At 3/30/11 11:36 AM, Phantom wrote:

I'm looking at the Flash Portal and I see 11 submissions I haven't looked at and all I can think is "good or bad, most of them will pass anyway and all that will happen is that justice is lacking and I won't get any points either considering I'm the one voting fairly on this shit."

It is tragic all right, the Portal has actually become predictable with regard to whether a flash passes or not. Seems as if title alone is enough for the majority of the masses to make their minds up; if it's not "asjafj" or "test" or "my first flash XD" then it'll almost certainly pass. Brutal state of affairs, of course we'll all do our best to fly the flag for fair voting, but one has to wonder how much more we can do. I mean, all of us vote fairly on flashes in the Portal, and yet time and again flashes which I anticipate would get no more than a 1 from anyone here pass judgement. What's galling is that not only do they pass, often they make it with a score of 2.5+. I mean, wow.

At 3/30/11 11:36 AM, Phantom wrote: Fuck-it.

My thoughts exactly. Fuck the points; fuck the crappy flashes; fuck it all. I'm doing it for the sake of helping out a site that has provided me with damn near 10 years of unlimited free entertainment, and all the other details can go crawl up their mother's asses and die for all I care.

Have you ever seen a crappy flash again once it falls off the bottom of the portal page? I haven't since the last award thefts, which were months ago. And they always end up deleted within a matter of hours anyway. And as for points: You may not be getting as many as a stereotypical statwhore, but the essence of WHY we have the points system isn't lost on you. And no amount of points can compensate for losing sight of what they were originally for in the first place (especially since you've already gained every pragmatic reason to collect them anyway :P).

The whores are slaves to their own B/P count, their own opinions on what flashes they like are completely drowned out by the pathetic "need" to gain points... points that were supposed to help you voice your opinions on which flashes you like more clearly. The irony of it all is ridiculous.

So screw it. I'm doing it because this is MY way of giving something back to the site. I've already failed miserably at making flashes, audio and art, so I'm damned if I'm giving up the one portal-related thing I can still do because of some shitheads who can't see past some numbers on a webpage that has little to no bearing on their real lives. If it deserves a zero, it's gonna get one, even if I know full well it'll pass anyway.

Whether or not it "will pass anyway" never was the main issue here, and it never will me for me. That's the mentality of the very statwhores who are the major part of the problem, and I will have no part in it. