New features

[WadeFulp]

Alright, I didn't really want to make another front page post, but a lot of people are still confused and are brining up a lot of similar questions and concerns so I will try to briefly address them.

We are working on a rank system for voting points. As users accumulate voting points (BLAM & PROTECTION) they will go up in rank. As users go up in rank they will get cool new rank badges in their user profiles, in addition to their current Experience Level icon. As users go up in vote rank they will also gain a small vote power bonus to their voting power! Say 2% at first, but maybe as much as 50% at the top level (10 + 50% = 15). We are still working on this system but we should roll it out sometime next week. So with regards to BLAM and PROTECTION points you want to get as many of each as possible! A lot of people are complaining certain users are only going after protection points, or only after BLAMS. Well, you don't want to do that! You want to get as many of each! So if you only vote 5 on every movie, you're going to miss out on BLAM points! If you only vote 0 on every movie you will miss out on PROTECTION points! Your rank is determined by TOTAL points. So you should watch the submission and vote honestly. This will be your best chance to get as many points as possible.

Also some people want us to have a separate total for users who cast the triggering vote causing a movie to either be protected or blammed. We will not do this. This was the whole problem before! Users would hold back their vote to try and get a BLAM point! We want this to be a team effort and reward everyone who participates!

Some people are saying the system is failing because of all the color coded movies in the TOP 50 most recent list. This is not the system failing, it is the system working! The reason there are so many color coded movies is because all the crap is being deleted off the portal very quickly now! Before a good movie would be pushed off the top 50 list in a day or less. Now with the flood of crap under control a good movie can stay on the 50 most recent list for around 4 days! This give the submission much more time to receive feedback, views, and votes! All pluses for the submitter! Also in the past some movies never got enough votes to allow them to be color coded! So a good movie may have left the list without getting enough votes to be coded! Now a good movie is color coded very quickly!

We have a lot of things we are working on. We are working on the log in problem (some people are being logged out and not staying logged in). We will address allowing users to select their favorite portal submissions in their profile, rather than it being based on their reviews. We will be adding lists to the portal so users can look up movies that need votes either to be protected or blammed. We will let users view BLAMMED submission's reviews, so authors can see where they went wrong. So over the next couple of months a lot of these issues will be resolved, just give us a chance! :) LilJim is already far exceeding any of our expectations and is working as fast as he can. So let's be sure to give him thanks for making all these ideas happen!

[johnkilo]

I still think its too complicated

www.johnkilo.tk

[MrPrez]

At 10/18/02 12:09 PM, johnkilo wrote: I still think its too complicated

no it's not.
The more Blam and Protection points you have, the better. it will give you a voting power boost.

[MrPrez]

the system works quite well at this moment. since it's been activated, there are LOTS of movies deleted, and most of them where the new ones. In time the older crapmovies will get deleted too.

[Jenn]

I think this is a great idea. All the crappy stuff will be filtered out a lot quicker now. However, I think you should do away with the 1-5 voting options and just make it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. People either want it gone or they want it to stay on NG, so having all the numbers in between is pointless.

[Stormwarden]

At 10/18/02 12:09 PM, johnkilo wrote: I still think its too complicated

www.johnkilo.tk

No it isn't. Simply put, when the new rank info is brought into play, it basically increases your voting power. The more of each, the stronger the vote. The way I see it, this new system is one of the best things to happen to NG in quite a while, and I should know.

With better submissions being given a chance, and bad ones being removed, it is easier to get to view a good flash.

Wade, could you make, like, say topic polls
Where people are asked whether they want a really contraversial movie to stay on NG.
Like say, "B", or Funny Question Mark, (etc.)?
Thankies

[WadeFulp]

At 10/18/02 12:16 PM, Jenn wrote: I think this is a great idea. All the crappy stuff will be filtered out a lot quicker now. However, I think you should do away with the 1-5 voting options and just make it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. People either want it gone or they want it to stay on NG, so having all the numbers in between is pointless.

We have to many submissions to base them simply on a thumbs up and thumbs down. If 2 really good submissions come in they will probably get all thumbs up. This will lead to a long list of movies with the same score, or very similar score. The way it is now you can have an average movie with a 2.5, a good movie with 3.0, a great movie with a 3.7, and an even better one with a 4.2.

