If you had asked me even 5 years prior which I would prefer, it would be a tougher choice between YouTube and Newgrounds. I do appreciate it, though, when artists post on both. I prefer watching quality animations on Newgrounds, but if I want to show that same animation to my Dad, it's best that I show him a link to the YouTube version of that same animation so he can watch it on his TV via the YouTube app, generally his preferred way of watching anything.
That said, I don't feel pressured to upload constantly on Newgrounds like I do on YouTube (especially after they introduced the TikTok-like YouTube Shorts)--in fact, it seems my audience on NG would PREFER it that I take as much time as I need to produce animations and illustrations that are at least TV-quality, if not movie-quality.
I also feel like the only uploads that keep me on YouTube as a viewer at this point are the occasional OneyPlays and Snapcube videos--everything else is just politically-motivated misinformation (especially the video essays and reviews on popular movies, sadly--what happened to judging a movie strictly based on its writing and storytelling, and not whether or not you "agree" with the worldviews of the Hollywood people behind it?); extremely-short videos that were mildly entertaining before YouTube forced us to watch annoying ads longer than the videos themselves; art and 3D Blender tutorials that teach bad habits in beginner artists (assuming they are not just over-hyping AI art and/or NFTs instead); and of course the usual algorithm-driven drama that none of us should pay any mind to unless we deliberately want to induce depression in ourselves.
YouTube also demonetized my channel pretty early on, even though my stuff tends to be very G-rated and kid-friendly on mainstream websites, probably for some dumb reason they never bothered to explain to me, like I wasn't working hard enough to grow my subscriber count when I was only 16 years old. I literally have had no motivation to post on YouTube since then other than to re-upload my Newgrounds Movie Portal submissions on a more "mainstream" website (again, so my Dad could watch my animations or other animations I've found on the TV screen easily). That and to maybe post demo reels on a website that I would actually feel comfortable showing to potential industry employers like Disney. I feel like it's better for my own artistic growth to focus on a frankly-tough crowd that wants me to spend more time polishing my fundamentals and composition (The Newgrounds Movie Portal), then just re-post that stuff on YouTube to see if it gets any additional views. I don't want to play the "algorithm" game.
