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VicariousE
Wanted to be a simple man of the Earth, enjoying art and literature, the bounty of the Earth. Instead, I have to fend against governments and principalities, global conspiracies and bad social engineering, ree, my autism

Age 51, Male/Penis

dillgent tryhard

Jeffersonian

homeless/NE USA

Joined on 2/15/01

Level:
50
Exp Points:
27,016 / 27,750
Exp Rank:
472
Vote Power:
9.07 votes
Audio Scouts
6
Rank:
Lieutenant
Global Rank:
674
Blams:
1,707
Saves:
11,938
B/P Bonus:
36%
Whistle:
Bronze
Trophies:
2
Medals:
12,901
Supporter:
8y 2m 18d
Gear:
6

14 Years on Newgrounds, Today

Posted by VicariousE - February 15th, 2015


Newgrounds used to have a lengthy page dedicated to a program called Flash.  After reading it, looking at all info and the Q and A's, I decided it was worth the digital risk.  It ran pretty good on my 200MHz computer, running WIN 95b.  I could finally see how a little program could deliver so much content!  Sadly, my work was with mainstream media at the time, and not expensive software for making animated internet ads.  I guess I've always been an outsider here - not producing any content that fits into any category...

 

It took me a few months of careful observation before I joined up here.  Didn't want my precious email account spammed/stolen/hacked.  Back then, your ISP gave you a single email address and few megabytes for your POP3 account.  After a while, I realized Tom and his associates were on the level, so I risked sending my email address so I could vote on things, gain some stats.  I definitely blammed this when it came up... 4 stars?  For what?!  Some limp-wristed attempt at a Warhol tribute?  B... feh.

 

Some days when I had off of work, I'd start with submission #1, Scrotum the Puppy, and go down the list, typing in the next number into MS IE's address field.  I stopped doing that around Portal entry #150.

 

Around 2003, a security upgrade/redesign kept me from logging on.  I had made a large password, but after a few months I discovered I only needed to type the first 8 characters to log on!  Damn, I forgot the full password, and I had changed to another ISP (along with another email address).  Many years passed, and while moving, I found an old password list.  I tried it out on my cousin's computer, and lo and behold...

 

I didn't have internet at home during this time, but every weekend, I'd scavenge what I could from NG and torrents, first using floppy disks, then burnable CD's, then a small USB flash drive.  I guess it was kinda like going to the movie rental place and stocking up.  I still have all those hard fought files with me: 2,748 Flash files of NG's best movies and games.  Sometimes I'll archive stuff I see, even today.

 

Lurking the BBS in the very early days here... was epic.  You wouldn't believe the things that were said here: little kids getting ranked on by street-wise adults in such perverse tones, enough to make a sailor blush!  Anyway, that's the primary reason I didn't say much, even after I could log back on again.

 

Has it been worth it?  I've tried to counsel as many as I could.  I certainly appreciated it when other Newgrounders did likewise for me.  In the past 15 (14, who's counting?) years, I've lost my parents, quite a few relatives, friends and pets.  I lost my video production business, gained a computer repair/building business... also went bust.  I guess I gained more mental calluses.  All those past failures being played over and over again in my mind, did teach me.

 

The internet has been tamed and codified.  Boring.  If you look below the surface, the internet is a battlefield, and the casualties are piling up like cordwood.  Now I'm scared to have any personal information out there, especially credit card info |:  There are likely hundreds of thousands of people across the globe, fighting for that and other information... as well as access to our machines. 

 

I can only wonder what would happen if Obama pressed the 'internet kill switch'... would we get the real truth on TV, newspaper or radio, or would it simply be a perfect time to consolidate the free press into a mouthpiece for government and corporate interests?  (I can't think of anything else to say on the subject, of my being here for so damn long)

131385_142398120242_IronMaiden-1986SomewhereInTime.jpg

EDIT:  I'm taking a vacation from Newgrounds.  Time is our greatest foe, something young people take in stride quite easily, and somehow, make the most of.  It's when we get older, we start to act more conservatively, when we should be acting more proactively.  So, I'm actively fucking off for a few days.  Maybe afterwards, the long buried youthful optimism of this place will present itself better....


