Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone.

At 7/23/12 09:11 PM, Spretznaz wrote:

At 7/23/12 08:48 PM, LittleWashu wrote:

At 7/23/12 08:43 PM, gamejunkie wrote: And here's another one.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599654
and I'm fairly certain this one is stolen.
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599656

Darn it you beat me to the punch as I was about to post the second one. My advise would be to report the second one because with the way things are going with the portal, I doubt that it will actually get blammed -_-

I'd like you to use your common sense and tell me if the majority of voters will give a fuck if something's stolen if it's hentai that they can fap to later.

Which was the main reason why I said it should be reported to an admin because without the whistles we had for the longest to flag these things the savewhores will vote this to pass, and the rest will do as you said vote it to pass so they can fap or play it later.

It is the main reason why shit like this always passes, and isn't deleted until the it is later reported to the Admins. It is also another one of the reasons why the blam save ratio is even more fucked up then normal.

Generic shovelware bike/car/truck type game. Seriously I completed the entire 10 levels in about 2 minutes virtually by pressing nothing but the up key.

• 
  Super Mario Cross 2 by smileydressup

  Join Mario in a new super adventure.

  Score

  Under Judgment

  Type

  Game

  Popularity

  144 Views

  Rated

  Everyone

and with this one it's basically one gigantic add, but I'm not sure for who. It's either gamesgrow.com, lastfreegames.com or firingtime.com but it's just another generic shovelware shooter type game with little to no challenge.

• 
  Night Strike Command by lastgame

  Enemies are hidden in every corner. Try to eliminate all of them!

  Score

  Under Judgment

  Type

  Game

  Popularity

  131 Views

  Rated

  Everyone

At 7/22/12 09:19 PM, J-Rex wrote: I'd love to join the EGB but before I officially apply how does one get rid of stolen submissions? Must we blam them or tell Wade.

Anyone? I know it's only been a day but I want to at least apply to join.

Be patient and wait till byteslinger posts here.

Okay if you say so.

Now the shovelware spammers are giving their submissions 'M' ratings for no reason, in an obvious and sad attempt to get more people to view them.

• 
  Gorgeous Waitress by super-wooper

  A fun Dress Up Game

  Score

  Under Judgment

  Type

  Game

  Popularity

  329 Views

  Rated

  Ages 17+

A sad state as you Littlewashu it is a bloody disgrace the way those things pass, the whistle system looks now to be a right mess. I thought with the redesign and new flash mods the way the things passed was going to be improved, it seems worse without the whistle to flag these submissions. Sadly save whores wont ever change but it is not to late to save the portal I hope.

To J-Rex and GameJunkie:

My apologies for not getting back to you both sooner. Sometimes I have busy periods IRL which makes me procrastinate on some responses here. Silly reality - getting in the way of Newgrounds! Anyway, if both of you will read the following and respond in kind, we can start the application process:

(Official-looking wall o' text follows):

After a cursory review of your profile and posts, you seem to be a decent candidate for the Elite Guard. There are a few things you'll need to read and understand before you join, but don't worry - I'll be guiding you through the recruitment process. Here's how it works.

First, I will present you with the shortened code of conduct for the Barracks, along with links to the relevant FAQ's on our forums. You must read them, understand them, and post here again confirming that you accept those principles. A simple "yes, I agree" will be sufficient. This process serves two purposes:

1) Ensuring that you're not a "drive-by applicant" who asks to join and then never comes back, and

2) Ensuring that you know how we operate so there won't be any complications in the future, such as "wait, we're not supposed to be mass voting?".

After you agree to the code of conduct, the Barracks community will discuss your qualifications and decide whether to allow you into the group. Our requirements aren't too strict; beyond the main qualifications of 2500+ B/P and a Bronze Whistle or better, we'll be looking for sufficient post quality (low number of one-liners, intelligent posts that contribute to the topic), helpful reviews, any potentially problematic flashes, stuff like that. After discussion and a vote, I'll make the final call and PM you with the results. Assuming that no objections are raised, the process usually takes a day or two.

