Hello i have been a member of newgrounds for 2 and a bit years and from i saw (*cough cough* from wikipedia) that this site has been up since 1995. I also heard that newgrounds was amazing in the 2000's most specific early to mid 2000's. Now i didn't know about it since i was born in the early 2000's so im asking you what was the site like and you're opinion on it before and now?

We used to have a much larger community. Social media sites have taken a lot of our traffic, like Facebook.

As far as creators, I feel like we have just as much talent now as we ever had. We still have amazing artists, programmers, musicians, etc

My personal thing I miss is that early 2000s NG had a ton of parodies and things that unfortunately violated copyright so Tom had to remove them

Here's an example of the front page from 2003:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030320160441/http://newgrounds.com:80/

i unironically miss this kind of ads like the ones on the archive page

It is undeniable that there was a "Golden Age" for accesses and community, there were times in which more people came to NG and more people created content. Now saying that there was a "Golden Age" for the quality of the content would be bullshit.

In the end this depends on what you like the most, if what you enjoy is violent and edgy content, then the early 2000s content is prime for you. Also if you want to compare this content with the modern one, you could say that it is low quality, but you need to remember of the limitations of the hardware and software of that period.

Another argument to tell you that there is no "Golden Age" in the matter of content is the fact that there's no consensus on when it was. Some people will tell you that the period between 2000 and 2005/6 was the golden age, others will tell you that it was the period between 2007 and 2013. And maybe in a few years some people will say that the period between 2015 and now is the golden age, because the lower amount of people meant that there was higher quality in the content. In the end it is a subjective question, and people answer it based on their own biases and preferences.

If I would have to tell you I would probably say that the "Golden Age" for content was the period between 2007 and 2013, because there was a noticeble increase in quality in that period. Around the 2012/13 we started to get some content that had professional level quality, and the people who made them were making amateur level stuff a few years before. And you can notice that consistent increase in quality in this 2007-13 period.

But I am biased on this opinion. I started coming to Newgrounds around 2007 and got to see this period live, coming back each time more to enjoy the good stuff that came out and got each time better, that even culminated into me making my first account in 2012, so I'm rather fond of this period. I usually think that the people who say that the "Golden Age" was the 2000-05 period are just being nostalgic, but maybe I am as well, I dunno.

At 9/27/18 04:28 AM, Flame152 wrote: Hello i have been a member of newgrounds for 2 and a bit years and from i saw (*cough cough* from wikipedia) that this site has been up since 1995. I also heard that newgrounds was amazing in the 2000's most specific early to mid 2000's. Now i didn't know about it since i was born in the early 2000's so im asking you what was the site like and you're opinion on it before and now?

Everyone has their own golden age with NG, generally the first few years they spend here. I just stumbled across this old forum post someone pasted on Reddit, from a user who was unhappy with the direction the site was headed in 2001:

https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/9jefiu/why_i_left_newgrounds/

If you're looking at a game standpoint, maybe anytime between 2008 and 2012 or so. From what I've seen, flash game sponsorships were very lucrative at that point in time, thus resulting in completely free, and very high quality games coming out. There's still some cool ass stuff coming out nowadays though.

For animations a lot of people say early-mid 2000s, but a lot of the classics didnt come out for a while later. But same with games, theres still some good shit coming out now, maybe we're close to a new golden age.

It was a nice enough little community. The portal was hand curated by Tom, each time new flash was added it was something quite literally everyone on the site would watch because content was so limited. You had the IRC chat which was fairly active all hours of the day. Tom and Wade would pop in from time to time, usually while on webcam doing silly things like swinging around a giant stuffed penis or messing around with other NG crew in the tiny apartment(?) NG operated out of. Now the chatroom is a place only a small percentage of users can access, which bums me out. Not sure why they didn't just remove it altogether instead of slowly choking it to death.

I remember eagerly coming home to see if any new games or movies had been uploaded. These days I don't remember the last time I actually watched or played something on NG that wasn't uploaded ages ago. Most of my favorite older developers have moved on to becoming professionals, designing their own games for sale on Steam or became professional animators. Edmund McMillen, Matt Roszak, Animator vs Animation, etc. Others seemingly vanished from the gamedev or animation scene or the internet altogether.

Weird how the NG forum discussions haven't really changed, though. People have been posting the same topics about atheism, sex, etc since the dawn of the site.

I miss when newgrounds was hot. Like WAH WAH hot. Like HATCHI MATCHI YI YI hot. YIP YIP! Come on d00d!

Honestly I think NG's "prime" was closer to 2009, when the platform was full of iconic content creators like Oney and Egoraptor whom raked in views. It was almost like a renaissance built from a loyal community of creative people who worked hard and improved their skills while the technology itself improved, leading to some really good shit. I don't think NG is doing anything incorrect now, I just think that independently made animation on the internet kinda hit it's peak in sustainability around that time (before YouTube KILLED IT after sucking in a whole lot of these people.)

