New FP & Some Goals for 2017

[TomFulp]

We just launched our new front page, complete with a holiday site skin by @PennilessRagamuffin! This skin features original characters who appeared on the front page in 2016. Can you name every movie they're from?

If you browse the new front page on mobile, everything should display much better and every piece of content listed should work on your phone.

2017 Goals for Audio on NG

As some of you are aware, we've been cracking down really hard on the use of unlicensed music. The existence of unlicensed music is a big liability and could result in having to pull the plug on NG if we don't keep it in check.

We created the Audio Portal in 2003 as a resource for animators and game developers to collaborate with musicians and voice actors. In the early years, it was generally assumed that if you uploaded your music to NG, people could freely use it in their projects. Over time, as YouTubers and developers for mobile and Steam games started poking around, we expanded on how musicians could manage their music rights. As a result it has become gradually harder for someone to quickly and easily find a song they can use, especially if they are too shy to ask / don't want to wait for a response.

In 2017 we intend to make it easier for musicians to specify when their music can be freely used in content that will be uploaded to NG and we intend to make it easier for animators and developers to browse that music specifically.

We also compiled a list of free music resources, in case the Audio Portal doesn't have what you're looking for.

Animators and game developers, please note the "Credits & Roles" tab in your project settings. Use this to credit every song used in your submission, so moderators don't have to ask when they aren't sure. We have changes in mind to make this process more clear so that less people overlook it and we can better enforce it.

We have added a specific flagging option for when you discover unlicensed music in animation and games. You might feel like you're ratting someone out but the important thing to remember is that person chose to use a song without permission rather than prop up another independent artist and they are putting NG in danger because of that decision.

This has always been the dream for NG; talented individuals coming together to make awesome stuff. We need to lift each other up while showing the world something they've never seen or heard before.

That is my big resolution for 2017: to ensure that Newgrounds is a place where you come for the NEW, not the familiar. This means more work to enforce the rules and also more work to encourage collaboration.

Take Stay Positive, for example. If you enjoy it, you can follow the animator OR the musician. You can PM them and tell them how much you like their work, or leave a review. That's what it's all about and that's what we should all want more of.

I also hope many new people will join the party in 2017. The web got really fractured and lots of talented people don't even know NG exists. When you find someone you like, make sure they know they would be welcome here!

[larrynachos]

Great update! Homepage looks awesome!

[ForgottenDawn]

What about original cover tracks?

Are there any new rules to be applied? Do we need to ask permission from the original authors?

[StaticSkull]

I love the new site skin

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 12:21 PM, ForgottenDawn wrote: What about original cover tracks?

Are there any new rules to be applied? Do we need to ask permission from the original authors?

Yes, covers should only be done with permission. It's a bummer but the music industry is what it is, which is why it's best to keep it far away from NG.

[SuperPhil64]

It's a bit sad to see the scrutiny on lisenced music on the internet in general become so much stricted, but at the same time I hope like you said this will inspire people to create and colaborate on more orriginal content. I just hope that we won't see too many classics disapear since a lot of older stuff relied on copyrighted music.

Also, website redesign looking good! Saw the new front page on my phone earlier and it works great.

[ForgottenDawn]

At 12/19/16 12:28 PM, TomFulp wrote: Yes, covers should only be done with permission. It's a bummer but the music industry is what it is, which is why it's best to keep it far away from NG.

I see. Well, RIP portal

[Maverickmode]

At 12/19/16 12:04 PM, TomFulp wrote:

As some of you are aware, we've been cracking down really hard on the use of unlicensed music. The existence of unlicensed music is a big liability and could result in having to pull the plug on NG if we don't keep it in check.