Here is our abbreviated Code of Conduct. Read it, learn it, and post again with confirmation of your understanding. If you can't abide by these principles, say so.

*****

1. Voting fairly.

This is the foundation of the Elite Guard Barracks. All members are expected to give every flash a fair vote, regardless of who made it or what their group affiliations are. We do not target any flash group, not favorably or in opposition; our only enemies are those who break the rules of the site, not those who merely bend them.

Everyone has a different definition of quality, and all members are expected to vote based on what they honestly feel a flash deserves, not on whether they think the flash will pass or be blammed. While Barracks members are proud of their high ranks, and are eager to compete with others, a high B/P score means nothing if achieved through petty point-whore voting, and any member who admits to doing so will be removed from the organization.

2. Stopping Portal abuse.

Numerous stolen, malicious, and unsuitable flash are submitted to the Flash Portal every day, and it is our job to ensure that as many of them are removed as possible. Members are expected to report any suspicious flash to the Barracks, including any evidence or doubts that they might have, and only whistle something if they are sure, beyond a reasonable doubt, that it is whistle-worthy.

Just as with B/P, points mean nothing if achieved through inappropriate means. There should be no blind rush to whistle a flash that is merely suspected of wrongdoing; it's better to let an uncertain case go by rather than wrongly whistle an innocent submission. If evidence of wrongdoing is discovered after a flash passes judgment, we can always (and will always) inform Wade of our findings.

In the case of a beyond-reasonable-doubt rulebreaking flash, members are encouraged to share their results with the Newgrounds Police Department and the Newgrounds Department of Defense.

3. Cleaning up the review system.

Members are expected to be familiar with the review guidelines and whistle abusive reviews when they come across them, and report severe cases of abuse to a review mod. Additionally, members are expected to write helpful reviews, offering constructive criticism and remaining civil even when the author refuses to do so. We must set a good example for other Newgrounders, in hopes that they will improve their own reviews as well.

4. Setting an example for others to follow.

Barracks members are expected to post intelligently, contributing to threads rather than merely dropping a one-liner opinion on it. Flaming, spamming, and other ban-worthy behavior is strictly prohibited, and extreme misbehavior will lead to removal from the EGB.

Members are also expected to act civilly towards all Newgrounders. You are expected to be helpful and patient when dealing with newer members, whether simply showing them the FAQ or explaining more complex concepts that they do not understand. Concepts such as fair voting, intelligent posting/reviewing, and keeping an open mind are essential for newer members to learn, and we are just the ones to teach them.

For those with more experience, you are expected to show respect and understand that they may, in fact, know more about Newgrounds than you do, even if you're a seasoned veteran. This applies both to fellow Barracks members and Newgrounders in the general population.

Members are expected to put reasonable effort into any flash or audio submissions, and be careful with who they become Portal Buddies with. We are quite generous with our definition of reasonable effort; examples of unacceptable submissions would be static images, single frames, ridiculously small loops, or purposefully bad music. Anyone submitting rulebreaking content would, obviously, be removed from the Barracks and reported to Wade.

5. Not starting shit.

As mentioned above, the Barracks has no enemies beyond those who break the rules of the site. Our roster has included current and former members of various flash groups, including the Clock Crew, Barney Bunch, and Kitty Krew, and we are open to anyone willing to follow our principles. Barracks members are expected to be civil to others and not start fights, and anyone found to be starting shit with anyone, even if they deserve it, will be removed. You are representing the Barracks with your actions, and if your actions do not reflect our principles, you will not be a part of the organization.

6. Remaining active with the group.

Barracks members are expected to remain reasonably active in the thread, as well as with their duties. Those who are inactive for long periods (months) may be removed from the roster at any time, and rollcalls are occasionally sent out to all members to determine who is active. Members who expect to be inactive for some time due to IRL reasons (such as school, employment, vacation, etc) should inform the Barracks in advance.