Makes me glad to hear that Tom's trying to make independent animation something reliable again through the supporter system. I think we have the loyal and creative community, we just need to expand it and make it more accessible. I hope there will be an app soon, it could help make this place the ultimate creative platform.

I agree!
An app could make this community even better. The app could have almost anything: (exept for games because i doubt that will work) Forum, Animations, Art and more.
It will probably make newgrounds a way more active place because it could just notify the user when a new event is soon going to happen or when you get a messege or if you get a response in a forum post and ofcourse when you get feedback from your work you posted. I hope other people agree with what i said.

At 9/27/18 04:28 AM, Flame152 wrote: Hello i have been a member of newgrounds for 2 and a bit years and from i saw (*cough cough* from wikipedia) that this site has been up since 1995. I also heard that newgrounds was amazing in the 2000's most specific early to mid 2000's. Now i didn't know about it since i was born in the early 2000's so im asking you what was the site like and you're opinion on it before and now?

It was a great but terrible place to be. Most threads were like this:

Photoshop this: MS paint penises incoming
This mod banzor me: Fuck you mods
Some thread to fuck with wade
A 4chan thread
Some thread to fuck with bigbadron
Some thread to fuck with Maus
Rick roll
Some thread to fuck with <insert this mod>
Lemon party post or meat spin
A new thread to make up a new rule to fix whatever wide spread meme was happening (this was before meme's was a term)
Plus 1 posts because post count was some how important to people
Why was I banned (as that person post from an alt lol)
Flame wars
Threads started to KNOWINGLY get people banned who posts in it
or you see 40% of the threads in red.

Good times. i used to look forward to coming to the thread to see who was complaining next or who got banned whatever reason. Made my day to get a quick laugh.

Overall, it is NOTHING like it is today. It was mostly douchebags and asshole back then, but you just couldn't stay away from most of it. It just drew you in and you just had to be apart of it in some fashion.

At 9/28/18 12:40 PM, Greenskullkid wrote: The hell is Wolf Cross

I'm in the same boat man, what the heck

For me the single best day in Newgrounds history, that I personally experienced, was the day dick neck was born.

Newgrounds used to legitimately be the best website on the planet. It was chaotic and hilarious and totally uncensored. It was so much fun. There was nothing like it and they'll never be anything like it again.

It was the wild west era of the Internet.

I hope Tom keeps the site going indefinitely and I hope it still provides him a reasonable living.

100+ flash submissions a day, most of which were stick fights as people learned flash.

The forums were busier as well, but as some people mentioned social media became a thing later on. Also, penicorns (nsfw link).

Not a single mention of front page theme song.

n00bz

The portal was filled with spammy submissions back then, making it easy to rake in blam points.

Not anymore though, it's rare to even get something blammed nowadays.

Less high profile artists and more collaborations. We had a few famous artists who would later take over the portal either from their raw artistic talent (bitey, Happy Harry) or others who just brought a lot of humor (Egoraptor).

I always liked the old collabs that ranged from almost no talent to really inventive experimental artists participating. It made me feel like I could have contributed to something that people might see on the front page as long as I had flash and put the time into making something, even if it was bad. These days I wont even try because good artists have come out of the woodwork because they can all make money promoting themselves here via patreon etc. Also you know, I would be outed for my 3 year old drawing skills, i'd have to make a dummy account to keep from embarassing myself.

At 9/27/18 07:25 AM, HeadMistressSeven wrote: As far as creators, I feel like we have just as much talent now as we ever had. We still have amazing artists, programmers, musicians, etc

Look at a Daily Feature from this past week, then look at a Daily Feature from 2012. The amount of talent has definitely gone down. A few great people are left, but there are fewer of them, so coming across great content is a lot harder.

At 9/27/18 11:15 PM, Pico wrote: Edmund McMillen, Matt Roszak, Animator vs Animation, etc. Others seemingly vanished from the gamedev or animation scene or the internet altogether.

Amazingly enough, Afterbirth+ is still going strong all these years later and @noogai makes a pretty good career out of animating stick figures (including continuations of AvA.) It's really heartwarming to see when old habits can actually keep going.

The sad news is that @get-lost is putting Castle IV on hold (he left a message last December explaining this on his website.)

Anyway, to answer the OP, I feel like somewhere between '08-'12 was Newgrounds in its prime. I first watched The Ultimate Showdown on the site in 2004, but didn't make an account until 2007 when I went to a summer camp that taught Flash animation and basic ActionScript (mostly just play buttons.)

To clarify, there was a huge explosion of content in 2004. Tons of outstanding content overflowed from XGen Studios and Stickpage onto Newgrounds, and while the average quality of Flash back then might not have been as high, the few people that were good at it were AMAZING. I was only 10 at the time and didn't explore the site much, but when I look back at great games and animations on the site, I find that a disproportionate amount of my favorite content came from this year.

I feel like 2008 was the year that the average creator started really stepping their game up. I also have a bit of a personal bias, since this was also when Platform Racing 2 came out, a multiplayer game I spent nearly a decade playing every day (I got insanely good at that game and also created tons of emergent gameplay mechanics using the level editor.)

