While Jim and Josh have been occupied by drawn-out projects, sneaky bugs have still found a way to introduce themselves into the site.

Get Logged Out?

It appears a bunch of people have gotten logged out of their accounts. At first we thought the common thread was Chrome for Android, then just Chrome in general but now we have a report from Pingu who was using Firefox.

If you’ve recently been logged out of NG unexpectedly, please reply to this post letting us know that it happened. Include what day it happened, your operating system, browser and browser version if possible. Do you recall what you were doing on NG when it happened? Also let us know if you get logged out more than once and/or if you’ve been logged out from other sites as well.

We're especially curious to hear if anyone experienced this as early as June 12th (or earlier).

NordVPN Update

On June 10th I made a post about how NordVPN is breaking NG.

Lots of people have been emailing support to say the site is completely broken and all of them have been able to fix it by turning off NordVPN’s web protection, which is blocking our javascript at https://js.ngfiles.com/ng_publish.js.

I’ve been going back and forth with NordVPN and they say they don’t see it blocking anything on their end and they need a screenshot of the error message from a user where it’s being blocked. I’ve been asking people for screenshots but so far no one has sent me one, I don’t think it’s obvious where to find the specific error message, as most people are simply turning off Web Protection and getting on with their day.

If you’re using NordVPN and have experienced NG being broken, if you can find a specific screen that says what is being blocked, please post the screenshot here or email it to tom AT newgrounds.com. This problem is at a standstill until a screenshot is produced.

In the meantime, @YendorNG has recommended Proton VPN.

General Reminder

I’d like to take a moment to remind everyone that NG is an independent website with no outside shareholders or private equity groups waiting to cash in.

We don’t build secret consumer profiles about you and we don’t sell or share your information. We aren’t partnering with AI companies to train on your data.

Newgrounds is nearly ad-free and our goal is to be fully funded by Supporters, with zero ads. To be frank, our only remaining ads are on adult movies and games and I hate having to explain that to people. You would be doing me a huge personal favor if I could just tell people “we’re funded by Supporters!” I’d also like to stop telling people we operate at a loss and would love to tell people we distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars to artists each month but baby steps.

Read up on the NG history if you’d like to know more.

Upcoming Events and Collabs

Treasure Hunt winners haven't been determined yet but FutureCopLGF has made a nice write-up highlighting some of his favorites!

June 17th - Art Inspired Music Contest deadline.

June 22nd - Sonic Shorts 1000 deadline.

June 27th - Short Short Fest entry deadline.

June 28th - Pride Month Art Collab deadline.

June 28th - Corporate Art Style Collab deadline.

June 28th - Too Many Games Meetup in Oaks, PA.

July 1st - Diokophobia Charity Art Contest deadline.

July 7th - Concert of Love deadline.

July 11th - Christmas in July Collab deadline.

July 14th - Wallpaper 2.0 Collab deadline.

July 20th - Five Nights at Freddy's Collab deadline.

July 20th - Subspace Emissary Art Collab deadline.

July 26th - NG Summer Smash Meetup in Wildwood, NJ.

July 28th - Summer Art Collab deadline.

July 30th - The Ocean Mean Audio Collab deadline.

July 31st - Blind World Collab writing sign-up deadline.

August - Midsummer Rumble month-long art event.

August 3rd - Short Short Fest at Marty Magee's in Prospect Park, PA - Open for Submissions!

August 9th - Short Short Fest at Capri Drive-In in Coldwater, MI - Open for Submissions!

August 15th - Clock Day

August 17th - NG Melbourne Meetup

August 23rd - Ninja Collab deadline.

August 26th - Robot Day

September 12th - Mexican Independence Day Collab deadline.

September 22nd - Madness Day

October 12st - Brainrot Scam Ad Collab deadline.

November 1st - Nintendo DS Collab deadline.

November 1st - the Behemoth 20th Animation Collab deadline.