*****

In addition to the above, please examine the following materials.

The Barracks Manifesto
The Barracks FAQ

*****

So, just let me know, and we'll get you started! And, please, for the love of GOD, do NOT quote this entire thing! :-)

I agree to everything the EGB stands for but I'm confused without a whistle are we supposed to blam these stolen,inappropriate, etc submissions?

Its funny, really, all you guys can do know is blam shovelware and report stolen games, if a few of the crappy flashes got blammed once in a while, I might try to become a better artist.

At 7/26/12 10:04 AM, byteslinger wrote: To J-Rex and GameJunkie:

(Official-looking wall o' text follows):

Feels like I'm getting married again. Something I said I would never do. But, I do. Almost 10 years with no thoughts of stopping anytime soon. Hell I'm just starting to get into it. And I think my numbers speak for themselves. Plus I still have 11 more levels to get!

At 7/26/12 11:20 AM, J-Rex wrote: I agree to everything the EGB stands for but I'm confused without a whistle are we supposed to blam these stolen,inappropriate, etc submissions?

The wall-o-text was written when the whistle did more. Based on what I've read and heard, it looks like it will be re-established on the UJ flash again. We can whistle reviews, though - and blam what we know is wrong. Everything else becomes PMs to the mods. They are so happy about that...

At 7/26/12 11:29 AM, gamejunkie wrote:

At 7/26/12 10:04 AM, byteslinger wrote: To J-Rex and GameJunkie:

(Official-looking wall o' text follows):

Feels like I'm getting married again. Something I said I would never do. But, I do. Almost 10 years with no thoughts of stopping anytime soon. Hell I'm just starting to get into it. And I think my numbers speak for themselves. Plus I still have 11 more levels to get!

But unlike marriage, if you leave us we don't get half of your stuff - and we don't care if you see other women or come home late from the bar. However, we do ask for some respect, and not to associate with riff-raff in our presence....

Anyway...

TO ALL CURRENT MEMBERS OF THE ELITE GUARD

Please weigh in on all of the open new recruit discussions - we currently have FOUR open entry discussions (Jackho, Spretznaz,J-Rex and GameJunkie) and we need to bring these to a final decision sooner than later. Thank you for your timely cooperation.

To Jackho, Spretznaz,J-Rex and GameJunkie:

You are all officially under discussion for admittance. We will contact you shortly with our decisions. Thank you for your patience.

That is all.

*Salutes*

At 7/26/12 12:08 PM, byteslinger wrote: Please weigh in on all of the open new recruit discussions - we currently have FOUR open entry discussions (Jackho, Spretznaz,J-Rex and GameJunkie) and we need to bring these to a final decision sooner than later. Thank you for your timely cooperation.

I voted for them now - I apologise that I didn't do so already. Other members also see that less stuff gets blammed nowadays - there is less spam I think and some low-quality flashes get voted through somehow - sometimes lack-luster flashes just have added medals and then they will most likely pass. The decline in blams comes also from less activity in general in the flash portal - that's something that happens since years. 64 flashes were submitted yesterday - when I joined it were easily 100 and way before my time twice as much. That only 1 flash got blammed is still sad, though.

At 7/26/12 12:42 PM, Asandir wrote:

At 7/26/12 12:08 PM, byteslinger wrote: Please weigh in on all of the open new recruit discussions - we currently have FOUR open entry discussions (Jackho, Spretznaz,J-Rex and GameJunkie) and we need to bring these to a final decision sooner than later. Thank you for your timely cooperation.

I voted for them now - I apologise that I didn't do so already. Other members also see that less stuff gets blammed nowadays - there is less spam I think and some low-quality flashes get voted through somehow - sometimes lack-luster flashes just have added medals and then they will most likely pass. The decline in blams comes also from less activity in general in the flash portal - that's something that happens since years. 64 flashes were submitted yesterday - when I joined it were easily 100 and way before my time twice as much. That only 1 flash got blammed is still sad, though.