[Jenn]

wow that was quick....

i see what you mean. i remember Tom mentioning that a while ago though...about making a thumbs-up/down system. but i guess it was scrapped for the reason you just explained. no one probably remembers that post he made anyway.

anyway, good job with this. i know it must be so fucking annoying to keep explaining yourself over and over.

At 10/18/02 12:21 PM, WadeFulp wrote:

At 10/18/02 12:16 PM, Jenn wrote: I think this is a great idea. All the crappy stuff will be filtered out a lot quicker now. However, I think you should do away with the 1-5 voting options and just make it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. People either want it gone or they want it to stay on NG, so having all the numbers in between is pointless.

We have to many submissions to base them simply on a thumbs up and thumbs down. If 2 really good submissions come in they will probably get all thumbs up. This will lead to a long list of movies with the same score, or very similar score. The way it is now you can have an average movie with a 2.5, a good movie with 3.0, a great movie with a 3.7, and an even better one with a 4.2.

[uhoh-spagettio]

Wow NG is really showering its users with new stuff.. its soooo great :D

[WadeFulp]

At 10/18/02 12:43 PM, uhoh_spagettio wrote: Wow NG is really showering its users with new stuff.. its soooo great :D

Hehe. It's not that we just decided to do this, we just didn't have the man power. Now we have LilJim volunteering his services and we are able to put into effect ideas we've had for years! :)

[DuMa-RyoHahn]

I still like the site. I know you want us to vote fairly but wade. Alot of flash that is throw on NG really sucks. But I understand what your saying I try to give a fair vote but My vote alone won't save a movie that many others think is crap and blam it.

[moc-moc-a-moc]

Yeah I'm starting to think all this new stuff is good now. As someone said before, "Newgrounds is evolving."

[NeMeSiSM66]

Newgrounds is looking great! Quick question though Wade, do you plan on adding new levels for users? Like LVL31, LVL32, LVL33, etc or is LVL30 gonna stay the Max?

[WadeFulp]

At 10/18/02 01:10 PM, Drakflamezero wrote: I still like the site. I know you want us to vote fairly but wade. Alot of flash that is throw on NG really sucks. But I understand what your saying I try to give a fair vote but My vote alone won't save a movie that many others think is crap and blam it.

Well, that's why it's called a vote. You don't soley decide what stays and goes, the masses do. You can give a vote that you think is fair, and it may not result in the way you want. If you voted for Gore and Bush won, to bad for you. :)

[WadeFulp]

At 10/18/02 01:27 PM, NemesisM66 wrote: Newgrounds is looking great! Quick question though Wade, do you plan on adding new levels for users? Like LVL31, LVL32, LVL33, etc or is LVL30 gonna stay the Max?

It's possible someday we might add levels, but the top guy would just jump to the new top level. It would just give more variety and make gaining a level easier as there would be more steps. It also would effect vote power. It would just be for more variety. This might be a good poll question sometime. Another thing we are working on, making the polls easier to update! :)

[busted-for-gta]

Thank you Liljim for making these ideas happen! :)
http://gta_3_cheats.tripod.com/

[Psykloak1]

I got an idea for how to clear out the portal of all past crap.
make a new section on the portal that display 50 portal entries in order starting from 1 (so the first week is 1-50 2nd is 51-100 and so on) then every one can vote on them and basicaly fluch the crap out.

[wcw]

sup newgrounds wcw here hey wade why dont u create a cool gun game i know u have animations create this gun game with all types of heavy mechine guns and you have too go to war with afghnastan and the last level would be were you are in a cave and u have to kill every taliban shitbag you see.

[HeRetiK]

Its true that good movies are now allowed to stay longer in the most recent chart. But unfortunately many of them are still just crap.

[Lordalmar]

At 10/18/02 03:06 PM, sketch0587 wrote: Wow, you can really see the crap getting filtered out of the portal. This may prove to be the most effective system NG has come up with yet.

Yep, it is working very well, I happen to like this system much more then the old one.

