So I was curious and decided to read the oldest NG general topic I could find (which was on the very bottom of page 17,867) and I noticed a pattern.
Almost everyone back then didn't have profile pictures. Why was that? Was that option just simply not available back then? Did most of the users on newgrounds just not really care?
Or is there a more sinister explanation?
I think, and hear me out, Tom Fulp WAS most of the users back then. Think about it. Newgrounds went through a period of time where it had alot of active users, was very "hip", and very popular. And who wouldn't want their website to be really popular and active and hip? But most of these profiles made around 2001 didn't have any profile pictures. Why? Well think about it. If you had to make hundreds of thousands of fake profiles for a website as well as passwords and usernames for each one, giving each one a different profile picture would add thousands of more hours to your task. Too daunting even for a handsome and courageous man like Tom Fulp.
Tom built Newgrounds' popularity with thousands of fake profiles. And now I know what you might be thinking, "what about the tons of animations made back then?" And I'll tell you how he did it...
Alien technology. He used alien technology to make a huge amounts of flash animations for each and every fake profile that he wanted to post an animation. Unfortunately the technology was still not advanced enough to give every profile a profile picture.
TL;DR: Tom Fulp created fake users with alien technology in order to make Newgrounds skyrocket into popularity.
What do you think? Simple limitations of a time long passed? Or a secret scandal hidden deep within the internets most beloved website?
"It's called consolidation; strengthen governments and corporations, weaken individuals."