November 4th - Pokemon Gijinka Collab application deadline.

Lucky me, because I never got logged out automatically.

There have been points where I have been frequently logged off on Newgrounds; however, I’ve discovered something similar to the Chrome/Android thing where my IPad is losing more and more of the capability to hold cookies on Safari. Even using other apps like YouTube or Twitter could log me off automatically.

Well i hope that "NordVPN" It's not a scam

I was wondering what that was! It happened to me on MacOS Chrome (Version 124.0.6367.201)

Hey, I would like to say I deeply appreciate the work you, Jim, and Josh put into keeping the site operational. I know we are all really thankful, and I can imagine that sometimes this gratitude is not expressed properly I can come across as obnoxious, please know that I am extremely grateful. You are genuine people for not selling our information, not partnering with AI companies, and for being an independent without any of these scumbag shareholders and private equity groups!

What you do is very hard, with new problems always arising, and your abilities to find solutions. I really respect the strength and resilience you show. The appreciation you have for people's expressions is something I feel is undervalued in today's fast-paced landscape.

You uphold genuineness.

I confirm disconnection issues using Chrome on Android. It has happened to me several times

I was logged off on all my devices, one of which was Chrome on Windows 10.

I only have my phone's info right now. Hope it helps.

Android version 9 / Chrome version 126.0.6478.71

Well maybe I Will try use NordVPN too if that app or software it could be work and I hope IT'S not much money

I got logged out of mobile today. Firefox for iOS (127.0, 42448), iOS 17.5.1. Might just have been due to renew my login, but it didn't seem to have dumped any of my other logged in tabs.

Desktop login has not been an issue. Also Firefox 127.0.

god bless i dont use this nordvpn shit

Already reported this in the other forum, but not with the info requested here, so,

It happened on 06/19/24 in the morning. The day before I

was signed in like normal, but when I went to navigate from my home page, I noticed I was signed out unexpectedly.

OS - Android (Version 11)

Browser is Brave 1.64.113, Chromium 123.0.6312.86

I don't use Nord, in case that will be useful to know.

I was only logged out once so far, and no, I wasn't logged out anywhere except on Newgrounds.

I hope I didn't miss any info out, and

thanks for looking into this guys! :)

I appreciate all your efforts to make this an awesome place !

Fortunately my Newgrounds account never logs out automatically, so I hope there are no bugs.

I got logged out on my Laptop today. My operating system is Windows, preferred browser is Firefox, I think it's the latest version, updated very recently. I logged back in this morning and haven't been logged out since. I didn't get logged out on my phone though. It's a Samsung Android and I'm using the basic bitch Samsung Browser. Again I think it's the latest version.

I remember at the time the NordVPN stuff started, for a couple of days I couldn't view the Art Portal on my android. The thumbnails would overlap each other and it was just unusable. Thankfully it's all fine now. I'm not using NordVPN on any of my devices.

I have little knowledge to offer, but I hope this helps.

I got logged out earlier today. Had checked the site a few times then just randomly was logged out the next time I visited.

My experience was slightly worse. I got logged out yesterday, June 19. I had just opened a tab for the site on Chrome. I then noticed I was logged out, and I literally couldn't sign back in for a whole day because my account was still somehow connected to a dead email. So I was efficiently locked out for a while.

I recall being logged out on rare occasions during my 1.5 years here, but always managed to log back in just by clicking "Login".

Can't remember exact dates or what I was doing (from memory, it seemed pretty random), but I do know I was using Firefox on Windows for every single instance.

Taking a shot in the dark, its probably just site sessions getting too long and/or the servers briefly forgetting I'm still logged in.

Good call, Yendor.

A quite important reminder IMO - this is pure gut instinct, but I feel a drastic sea change coming for the 'Net - one which will almost certainly be caused by the shareholders and equity groups you mentioned.

As a cheeky aside, it also means your user's data is more secure with you than with anyone else.

What's the best way to protect your users' private information? Don't collect it in the first place.

