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EyeballEarth
Hobbyist digital artist here. I draw all kinds of things, from a realistic to manga styles and keep trying to improve and to eventually get there(where?).

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RIP Newgrounds general forums

Posted by EyeballEarth - March 23rd, 2023

So the General and Politics section of the forums were closed without warning recently(at least I didn't see any warning). Politics arguably isn't a great loss but shame about the general section.


One of the reasons I found this place so appealing is the old internet vibes it has including the BBS, especially the general section. I hope this isn't an indicator of further 'modernizing' the site and making it less and less interactive just when I settled in, like it's a sad and regrettable trend everywhere else on the internet. Discord, or any real time chat, isn't a viable replacement for forum discussion by virtue of being faster and things going out of sight much faster. It's sad to see forums become more and more obscure. At least the more specific art forums still exist, but this change makes me wary for the future.

Seems it's impossibe to have a properly moderated art site with decent forums in the 2020s for some strange reason.

I wonder how all these sites in the early 00s with forums managed what seems to be impossible today.

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Chdonga

People have been wanting Tom to delete the BBS since the 2010s. Lmfao

OviManic

@Chdonga The whole BBS? Why though?

EyeballEarth

idk exactly from what I've gathered there was some sort of drama and some people just spammed inane shit to up their post counts but I'm not sure if there's something else to it. The more specific parts of the BBS like art, programming etc remain active though.

VulpsVulps

Wait, what change?

EyeballEarth

The general/offtopic part of the forums have been closed. The more specific parts(the creation focused ones like art, programming etc) still remain though.

VulpsVulps

@EyeballEarth Thats... bad? I really couldn't tell cuz I'm not very active on the forums

EyeballEarth

Well it kinda sucks IMO since I like off topic forums where you can just discuss whatever, and because forums are generally becoming more rare and IMO they're superior to real time chat like discord for having in depth discussions. Plus there's the general trend of the internet becoming less interactive and sociable and cool old sites changing into something more modern and often utterly unrecognizeable so changes like that always make me wary.
Here's the news thread about it: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1522847

OviManic

@EyeballEarth I knew not the whole BBS got canned, just the two, but I didn’t understand why General as well. If it’s just what you explained, being spam n’ all, then that’s a bit of a bummer. I was more asking to Chdonga if people were sincere of wanting to see the entire forum gone from Newgrounds since 2010, I really want to know why.

Chdonga

@OviManic they wanted the entire BBS to be deleted because there's been persistent drama under thd hood since the early 2000s, and the BBS deletionists were pessimistic that the drama queens would just migrate to a different forum and use that one to spit bullshit.

Chdonga

Also I'm sure the staff was annoyed by the overabundance of people who'd spam the BBS then badger them to delete all their posts because they got owned in a fight

EyeballEarth

Well I don't know what the staff has to deal with and about behind the scenes drama, but if some bunch of people really shat up the general board so bad that the easiest solution was to nuke it then great job retards they can be proud of themselves.

OviManic

@Chdonga The early 2000s? The time I was frequent here as a visitor? I didn’t know there was a freakin’ forum board back then! I was only there to watch edgy Mario parodies!

Chdonga

@OviManic It was way worse in the early 2000s. A lotta people were at each other's throats and the mods were unrelenting dickheads.
Everyone mellowed out over the years but once in a while someone from the early BBS days would pop in to puff up their chest and act like a badass and it was ralways embarrassing to see. NG's trying to grow up and move forward but unfortunately some people can't accept that.
Hopefully getting rid of the BBS will push away people who are only here to start fights. My fear is that they'll migrate to Clubs & Crews or try to hijack threads from other boards, but maybe they'll just go the hell away. Only time will tell.

EyeballEarth

I guess well have to see, lets hope they won't just migrate from board to board like a horde of locusts.

OviManic

@Chdonga Oh yeah, I can see that! Not just because back then it was the most Wild West Internet at that time, but I’ve also witnessed some of the most NASTIEST content from here as well: some politically charged as well. It surpassed no-no words and wrong opinions, it was absolute VITRIOL! Oh, the chaos of it all!!… So it would make sense that people in the BBS around that time were a little… “unhinged”.

