At 12/23/10 11:02 AM, Ronald-McDonald-LoL wrote:You know whats dumber still?
People passing a television clip through the Newgrounds Portal.
Yes, it has become far too easy nowadays to acquire a .swf or .fla off the net and want to just dump it onto the Portal, as if we're some kind of generic file hosting service. I would rather have the whole thing shut down than let the rest of the place fall into such a mess and let the integrity of our Portal be reduced to that state. I hope the admins give out a wide shout-out to promote not just original content, but new rules and restrictions, as well as punishments for failing to adhere to the standards that are meant to keep the Portal a stable ecosystem.
The fact that submitting such things is a violation of the portal guidelines is also very disappointing - perhaps the rules should be posted not just in the submission page, but in the judgment phase of a flash, so viewers are more educated on what is acceptable and what is not. This is because I feel many users don't know what's okay and what isn't, as the whistle guidelines are quite vague.
At 12/23/10 11:06 AM, Sheizenhammer wrote: I swear, we REALLY need some portal mods here. Or at least a better whistle system for flashes. I mean, it probably won't even be dealt with once I PM Wade either, since I'm not a mod or well-known flash artist (or any other type of person who'd stand out in the list of PMs Wade gets).
I outlined something like this a while ago, but looking back at it, I don't think it will happen or that it will be necessary. The Portal mods itself through users - users who have been given the responsibility to use discriminate judgment upon all movies within the portal to ensure its health and upkeep. It has worked for a long time, but after the troubles in the past year, it seems that users are more cautious, yet being the statwhores that they are, they still have to vote on things - this results in the erroneous practice of 'blind voting', and why we sometimes see stolen or otherwise outright garbage getting through.
The system we have now may have been acceptable in 2000, when there were less users and generally harsher critics, but the system today is antiquated and further stagnated now that other media social sharing sites have been reduced to a scale of quality that is either "like" or not. Newgrounds has always had a standard of quality, a voting scale that is fair and promotes an active and vigilant community of Flash enthusiasts and authors. This standard of quality is blemished by ignorant users who only care about their B/P because it will give them more power to misuse for their own needs - as if leveling up here is some kind of game.
However, Portal Mods are not necessary despite the Portal being in an unruly state in recent times. Aside from its users, only admins can mod the Portal, having the power to remove anything they see unfit - check the obituaries from the this week and tell me what you see. The NGPD, DoD, and EGB are the closest thing the Portal has to actual moderators, as we have a sense of duty and determined community of individuals who care about the kinds of things that go through the Portal. If we are dissatisfied with the current state, then we must be doing a bad job.
We should recruit more members across Newgrounds' Flash Portal security branches, as membership is dwindling and too small to tackle such a large task of maintaining the integrity of the Flash Portal. Things look dire, but not impossible to amend with the proper amount of service. The Fulps may be the owners of the site and are now family men with such responsibilities to maintain, but I don't think there is any reason that a few regular user such ourselves and the other security branches shouldn't be able to dedicate to the task of keeping Tom's 'first baby' (the Flash Portal) healthy.
Our criteria is to be tough, but fair. Recent times may call for us to be more vigilant than some are comfortable with, but that is what comes with the responsibility of wearing the badge here.
Take care of yourself.