Comments

Happy NG Anniversary :)

Lol, thanks buddy! I'm so frigging pissed off at NG right now, it's not funny!
http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1383910

I think I'm going to take a vacation from this place, and hope to fuck it improves by the time I get back.

Hope to see you at Pico Day sir.

Yeah, IDK man. I know Tom changing the blog comment order may not seem like a big thing for most people, but for me, he just destroyed the very heart of what made this place great for me |:

14 years, that's a lot of time.

What only 4 stars for the master piece that is B? the greatest piece of art this page has to offer? you are insane!

Sure is.

I was in my late 20's when I saw that.

I guess we can call you the "gunny' of newgrounds around here, while Fulp is captain and the other grunts or lieutenants.... We all need that one hard-ass to make sure we don't screw up lol. Hope you get to enjoy another 14 and more years of newgrounds man.

There used to be a lot more hard-asses here, and I'm beginning to understand why they left....

I am on my 20s and i can recognize the immeasurable piece of artistic and philosophical value that B has brought to the internet and the world at large!

But anyway that's besides the point, are you sure you want to go on vacation? i will attain lvl 34 some time this year, if you keep doing these retreats this whippersnapper here will pass your level.

I'm done blogging here. Tomorrow, a final 'fuck you NG' newspost. Also done depositing. Might play some medal games and comment on art, if at all, but I'm pretty much done with this site, as it is.

I'll still logon to do PM's with whoever cares to speak with me though :\ At least it'll be easier than scrolling and clicking around, just to be inclusive....

Technically is already tomorrow, so i guess i snatched some of the last blog replies of VicariousE, quite a conflicting thought.

PMs... i guess that's a way to keep in touch, but it is like a passive aggressive way of protest, you leave but in the end still stay, anyway, we will see each other on the review sections i guess, though lately i am trying to make less reviews, after losing my scouting privileges it doesn't feels the same.

Sometimes there's things I don't wanna say in a review, so... I'd leave it in a blog comment, if available.

I know Tom tried this 'oldest comments at the top' thing a while ago (or at least suggested it), and it's hard to find anything in the BBS about it... it might have been contentious enough for him to remove the thread completely... hard to remember what happened here over 5 years ago

Interesting, it will still be a public "review" kinda.,

He could at least put the comment box at the bottom so the reply could be close to the actual comment, but either way you still have to scroll down all the way regardless, it is a real a pain in the everything, specially for popular blogs with lots or replies and pages, or for blogs that are already quite long by themselves likes the ones that Mr Nietz makes.

It makes me wonder if Tom even uses the features of his own page.

I agree, the comment box should be closest to the last comment made. Having it closest to the oldest comment is foolish, and makes it impossible (with multiple pages) to scroll to see the last few comments made. How do you compose a new comment while looking at the oldest comments?!

@tomfulp probably just reacts to his feed, and doesn't have running conversations with people on blogs at all, otherwise he wouldn't have made such an asinine change!

What he doesn't seem to realize, is a lot of people here prefer to talk in small, private groups AWAY from the BBS, where any foul mouthed kid or mean spirited adult can screw up the conversation.

I have to open the same page twice in 2 different windows and put them side by side, otherwise is just me scrolling up and down, is hellishly unpractical.

For real, he needs to come down and see how the peasants are living, communicate with your people! monarch these days i tell you.

Tom must have had one major brain fart
It is totally gay now, almost irrevocably so

@Tom- Tom doesn't care about blog people, #tomdoesntcareaboutblogpeople

But on the real though, quit cryin lmao. yeah it sucks but it's only a minor convenience, hit the "end" key and bam you are taken to the newest comments on the page. Just relax, and realize how much this place means to you and how much you mean to several users on NewGrounds. Certainly you know this a very petty reason to contemplate closing your blogs and depositing...I imagine the comment box position is something the staff glossed over and will be fixed soon...

I wonder if the admin's have the @ shoutout's turned off...they probably get a lot of mentions huh

End key doesn't work when there's more than one page, and it dumps you into the scrolling FP widget on the bottom.