As far as other areas of the site, the audio portal has always had cliques that have come and gone, but I miss the hip hop scene from 2010-2013, including the battle rap competitions hosted by @BigRed. The forums used to be a lot more active as well, and while there were more trolls, the moderators took more initiative into banning them. It's probably easier to have a serious thread now, but when the site had more activity it was much, much more entertaining (I really miss Photoshop threads.)

The forums were always a bit of an elitist cesspit from what I remember. First time here, logging in for years and (I had an older account before) saw this thread so thought I'd respond. Wade Fulp at one point even had to make a thread telling everyone not to be so bitter. 'Fraid I could say something more positive but that's just my opinion.

I was super gay and furry with bobs everywhere.

I've only been here as long as you. But I don't think that you would find a video of people scrolling around Newgrounds on youtube in 2010. Nobody wants to watch someone on a social media site for twenty minutes. You might need to dig deeper.

A lot more dick jokes.

I have only recently got back into Newgrounds, re-living the entertainment of my youth.

I made an account in 2007 but visited the site since 2000. As far as i was concerned it was one of the biggest sites on the internet. So much about my humour i credit to the content on this site and the way i interact with people socially online as well. It was a great place for a teenager.

Legitimately creative and original content that people just wanted to share without any real idea of fame or fortune. Work that was ahead of it's time and didn't take itself too seriously! It was a goldmine for entertainment!

Every year or so i check into the site and sadly it seems to be fairing less well each time. Without being too heavy it really is a shell of what it once was. Now that being said I am not a regular on the site anymore but from my time getting used to the new layouts it doesn't seem the same.

I used to stare at all the items on the Newgrounds store and dream about being old enough / have actual money to buy the amazing stuff on there! The Tank-men figures in particular!

When Castle Crashers came out for the 360 i was so proud of everyone from Newgrounds who were involved! Felt like i was in an elite club telling my friends where they could find similar content online. That game fucking rocked! Bring that shit to the Switch!!

Overall i have nothing but fond memories, I owe a lot of my young character to this site. I am very grateful to it's creators and to have been involved with it when it was at its prime!

Funfact for me is that newgrounds is like a bastion and somehow timeless.
My account is from 2004...joined as a teen... watched newgrounds before when i was a kid.
A lot of homepages that have such a long lifespan die or wither away (less functions, shrinking community that is so small that its a 3 man show etc...

What is newgrounds today? Still the ol reliable that not only does the job, it still evolves thanks to the minds behind it.
It wasnt made by a giant company, it just needed a tom X-)
Hell im 32 now and this place works like a charm. Just imagine what that means in internet terms. Internet is so fast, it deletes and creates things in nanoseconds.
Newgrounds survived youtube, facebook,instagram, all this yada yada.
For me newgrounds is always in its prime. You know ,that card that you play that has that extra +1 health?
The Joker you got in your backhand?
Tom isnt mindwashable, thats why it still rocks so good. Stable System,reliable. I bet a lot of big companys would want to get their hands on it to plaster it with ads and their own garbage.

forums were full of assholes and elitist pricks and I was 6 when I found NG in 01, so I mainly stuck to watching/playing flash animations/games

back then the copyright stuff wasn't so bad, so a lot of stuff is gone today

but still, the site was mainly a ton of random horrible flash animation that took minimal effort and was typically just a bunch of groups shitposting (myself included in that once, check out my only flash submission lol)

early 00's were pretty ok, but the site had it's golden age from about 05-09 before all the animators dipped and started using YouTube more and more

actually, even egoraptor had said he would never be uploading to yt back in the day
boy that changed

but I'd say the true best era of NG is happening right now
talented animators like Aaron Long and David Firth are still uploading some fantastic animations, the art submissions from many users such as BallBots have been really great lately, and I honestly haven't been surfing the audio portal lately but there's always some great music floating around

back in the day too the flash and audio artists would collab to make sweet games and movies with sick soundtracks, and the community wasn't great but had some really fun and hilarious people always dicking around for the hahas and causing flame wars

it was fun as hell and I feel like if anybody really understands meme culture and the world wide web it would be a Newgrounds OG

Animation-wise, the majority of popular animations were mostly silly video game parodies and sometimes some political humor, and the animation was obviously more choppy back then. Game-wise, from what I remember there was a lot of flash games using video games or video game characters that already existed in them, while nowadays a lot of games are more original. I couldn't tell you much about how the community changed though (which is what I'm sure is the main thing you're wondering about) due to me making my account just this year.

If you're really curious, you should try playing a game from 2005 called Newgrounds SIM, it does a good job at generalizing Newgrounds from that time period. You should also check out the "High Ranking Classics " section in both the Game and Movie portals, there's a lot of good older content in there.

I’ve been here on this account for about 9-10 years but have been on this site much longer than that. I’ve always enjoyed this site. Some great artists and creatives here!