OviManic

@Chdonga Oh yeah, I can see that! Not just because back then, it was the most Wild West Internet at that time, but I’ve also witnessed some of the most NASTIEST content from here as well: some politically charged as well. It surpassed no-no words and wrong opinions, it was absolute VITRIOL! Oh, the chaos of it all!!… So it would make sense that people in the BBS around that time were a little… “unhinged” to say the least.

Chromysis

I never participated on forums that much since all I do on art sites is just post my art or update my commission status. So I guess I'm just neutral on the subject at hand.

VulpsVulps

@EyeballEarth Oh yeah I can see where you coming from... tho usually if I ever want to get off my chest some toomfoolery, I just hit the Four Chan... But even that feels too modernize, so I can understand the sentiment... Theres beauty in Ye Olde Ways.

Like that one internet saying goes "Maybe Nostalgia is the only home left"

VicariousE

First, thanks for coming to Newgrounds... don't know long I've been following you, but thanks for posting here!

Like the old farts below me said, turn-of-the century NG was the 'wild west', and the BBS even more so. I asked Tom about those missing/barely moderated years of the early BBS, and he said the apple hdd's containing that database, was possibly in his parent's attic... and shit, maybe they should stay there? I loved the 'vitriol' and wit, but at the same time, there were lil kids on the receiving end. As much as I'd like to re-read some of those omitted posts, I have to 'say no' to hateful words

Nowadays, there's just as much shit, but not enough wit. Of all the stats listed in an individual forum post, 'post count' shouldn't be there: kids love to grind stats.

EyeballEarth

Yeah now that I reminisce a bit the general forums weren't that great lately, seems like alot of people, maybe newcomers, maybe not, used them more like twitter and posted whatever brainfart made it to their keyboard instead of actually wanting to talk and discuss something. Still a shame, but maybe it helps to up the quality of the rest of the forums, we'll have to wait and see.

OviManic

@VicariousE @EyeballEarth Don’t tell me… You know what? That makes sense if we considered the Twitter exodus. How much you wanna bet the ratio of people who came here after leaving Twitter around that time did not know what a forum is compared to the ones that do? If I would hazard a guess, maybe 3:1?

Yeah, VicariousE. Especially after the Funkin’ wave, we have to be extra careful how we interact with this site. Like Tom in the 2000s, we were just a bunch of brats who didn’t know any better. But also, internet wasn’t as accessible at the time as well. Now that everyone and their dog are logged in to it, it’s now a social minefield for everyone!

VicariousE

True @ovimanic I hadn't considered the Twitter exodus. It bought great artists.... but also their followers :p

I can understand curbing conversations based on religion/politics. it just sucks that most of what was posted in General was crap. I mean, I took it seriously, even if it was a quick sentence or 2

OviManic

@VicariousE 99% of us agreed on the Politics forum: it didn’t need to be here, and it had every right to die.

But yeah, it was disappointing of what happened to General. Maybe the other forums in the BBS can get a better chance to shine.

BlankFacedRobot

It is a shame to see general go, though because of the topics discussed and spammed since I returned to Newgrounds almost a year ago, came here when the great Tumblr exodus happened (I didn't engage with the audience the word Tumblr brings to mind), I didn't engage much to at all there. I greatly value the ability to keep things private and to myself unless I choose to share it, and of course there's much I prefer to keep out of online spaces. I don't see why so many people these days get upset when they end up oversharing and it biting them in the tooter, when it's fairly simple to just not... but alas, those are personal opinions. Will still miss that occasional old internet vibe it would invoke as well however.

Politics though... yikes. Sometimes it was interesting to read the discourse, if it was a truly respectful and engaging conversation. Which was not the case MAJORITY of the time, and I only read it before I started speaking with an art community again. I like to get the consensus of those who are not like myself to be better informed about the world at large, and that place simply wasn't the way to get that.

VicariousE

@OviManic from what I've vicariously seen, seems about right. But then again, any time I posted there, mods had an issue. Been kicked/edited out of
FB due to my composition of words/intentions, as well as here.

Ah, an enlightened view - Tom is one decent mofo, and if we lose some forums, indeed, the others can shine!

Gives me some incentive to post thingos in his newsposts.... hate being old, but it does give me a challenge of humility and human posterity, as per discourse/discussion/penis

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