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)
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....
Gibb50
Happy NG Anniversary :)
VicariousE
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.