I don't think it's petty at all. The change was arbitrary, and made our blogs non-standard. Everywhere you go, the newest comments are displayed first... if you no like, they got a button.... WE AIN'T GOT NO BUTTEN

Oh the @ thing? They probably use the filter, while we go for the icon for feed interactions, which covers all things aimed at us

@S3C my man you clearly don't read or comment on Mr. Nietz blogs, hitting home then end doesn't works at all there, hitting home will leave you half-way away from the comment box, and hitting end will lead you to the newest comment, if you are lucky, which i am because luckily no one else comments there.

Is blogging really going the way of webcam sites and 8 track tapes? NG used to be a decent home for the blogger :( Tom just got used to being popular, and didn't notice how the rest of us have been faring

This year will be 10 years for me. I've "wasted" a lot of time on here, but I also met my best friend here, and others I am very close to.

You needing a break is not an insult in any way. I think all NG veterans take a break and then come back.

The people are the best here, but I take issue with how this site (structure) has gone downhill. It's really put me off doing anything here. Tom doesn't vote or keep up a blog relationship with anyone, so why should I? NG used to be a variety pack of sugared cereal, now it's a big box of generic bran |:

Haha that reminds me of the shock blogs that people make in order to grab attention and get some viewers.
If you lower your standards it is bearable, like instead of seeing the glass half full or half empty, you use a smaller glass XD.

Well most of them if not all of them stopped posting, the only ones still active are 1 making furry porn, and themightyCaolf (which is not even scouted) who seems to be happy making sketches and is determined to start drawing porn, so this whole thing was a big fail in the end...

Pfffff.
This site went from a beer stein to a shot glass in a decades time |:

You mean the people you've scouted, really? Or you mean old time bloggers?

With a glass like that it hardly matters if it has anything at all XD.

The people i have scouted, only 2 remain active, 3 if we count the semi active, and 1 if we don't count themightyCaolf.

Meh is not like the site has enough ads to use ad-block on it really, maybe that explain why they need the supporter system.

That's shocking. Maybe the ppl you scouted weren't waiting long for Portal privileges? You scouted dozens of people, where are they?! Somehow it still brings my thinking back to ancient artisans, who'd spend years of their lives creating one thing, and with computers these days, that time creating can be cut back dramatically... hopefully a few of your flock will be posting new stuff soon!

Yeah hopefully they will post something sometime, but i know that some of them are still active in other sites, so the problem is the platform that NG uses.

It's more like scaffolding than a platform |: There's just enough missing from NG to make it unpalatable. It's the half assery I object to, because it impacts the few remaining positives of this site...

You take care now. And if Obama presses the Internet Kill switch, I'll invite you to be User-AM00000000001 on the new internet.

Well yeah, but i see it more of an integration thing, in other pages the same artist get some mid size following, that in here just doesn't happens, so you have to ask how much exposure is really getting an artist on this page when they don't draw porn, neither make flash, and their content is original (not fan art, parodies, etc).
Even what the really great guys manage to get here, is dwarfed by the following that other pages offer, but that's more a problem of NG in general not just of the Art Portal.

Happy anniversary! I truly wish you'd be happier about this. I might be coming to the meetup in April, will you be there?

It seems petty to quit my routine here, over a 'small' adjustment to the site... simply put, it wastes my time, and insults my intelligence. Why reverse something, with no warning, and leave no way for the user to change it back? It's the 21st century, for fucks sake! But to be fair, I noticed a solid trend in 'menu idiocy' in the late 90's, and it's been an uphill battle for intelligent design ever since....

Yeah, I gotta pick up some stuff from one member, and ride Krinkels and Mr. Fulp about the products I've invested in lol, so the odds are better than half I'll be there.

It would be a true hoot to meet you, hope you make it as well - I'll be the older, shorter, balder bloke, milling about... I do plan to roost on the roof for a while, weather permitting.

BRING GHANDI BACK

What makes you think I have him?

Happy 14 year 1 month anniversary.
(causeyouknowthatsdefinitelyathing)

Yeap, 14 years of happiness, and one month of misery!
(definatelyathing) it's like the aftermath of 2 '7 year itch'es

Well lets hope things get better. Not just on here. But for you and everyone else.

Butter makes it better
Yeah, let's hope fortune favors the bold, proactive types at least...

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