Reading this I'm starting to get flashbacks to the purge of Grooveshark, a free music streaming site that turned out not be paying for any of the music on the site (funny how that happens). I was young and had never really thought about how musicians were paid when you listened to their music, so in hindsight using the site was a little unscrupulous, but I was just a dumb kid who didn't know what he was doing. Anyway, I had compiled a bunch of playlists and music I liked and had started using their radio function to do live playlists that people were listening to (kind of like an online DJ set). So imagine my surprise when I get on the site one day and there's a notice saying the site had been shut down. I couldn't get to any of the music I'd saved on the site. I couldn't access my playlists. Waybackmachine didn't work for the site, probably intentional on the part of the record labels that took down the site. I want to be clear that I know why they did it and I respect that, but what pissed me off was the fact that I couldn't access any of my music, which I gladly would have paid for if I had known the truth about Grooveshark.
If something similar happens here and you feel that you might have to "pull the plug" as you said, do you think you could give us all as big a heads up as possible? I just remember the feeling that I had lost so much music I loved, and I can't imagine what that would be like if it were stuff I'd created. I learned my lesson and I have all my audio files backed up on my computer, but for many that may not be the case.
TL;DR
If the event that you have to pull the plug, could you give us all a warning so we can scramble to get our stuff off the site?
Thanks.

[Intrapath]

Hey Tom, just wanted to give one suggestion for the front page on mobile, and wanted to mention what I think is a glitch. On mobile, I think the placement of the latest news (in this case, the "New FP & Some Goals" post) under "Featured Series and Collections" is a little awkward; I think it might make more sense for it to go under "Follow Us!" and above "Artist News". Also, when I click More next to "Latest from your Friends and Favorites", I get sent to an error page. This happened to me on both mobile and on desktop, and I'm using Chrome for each, if that helps.

[AliceMako]

We need to lift each other up while showing the world something they've never seen or heard before.

This.

And good luck with idiot proofing the licensing terms, to this day i cringe a little when i see people dutifully making a hullabaloo about having "planet earth's sole producer of royalty free music" kevin macleod provide their background audio.

Nothing personal against said individual of course but um, he's just not one of us.

[CaptainJackTHAC0]

At 12/19/16 12:04 PM, TomFulp wrote: We just launched our new front page, complete with a holiday site skin by @PennilessRagamuffin! This skin features original characters who appeared on the front page in 2016. Can you name every movie their from?

the front page looks awesome!

[FinaLee]

Shit, gotta hit the AP and look for some bad guys

[dietzribi]

Yo I think there's a bug, when I click the Ludum Dare banner on my iPhone I get to a page where only one game appears.
I also see different featured games then the ones I get on the desktop

[ninjamuffin99]

Frontpage looking slick

I originally came to NG for some sweet music for my games. I'm glad to see that the Audio Portal will be improved with easier searching for royalty free music!

[HipnikDragomir]

Yay, Christmasgrounds. Good job, @PennilessRagamuffin

Tommy, it always makes me happy to see you always posting here and staying dedicated to NG and constantly updating the site to improve its performance and it being a hub for artists of all kinds. I've even put in a good word to my school's (CSUF) career centre arts specialist about the site, so hopefully she does something with it. Not to mention I wear the NG short around a lot and once in a while someone will get hit with flashbacks. Cheers and happy 2017.

[ZRDR]

At 12/19/16 12:04 PM, TomFulp wrote: We just launched our new front page, complete with a holiday site skin by @PennilessRagamuffin! This skin features original characters who appeared on the front page in 2016. Can you name every movie their from?

I love how captain tardigrade is singing carols.

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 01:55 PM, dietzribi wrote: Yo I think there's a bug, when I click the Ludum Dare banner on my iPhone I get to a page where only one game appears.
I also see different featured games then the ones I get on the desktop

This is because on mobile it only shows games you can play on mobile. If you want to see everything, the bottom of your account page has a checkbox you can uncheck - "Hide incompatible submissions on mobile."

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 01:50 PM, LuckyLightTitan wrote: This site is by far the most amazing site i've ever seen, this update makes it even better!
Great job with the new layout btw, also, have you ever thought about adding some updates and features to the new layout? do you have any plans in mind or are you just going to finish the layout entirely and add new things later? like for example allowing users to choose a custom color scheme for their profile? or also something like pinning a newspost to your profile page next to your newest one, no matter if the post you're pinning is old or not so more people can see it? i'd love something like that.
Anyway, great job with the new layout, looking forward to seeing more updates and features.