[DarkJaymz]

At 10/18/02 03:50 PM, wcw wrote: sup newgrounds wcw here hey wade why dont u create a cool gun game i know u have animations create this gun game with all types of heavy mechine guns and you have too go to war with afghnastan and the last level would be were you are in a cave and u have to kill every taliban shitbag you see.

ummm.... no.
Ok I really glad that NG is fixed and has a new system. I hang out all over NG and people in the bbs went on a blamming spree once. they even had the flash address to go to. I click on one(there was like 10 or 20) and they were all blammed in 2 seconds. I understand the blam shit but the protecting.. sure I understand it but the only way you can get a protectors point is to vote on new movies right? I mean not like the ones on the top 50 when you know they will never be blammed. One more thing I really think this flash should be in the sonic section I mean its made appearence's on the top 50 and people really like it. What do you think? here is th address http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view.php?id=59419
-DarkJaymz

[MisterEd]

I don't exactly know how to respond to the voting changes, seeing as how I understand nothing about programming. However, I would like to take a moment and explain some of the criticisms I've handed different Flash authors through my NG reviews.

Why do I do write reviews for Newgrounds?

Well, because kids aren’t going to get what I say anywhere else. American colleges no longer teach storytelling or novel-writing, they only teach literary criticism. If you’re a woman, they teach you to fault men; if you’re a minority, they teach you to fault white men; if you’re an aspiring teacher they stringently persuade you to blame western civilization on all the world’s woes, as though being non-American is your instant qualification for sainthood. On the other hand, you have movements in America which espouse pure fascism, if only to fuel participants’ pure hatred. In my mind, the only way to contradict kooks on both the left and the right is to keep the imagination alive — especially in young who want to do things.

I think, what we are seeing, nationally and globally, is “the breaking-up of tribes”. Maybe not entirely, but I think we are approaching a moment where everyone, across the world, is going to have to momentarily relinquish their own us-versus-them mentality. Gradually, tribes will reform, but by then they will be fundamentally different. By tribes, I mean nations, I mean ethnicity, I mean religions, I mean provinces and locales.

I mean it all, Big Daddy.

And it scares everyone.

However, Newgrounds — as an intellectual phenomenon — will continue apart from these changes. There are no tribes here in any de-facto sense. You cannot say Newgrounds is communistic, as there is no government “mandate” — it’s all individual voting by 50,000+ users. Now, I don’t think Tom Fulp sat down and considered that when he was building this site; nonetheless, NG can — and will — remain throughout whatever changes there are of national and religious paradigms.

NG is a process. That’s what Tom invented. Tom invented a process which cannot be influenced by the all-too human vice of fear, as this process is not human.

Of course, speaking as a human, I still DO feel fear—and one of my larger worries is that if I don’t in some way encourage the intellectual development of younger persons, I will have myself to blame (in part) for an uglier civilization. And because this world is already ugly (very ugly), I try to promote & edify creativity. I have probably pissed-off some authors with my criticisms, hopefully not permanently. Hopefully, they understand, when I say “add more dialogue” or “add more side characters” it’s with the intent to make their work stronger, rather than to make it look like everyone else’s.

Eventually, weather permitting, I am going to start submitting my own material to NG. No, it’s not going to be all brainy stuff, but there will be some. I guess the reason I’ll be doing so is because it’s easier to show people by example what I mean by storytelling. When I create something, I live there for a few weeks (or months); if it’s not comfortable enough for me to stay, I assume it will not be inviting for others. If you want me to explain a reason why I write stories, I’m sorry, I cannot. It would be like trying to explain why I often get a sense of joy from riding a bike, or from fishing, or listening to some of the cheesier music I favor - or, for that matter, why I enjoy so much of the Flash I see on NG.

But let me also add the following. If I were to try to “impart” the exact same things I’ve said in the above paragraphs while working as an instructor of high school English at just about any school in the US, I would probably lose my job in about a month. You would simply not believe how pissed-off parents become once you start telling their kids that “Baptists” and “Protestants” are really just tribes, each with a culture that values its aesthetics above and beyond its spirituality. Throw in some stuff about the threats of biological terrorism and the school board is ready to hand you a termination. That’s sad, but that’s also TRUE. In America, as a high school student, you are supposed to be a either a mechanical lemming or a vacuous extension of your parents (or both). Therefore, I’ll just keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully, I might “improve” part of the world just by contributing stories and artwork to this site.

