feel that I have my place, and although I don't have very many posts and my time here has been marked by long stretches of inactivity (much of it beyond my control), people still recognize my name. This forum makes me less lonely and gives me a sense of companionship... this is silly of course because if I was not here, the BBS would go on with only one small change.

Posting gives me the opportunity to explore creative or satisfying syntax, and also to check my vocabulary- I won't use a word that I'm not 100% sure of. I should make a quicker way to type Ctrl+T merriam-webster.com/dictionary/, because I use it so often when I'm here.

Similarly, I enjoy writing flash reviews more and more, and writing them well is exciting to me.

The more experienced users here helped me learn all about the internet. I had an internet connection when I was in 5th grade or so, but then not again until 8th grade. Basically, I discovered the internet when I was almost 14, and this place helped me learn the ropes. It's largely because this site that I feel extremely comfortable online and I know where most every damn thing is. It's only been like three fucking years. Fuck.

Plus, I'm a super Dave Teatro fan. Thanks NG.

THIS IS TOO LONG. D:

Tsk, tsk Evark.

You should know that there's a place for shenanigans like this

Congratulations on 10,000 Posts.

Not too long before Wade gets there, either :P

At 6/20/09 11:46 PM, TehSlapHappy wrote: Newgrounds taught me how to make flash and shit.

I bet you can tween sprites like a mofo.

Congratz and all that.

I know how you feel though. I think I've found my balance finally on these forums. Looking at it for maybe 30 minutes a day with a few 5 minute glances here and there and then disappearing for a few days makes this whole place just entirely more tolerable and enjoyable. Plus, I'm back to doing what I love: being creative.

Its really cool to be able to run something like a writing contest here and have all sorts participate, but I've also come to value places like programming & flash, which I'll mainly lurk, but are full of resources people off site would never ever know about.

Newgrounds will always be something special to me, the users as well. :)

Are you trying to seduce me, Evark?

20K is better than 10K.

I've been visiting NG since 2002, that's like 7 years in a week and a couple days. When I first joined this website, I was a 16 year old acting like a tough cocky kid. Newgrounds, to me anyway, were my group of friends, the place I could go whenever I want and act however I want and not have to worry about being judged for stupid reasons.

As I got older, and got out of my shell or whatever you want to call it, Newgrounds continued to be this website that I leaned on for social purposes. Eventually, I became a moderator on the website, it was a great moment. Looking back, I don't really know how I ever became a mod, considering what a shit I was in 03, BUT, I think it's safe to say it worked out remarkably well.

Newgrounds to me, anyway, got me through the toughest part of my life. It was my safe place, because school wasn't, and home definitely wasn't. Without getting into too much detail, I feel like these forums provided me with a ton of support and friends that I would never have got elsewhere. And there are a lot of great memories and awesome moments that still haven't left me.

Anyway, excuse the slightly sappy post, but I feel like I owe this site a lot more than I ever thought I would when I first joined. haha.

Newgrounds taught me how to write in English better than than my Secondary School has been able to. It still sucks, I admit, but it's way better than it used to be. Just go check at my first 1,000 posts if you are uncertain.

Just like World of Warcraft got me rid of my accent, Newgrounds helped me with my grammar, my syntax and my spelling.

Also, the part I enjoyed the most about Newgrounds is... I think in 2004 for the first time, I met Newgrounds users in real life. First one I believe is that certain girl from those islands Zerok mentioned earlier. Then I met more people, and trust me, it's a really special thing meeting people you have been only imagining before. Like poxpower, or Luis, or even Afro-Ninja or Cone Conan (lol), or you, Evan You have this set idea of how people (see this you talk with every day look like, sound like, act like, etc. Like, if you ever asked me how I would think EyeLovePoozy would be in real life, when he was still a random nobody on this website (wait is he anyone famous now? XD), I would never have been able to describe him the right way.

And there's so many people I would like to meet. And a few I'd like to meet for other reasons... like exercising my Taekwondo "with" them... on them.

ANYWAYS, Newgrounds is an amazing website. Leads to a ton of great IRL options. Let the trolls and the douchebags aside, NG rocks. Tom is a genius.

Wow, that was nice! Congrats on your 10,000th post!

I can always come to newgrounds and feel vastly superior to teens and preteens alike.

This is positive.

I think.

Fuck.