This layout is intended as a transitional layout, to get everything to the new code before making aesthetic changes. It will probably stick around for a while and change gradually.

Updates to individual pages have been sneaking in as those pages get switched over, so there will be surprises along the way. For example when the Audio Portal switched over, we added an HTML5 in-page player so you can click a song thumbnail and it will play the entire list in-page. This update has now been brought to the front page and will be brought to user pages when they get updated.

For user pages we have some planned changes but I'm also always kinda curious to have a contest where people create mock-ups of their ideal user pages. I'm especially curious what animators, game devs, musicians and artists would present as their ideal page. I'd like to do such a good job with user pages that people make them their primary outpost on the web.

[Cyberdevil]

No call; not even a link for Supporter upgrades this time? ;)

New design looks fresh but familiar! No unwanted changes, though can't seem to find the "Leave a Message" message anywhere... is it still around? Really hope it's not intentionally phased out. :| Excited about the new sorting thing on the AP too. The Next Year plan sounds promising!

For shame about all the submission that are/need to be taken down though, but I guess that's just the way it has to be. The Internet's turning into a cold and heartless place... but maybe all of this copyright chaos will just bring us closer together and produce a whole lot more content without such dated restrictions and rights! :) Just noticed two collabs I was in were removed too. Hope the original author's still around so it'll be possible to do something about that.

IMO it'd be great if we could have a system similar to YT in that only the infringing portions of a submission get cut out - like the audio, or if it's the entire thing, that at least content pages don't go down along with the submissions, just the infringing content itself, and an error message is shown in its place. Description, reviews, and all that information could remain even if the file itself has to be temporarily taken down (and the submission is removed from the user profile), and review, voting etc functionality for that submission simply locked until further notice. The error pages we have now provide very little information as to what used to exist for each particular ID. Even with just the description and comments, a bit of the cultural heritage would be preserved, and people could re-visit those pages and remember (and maybe even watch the submission without sound). If it's only the audio, it'd be amazing if the author/mods/community could all work together at replacing infringing audio with something new, or suitable. Read about that suggestion in another topic; hope it's possible!

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 02:56 PM, Cyberdevil wrote: No call; not even a link for Supporter upgrades this time? ;)

I ALMOST brought up the supporter upgrade in this post but decided not to. More supporters would of course be greatly appreciated - my goal had been to have a December rally to hit 2,000 active supporters, however I've been so swept up in the music issues that I just never got to it / wasn't sure if there would be an NG to support.

New design looks fresh but familiar! No unwanted changes, though can't seem to find the "Leave a Message" message anywhere... is it still around?

Whoops looking into that now.

For shame about all the submission that are/need to be taken down though, but I guess that's just the way it has to be. The Internet's turning into a cold and heartless place... but maybe all of this copyright chaos will just bring us closer together and produce a whole lot more content without such dated restrictions and rights! :)

I think this will be good for NG.

IMO it'd be great if we could have a system similar to YT in that only the infringing portions of a submission get cut out - like the audio, or if it's the entire thing, that at least content pages don't go down along with the submissions, just the infringing content itself, and an error message is shown in its place.

We do keep all of that data when content is unpublished, it just comes down to what we show on the page and that can have some case by case issues where sometimes you want it all gone completely so we need to build around that.

[AtomicAstro]

The new FP was a nice surprise, lots of great progress has happened this year with the site, here's to more next year.

[Cyberdevil]

At 12/19/16 02:50 PM, TomFulp wrote: For user pages we have some planned changes but I'm also always kinda curious to have a contest where people create mock-ups of their ideal user pages. I'm especially curious what animators, game devs, musicians and artists would present as their ideal page. I'd like to do such a good job with user pages that people make them their primary outpost on the web.