[DarkJaymz]

At 10/18/02 05:41 PM, MisterEd wrote: I don't exactly know how to respond to the voting changes, seeing as how I understand nothing about programming. However, I would like to take a moment and explain some of the criticisms I've handed different Flash authors through my NG reviews.

Why do I do write reviews for Newgrounds?

Well, because kids aren’t going to get what I say anywhere else. American colleges no longer teach storytelling or novel-writing, they only teach literary criticism. If you’re a woman, they teach you to fault men; if you’re a minority, they teach you to fault white men; if you’re an aspiring teacher they stringently persuade you to blame western civilization on all the world’s woes, as though being non-American is your instant qualification for sainthood. On the other hand, you have movements in America which espouse pure fascism, if only to fuel participants’ pure hatred. In my mind, the only way to contradict kooks on both the left and the right is to keep the imagination alive — especially in young who want to do things.

I think, what we are seeing, nationally and globally, is “the breaking-up of tribes”. Maybe not entirely, but I think we are approaching a moment where everyone, across the world, is going to have to momentarily relinquish their own us-versus-them mentality. Gradually, tribes will reform, but by then they will be fundamentally different. By tribes, I mean nations, I mean ethnicity, I mean religions, I mean provinces and locales.

I mean it all, Big Daddy.

And it scares everyone.

However, Newgrounds — as an intellectual phenomenon — will continue apart from these changes. There are no tribes here in any de-facto sense. You cannot say Newgrounds is communistic, as there is no government “mandate” — it’s all individual voting by 50,000+ users. Now, I don’t think Tom Fulp sat down and considered that when he was building this site; nonetheless, NG can — and will — remain throughout whatever changes there are of national and religious paradigms.

NG is a process. That’s what Tom invented. Tom invented a process which cannot be influenced by the all-too human vice of fear, as this process is not human.

Of course, speaking as a human, I still DO feel fear—and one of my larger worries is that if I don’t in some way encourage the intellectual development of younger persons, I will have myself to blame (in part) for an uglier civilization. And because this world is already ugly (very ugly), I try to promote & edify creativity. I have probably pissed-off some authors with my criticisms, hopefully not permanently. Hopefully, they understand, when I say “add more dialogue” or “add more side characters” it’s with the intent to make their work stronger, rather than to make it look like everyone else’s.

Eventually, weather permitting, I am going to start submitting my own material to NG. No, it’s not going to be all brainy stuff, but there will be some. I guess the reason I’ll be doing so is because it’s easier to show people by example what I mean by storytelling. When I create something, I live there for a few weeks (or months); if it’s not comfortable enough for me to stay, I assume it will not be inviting for others. If you want me to explain a reason why I write stories, I’m sorry, I cannot. It would be like trying to explain why I often get a sense of joy from riding a bike, or from fishing, or listening to some of the cheesier music I favor - or, for that matter, why I enjoy so much of the Flash I see on NG.

But let me also add the following. If I were to try to “impart” the exact same things I’ve said in the above paragraphs while working as an instructor of high school English at just about any school in the US, I would probably lose my job in about a month. You would simply not believe how pissed-off parents become once you start telling their kids that “Baptists” and “Protestants” are really just tribes, each with a culture that values its aesthetics above and beyond its spirituality. Throw in some stuff about the threats of biological terrorism and the school board is ready to hand you a termination. That’s sad, but that’s also TRUE. In America, as a high school student, you are supposed to be a either a mechanical lemming or a vacuous extension of your parents (or both). Therefore, I’ll just keep doing what I'm doing, and hopefully, I might “improve” part of the world just by contributing stories and artwork to this site.

MY BRAIN GET ME MY ADVIL.... YES THE CHEWIBLE ONES!!!!