While some of that is true, you can't forget that there are people who just don't care about right and wrong. I have seen shoverware, stolen flash, and many other things that should be blammed pass judgement because of the people who want points and don't care how they get them, as well as savewhore and the few who don't know. Worse to wear is even if the admins delete the stuff after it passes judgement you don't get a blam point while the people who abused the system keep their ill gained save point. What is worse is that even when the mods mark the flash saying that it is to be deleted people still vote to protect it rather then vote to blam it.

I know I said this many times before, but if we had full use of our whistles like when before this redesign, a lot of this stuff that is getting in would never make it pass judgement. Especially if they were marked as stolen.

At 7/26/12 08:23 PM, LittleWashu wrote:

While some of that is true, you can't forget that there are people who just don't care about right and wrong. I have seen shoverware, stolen flash, and many other things that should be blammed pass judgement because of the people who want points and don't care how they get them, as well as savewhore and the few who don't know. Worse to wear is even if the admins delete the stuff after it passes judgement you don't get a blam point while the people who abused the system keep their ill gained save point. What is worse is that even when the mods mark the flash saying that it is to be deleted people still vote to protect it rather then vote to blam it.

I agree with that, yes. As genre mod I can also add those "deletion" and "stolen" tags to flashes and it is very sad that users still vote highly on such flashes. I guess that they don't read the tags and just vote 5. It's horrible and more often then not feels useless to add the tags but atleast the admins will check those flashes and delete them - it's still a shame that the fair voters don't get a rewarded while the ones who save everything never lose.

I know I said this many times before, but if we had full use of our whistles like when before this redesign, a lot of this stuff that is getting in would never make it pass judgement. Especially if they were marked as stolen.

Also very true. The admins promised that a portal mod system will get implented after the redesign. To me it is , to say it nicely, very confusing and mind-boggling that such a core feature is still missing - especially since the flash aspect is arguably the most important part of the site - so there should be atleast some way to moderate it. I don't really understand why the whistle system hasn't been taken over to this design - I understood it in the beginning, but it has been more than 4 months now without any way for the vast majority of the userbase to flag content.

I find it very sad to see the portal in a mess as you say because of the way the it is now. Why aren't the users who abuse it for example save whores get there points reset? there must be a way to track them down! I think Tom Fulp must be aware of the way the portal is I think. I agree about the whistles we need them back, but alas it does not look this way. The portal mods sounded like a great idea but it seem to be not working. Sorry for the rant I hate too see the portal like this.

At 7/27/12 05:41 AM, phantomlassuk wrote: I find it very sad to see the portal in a mess as you say because of the way the it is now. Why aren't the users who abuse it for example save whores get there points reset? there must be a way to track them down!

The only way I can think of is if they have a ratio that is completely out of the window, like 50 saves for every blam. saying that mine is quite bad but nowhere near that. There may be a way of telling what people have voted on stuff but it'd require a lot of time for people to keep an eye on the users that are suspected of mass 5ing.

At 7/27/12 07:39 AM, Spretznaz wrote:

At 7/27/12 06:48 AM, Decky wrote: There may be a way of telling what people have voted on stuff but it'd require a lot of time for people to keep an eye on the users that are suspected of mass 5ing.

Couldn't they just use the roster program? If I'm not mistaken, it shows both monthly blams and saves gained, so wouldn't it just be a matter of finding those with an absurdly high ratio?