I like the sound of that! :) Though even just a poll would be great. There's so much stuff I'd like to see on those pages. Like, for starters, pagination on submission pages, and favorites (that currently give me 'too many requests' errors and don't manage to load all thumbnails), ability to toggle art by sketches/public, the user header, friendly URLs for news, a news archive sorted by date, more customizable layout blocks (ability to hide specific ones, and show custom amounts), a page for all shared creations, and a bit more (modern) options on the 'Messenger Names' panel...

Most importantly though, but probably most difficult to implement: an option to backup/export user data, and two-factor authorization via email (or phone, though I suppose that'd cost). I hold little hope for those, but if you somehow did manage to make them a reality that'd be amazing. Being able to download your data gives a sense of control, and a sense of safety is the next best thing IMO. Ironically, the sites that care the least about your personal integrity currently offer you the greatest sense of control and safety (FB, YT, Google)...

[BoMToons]

"Can you name every movie their from?" --> *They're

Reading that bit about "grooveshark" above is a little scary... would it be too weird to separate out the audio stuff under a different domain name/different business entity just in case someone comes after the audio portal stuff? It could still appear to be full integrated visually, just have a diff. domain in the address bar...

I'm excited for the upgrades and can't wait to see NG firing on all cylinders in 2017!

[MSGhero]

What other non-music goals are there for the new year?

I guess this is why MicWizard is gone

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 03:11 PM, Cyberdevil wrote: Most importantly though, but probably most difficult to implement: an option to backup/export user data, and two-factor authorization via email (or phone, though I suppose that'd cost). I hold little hope for those, but if you somehow did manage to make them a reality that'd be amazing. Being able to download your data gives a sense of control, and a sense of safety is the next best thing IMO. Ironically, the sites that care the least about your personal integrity currently offer you the greatest sense of control and safety (FB, YT, Google)...

Will be keeping two-factor in mind, although it doesn't help when people get their email compromised but if their email is two-factor via phone (like gmail) then that is pretty tight.

The ability to pack all your data into a ZIP and download it would be interesting... Could be a good supporter feature since I imagine dumping all your posts, PMs, reviews, etc. into text files and packing everything into one ZIP with your uploads would consume server resources but I need to learn more about what it would entail.

[Kysertron]

The new FP is amazing! Still waiting on the new layout to come through userpages, media pages (as in pages for audio, movies, art, and games) and the forums.

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 03:16 PM, BoMToons wrote: "Can you name every movie their from?" --> *They're

Thank you for saving me future embarrassment.

Reading that bit about "grooveshark" above is a little scary... would it be too weird to separate out the audio stuff under a different domain name/different business entity just in case someone comes after the audio portal stuff? It could still appear to be full integrated visually, just have a diff. domain in the address bar...

That's an interesting question... The Audio Portal isn't anything like grooveshark but anything involving music on-line has some risks. It would likely also need to be a new company, not just a new domain... Gonna just hope for the best on the enforcement front.

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 03:27 PM, JordanKyser wrote: The new FP is amazing! Still waiting on the new layout to come through userpages, media pages (as in pages for audio, movies, art, and games) and the forums.

The main hubs are done so we're getting soooooo close!

[TomFulp]

At 12/19/16 03:31 PM, Zachary wrote: Also, how long have these ugly af intrusive ads been here?

Had tried them out earlier in the year and they came back for December.

[Luis]

The layout works well, i think the music copyright thing is a big bummer.

Is there some sort of way to strip the audio from a swf and embed it with something else on mp4 conversion? I cant' remember if mike's Swivel does that already. While the updated audio might not work as well creatively, i think its better than totally losing something forever.

The historical value of some of the stuff on this site and its meaning to the internet is so important it would be a shame to just have it be gone forever.

Maybe generating a list of stuff that has been disabled would be cool, maybe aspiring musicians can reinvision something to replace the copyrighted music and at the same time saving something historically important to drop off forever.