[Ice-Demon]

I've been a NG fan for a long time, even back when xiao xiao no.3 was the best thing the portal had ever seen and we thought that beth was the creator. Even when that HUGE amount of traffic was coming to NG cuz it was on FOX news and it took me 5 minutes to get the home page. Anywho I'd just like to say Good Job guys, this is the best thing you've come up with in a long time now ppl arn't juz on the same movie with 48 votes and a score of 0.60 clicking refresh over and over. This will filter the crap outta the portal ALOT faster than the old system.

P.S. how long has that "war in space" movie been in the portal in has a score around 0.39, yet its passed all the cheack points successfully so it is safe from being balmed.

[Ice-Demon]

At 10/18/02 03:50 PM, wcw wrote: sup newgrounds wcw here hey wade why dont u create a cool gun game i know u have animations create this gun game with all types of heavy mechine guns and you have too go to war with afghnastan and the last level would be were you are in a cave and u have to kill every taliban shitbag you see.

A shooting game on NG!? What a origonal idea and shoting taliban troops, your a dreamer my friend...

[BooDestroyer]

At 10/18/02 12:05 PM, WadeFulp wrote: Alright, I didn't really want to make another front page post, but a lot of people are still confused and are brining up a lot of similar questions and concerns so I will try to briefly address them.

We are working on a rank system for voting points. As users accumulate voting points (BLAM & PROTECTION) they will go up in rank. As users go up in rank they will get cool new rank badges in their user profiles, in addition to their current Experience Level icon. As users go up in vote rank they will also gain a small vote power bonus to their voting power! Say 2% at first, but maybe as much as 50% at the top level (10 + 50% = 15). We are still working on this system but we should roll it out sometime next week. So with regards to BLAM and PROTECTION points you want to get as many of each as possible! A lot of people are complaining certain users are only going after protection points, or only after BLAMS. Well, you don't want to do that! You want to get as many of each! So if you only vote 5 on every movie, you're going to miss out on BLAM points! If you only vote 0 on every movie you will miss out on PROTECTION points! Your rank is determined by TOTAL points. So you should watch the submission and vote honestly. This will be your best chance to get as many points as possible.

Also some people want us to have a separate total for users who cast the triggering vote causing a movie to either be protected or blammed. We will not do this. This was the whole problem before! Users would hold back their vote to try and get a BLAM point! We want this to be a team effort and reward everyone who participates!

Some people are saying the system is failing because of all the color coded movies in the TOP 50 most recent list. This is not the system failing, it is the system working! The reason there are so many color coded movies is because all the crap is being deleted off the portal very quickly now! Before a good movie would be pushed off the top 50 list in a day or less. Now with the flood of crap under control a good movie can stay on the 50 most recent list for around 4 days! This give the submission much more time to receive feedback, views, and votes! All pluses for the submitter! Also in the past some movies never got enough votes to allow them to be color coded! So a good movie may have left the list without getting enough votes to be coded! Now a good movie is color coded very quickly!

We have a lot of things we are working on. We are working on the log in problem (some people are being logged out and not staying logged in). We will address allowing users to select their favorite portal submissions in their profile, rather than it being based on their reviews. We will be adding lists to the portal so users can look up movies that need votes either to be protected or blammed. We will let users view BLAMMED submission's reviews, so authors can see where they went wrong. So over the next couple of months a lot of these issues will be resolved, just give us a chance! :) LilJim is already far exceeding any of our expectations and is working as fast as he can. So let's be sure to give him thanks for making all these ideas happen!

Alright!

Great going, Wade!

This is gonna be a whole lot better!

[the-unknown-soldier]

Hmmm i have a lot of isses with the new system...first the whole blam thing sucks coz i worked hard to get like 20 blams....second the aura coz i worked hard for that dark.....3rd and i havn't said this b4(said everything else) this new system will change the way people vote. you are always saying its gonna be more fair but when the top movie has a rank of 3.9 it might not be fair but its even. The classic newgrounds movie is a movie that gets say low 3's high 2's gets daily feature top 5 or weekly top 20 and then disapears...it was only voted on for a week and apart from the one in a billion chance of a random selection that movie's score will stay the same. Now movies are getting a higher voting since auras have changed and since this protection thing. so if a movie made a year ago its gonna get a lower rating than if it was submitted today..and when how good work is is measured on score shouldn't the playing field be even?????????