The roster program was created by yours truly to manage a small subset of users (30 or so) - however, I had always wondered if the programmers at Newgrounds were capturing usage data on ALL users on a daily / weekly / monthly basis so that such an analysis could be performed. Data facts such as actual hours online, total # of flashes voted on in a day, total blams, total protects, ratios versus total # of flashes submitted in that period, source IP, etc - all of these can be used to uncover patterns that may not be acceptable. For example, if it was discovered that a user account was active 24/7/365 and voted on EVERY flash in the portal - well, that's generally impossible unless (a) it's a bot or (b) multiple people are using the account and have nothing else to do - and it's most likely (a). Also, analysis of # of flashes submitted vs. # of flashes blammed and/or deleted - high enough numbers here could indicate a spammer or shovelware account.

There is a lot of data mining that could be performed on an automated basis to help identify abusers of the system. Accounts that abuse the system can be handled in a variety of ways, from blocking flash uploads to not counting their votes to banning them for a period of time. Any account that the watchdog program flags as problematic would be presented to the admins, who then decide what to do with the account.

With the redesign, there were many little conversion issues to worry about; but now that it's settling in, maybe some back-end data analysis modules could be developed. (Note to Wade / Tom - I have an extensive background in this area, and I would be glad to offer my services FOR FREE to help design and implement such a module set as my way of saying "thanks for NewGrounds!")

So maybe we'll get automated in the future - but I definitely agree - we need to make the system smarter so it can defend itself better.

Also, I don't think he's doing anything until he fixes a related bug:

At 7/23/12 02:29 PM, TomFulp wrote: In other news... The awards bug on the Classic Portal has been fixed and the daily submitted / blams bug is being examined (when people quote those low numbers, they are actually quoting incorrect numbers).

See...these would take priority - let's get the system settled in first...but not lose sight of what we still need to do.

At 7/27/12 06:48 AM, Decky wrote:

At 7/27/12 05:41 AM, phantomlassuk wrote: I find it very sad to see the portal in a mess as you say because of the way the it is now. Why aren't the users who abuse it for example save whores get there points reset? there must be a way to track them down!

The only way I can think of is if they have a ratio that is completely out of the window, like 50 saves for every blam. saying that mine is quite bad but nowhere near that. There may be a way of telling what people have voted on stuff but it'd require a lot of time for people to keep an eye on the users that are suspected of mass 5ing.

The Admins already have program that shows them what every single person votes on a flash. I remember Wade talking about this years ago when the Spammers who had high level and B/P would vote together to overpower the masses who would vote to try to do the right thing back when a spammy series called the BPB (Big Penis Bergade) was deleted from the portal.

I agree with that, yes. As genre mod I can also add those "deletion" and "stolen" tags to flashes and it is very sad that users still vote highly on such flashes. I guess that they don't read the tags and just vote 5.

Barely anybody even cares about voting legitimately these days, the worst example of this was when I saw a printscare pass with 1.7. Before the redesign, even after a submission passed judgment it would get about 80-140 extra votes after judgment, so that gave submissions a chance to attain legitimate scores.

Why aren't the users who abuse it for example save whores get there points reset? there must be a way to track them down!

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/43212

I think this should be enforced again, except instead of 0'ing everything, 2'ing or 5'ing everything.

On a side note, something about this seems fishy, but I can't quite place my finger on it: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599869

At 7/27/12 09:02 PM, MistyEntertainment wrote:

I agree with that, yes. As genre mod I can also add those "deletion" and "stolen" tags to flashes and it is very sad that users still vote highly on such flashes. I guess that they don't read the tags and just vote 5.

Barely anybody even cares about voting legitimately these days, the worst example of this was when I saw a printscare pass with 1.7. Before the redesign, even after a submission passed judgment it would get about 80-140 extra votes after judgment, so that gave submissions a chance to attain legitimate scores.

Why aren't the users who abuse it for example save whores get there points reset? there must be a way to track them down!

http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/43212

I think this should be enforced again, except instead of 0'ing everything, 2'ing or 5'ing everything.

On a side note, something about this seems fishy, but I can't quite place my finger on it: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/599869

http://www.funny-games.biz/cartoon/sonic-vs-shadow.html Made for a SMBZ collab says made by Dion. Doesn't confirm an author or date.