Part of me says you can get away with showing adverts produced by paying Supporters in lieu of third-party ads, but I won't blame you for sticking to your guns and refusing to go that route. You've got more integrity than I do, that's for sure.

I got logged out of this account on Safari, on my iPhone 8 on iOS16.6.

However, on desktop (Win10) on Chrome I didn’t get logged out BUT on the same desktop my alt (Sssh! No bans plz!) did get logged out on Firefox. On my phone now, so I don’t know the versions of the desktop browsers, but I’d imagine they’re both the latest as browsers auto update these days.

EDIT: Both log outs happened a few hours ago. Was very lucky that this account wasn’t logged out on desktop, no longer had access to the email for 2FA!

It logged me out today at around 9:20 PM UTC, Firefox 127.0.1 (64-bit), Windows 10

How far away would NG be from being fully supporter-funded? Even if it's like 1% of rhe way there, or if you cant sgare the numbers, even having an annual goal to increase the backer count each year could work for incwntivising people to back. Some kinda graspable statistic.

Idk when I got logged out as It happened on my PC during 2 weeks I was away.

Noticed at 22:20 on 20/06/24, from firefox

Intrestingly, I have remained signed in on Chrome on my phone.

We used to show goals and progress but it didn't help, I think it actually did the opposite, where seeing progress actually made people get depressed and give up. There's a long ways to go, there are enough people here to make it happen but there will have to be a larger incentive system in the future and we have a list of things we plan to try. Posts like the one I made today never really move the needle either so I'm not sure why I even bring it up, I just like to remind people once in a while in case it helps.

As far as a general status update, we're at 8,451 supporters at the moment, which is keeping the hosting going. I'd like to find a way to double that.

I wouldn't expect it this year!

i thought it was logged out by myself but suggesting by the fact that i am using newgrounds on chrome make it fascinating and hilarious at the same time because it's also the same company made chrome also owns youtube.

Well, that's Google logic for ya

I got logged out June 19th pretty late at night while I was out of tab, I use Firefox Developer Edition 128.0b3 on Windows 10. Lowkey thought I got hacked at first! I also got logged out on my Mobile Browser but I'm not sure how to find info on that, Its an android if that helps!

Got logged out of NG on Safari (iPhone SE [newer SE, not the older one lol] running iOS 17.4.1); don't remember if that was this morning or last night but it was within 24 hrs. Also got logged out at some point yesterday on my PC, HP laptop running Windows 10; browser is Google Chrome 126.0.6478.61. Glad to know it wasn't just me lol. Hope that information helps!

My NG art wall summer especial

I did some quick math, and that puts income from Supporters at $25,353-42,255 per month (a very ballpark estimate which assumes everyone's a monthly supporter coughing up $3-5)

I'll admit, I don't have any real ideas on how to double Supporter count - that problem could end up solving itself if/when another art site suffers a Tumblr-style exodus, but I wouldn't count on luck as a business strategy.

Best idea I've got for boosting site income would be to resurrect the store as a purely digital enterprise.

Beyond directly putting more cash in your pocket, it would also give artists the opportunity to financially support themselves via NG.

I got logged out on Chrome (Windows 10). It might have happened yesterday and only occurred once. I was just going on the website sometime in the morning and it showed that I wasn't logged in

Last month came in at $23k, something to keep in mind is that a $3 monthly Supporter is $2.50 after fees, while a yearly supporter is $2 per month after fees. A good number are single month or single year, which is why our total active supporters has been pretty static since late 2022, the last time monthly prizes were increased... The more supporters we have, the more entropy there is with supporters expiring each day.

There's one feature I'm excited to try, hard to say the impact it will have but I think it will give us a boost. Been keeping it secret for now, no clue how soon it will actually happen with all the other stuff going on.

Digital goods can be tempting... The last run at a store left me not wanting to revisit a store though. I don't have a lot of faith in it doing real numbers.