Solutions: uhh this one is not mine but im saying it anywa.... have a daily say 5 or 10 or 50 of complete random movies...they have to be old but not necesarily good..so then these movies votes can be brought up like the rest of the movies are.

Second and this is my idea...make everyone pick a topic for there movies..just one. and then the best 50 movies for each subject (have like 20 subjects) is listed in a seperate page..that way good movies don't just sit on your servers because they are not good enuff fr top 50.

I think the way movies get flushed is so bad and i often try and watch the mass amounts of movies that have the rating 3.7 there are so many each more amazing than the next but day after day they sit and do nothing except let newer movies go in front of them because of a new voting system.

btw liljim rocks for doing this!
please reply

[Idiot-Finder]

At 10/18/02 02:22 PM, WadeFulp wrote:

At 10/18/02 01:27 PM, NemesisM66 wrote: Newgrounds is looking great! Quick question though Wade, do you plan on adding new levels for users? Like LVL31, LVL32, LVL33, etc or is LVL30 gonna stay the Max?

It's possible someday we might add levels, but the top guy would just jump to the new top level. It would just give more variety and make gaining a level easier as there would be more steps. It also would effect vote power. It would just be for more variety. This might be a good poll question sometime. Another thing we are working on, making the polls easier to update! :)

You should also make it even more interesting by doing something that RIAA did {not antinapster stuff} such as certifying. How about if the movie or a game have 500,000 votes and views it'll wen't gold,1,000,000 votes and views went platinum,2,000,000 or more is multiplatinum and to do that you should put gold or platinum colored symbol do it.

[Bomb-Clock]

At 10/18/02 12:05 PM, WadeFulp wrote: Alright, I didn't really want to make another front page post, but a lot of people are still confused and are brining up a lot of similar questions and concerns so I will try to briefly address them.

We are working on a rank system for voting points. As users accumulate voting points (BLAM & PROTECTION) they will go up in rank. As users go up in rank they will get cool new rank badges in their user profiles, in addition to their current Experience Level icon. As users go up in vote rank they will also gain a small vote power bonus to their voting power! Say 2% at first, but maybe as much as 50% at the top level (10 + 50% = 15). We are still working on this system but we should roll it out sometime next week. So with regards to BLAM and PROTECTION points you want to get as many of each as possible! A lot of people are complaining certain users are only going after protection points, or only after BLAMS. Well, you don't want to do that! You want to get as many of each! So if you only vote 5 on every movie, you're going to miss out on BLAM points! If you only vote 0 on every movie you will miss out on PROTECTION points! Your rank is determined by TOTAL points. So you should watch the submission and vote honestly. This will be your best chance to get as many points as possible.

Also some people want us to have a separate total for users who cast the triggering vote causing a movie to either be protected or blammed. We will not do this. This was the whole problem before! Users would hold back their vote to try and get a BLAM point! We want this to be a team effort and reward everyone who participates!

Some people are saying the system is failing because of all the color coded movies in the TOP 50 most recent list. This is not the system failing, it is the system working! The reason there are so many color coded movies is because all the crap is being deleted off the portal very quickly now! Before a good movie would be pushed off the top 50 list in a day or less. Now with the flood of crap under control a good movie can stay on the 50 most recent list for around 4 days! This give the submission much more time to receive feedback, views, and votes! All pluses for the submitter! Also in the past some movies never got enough votes to allow them to be color coded! So a good movie may have left the list without getting enough votes to be coded! Now a good movie is color coded very quickly!

We have a lot of things we are working on. We are working on the log in problem (some people are being logged out and not staying logged in). We will address allowing users to select their favorite portal submissions in their profile, rather than it being based on their reviews. We will be adding lists to the portal so users can look up movies that need votes either to be protected or blammed. We will let users view BLAMMED submission's reviews, so authors can see where they went wrong. So over the next couple of months a lot of these issues will be resolved, just give us a chance! :) LilJim is already far exceeding any of our expectations and is working as fast as he can. So let's be sure to give him thanks for making all these ideas happen!

THE POWER OF WADE COMPELS YOU!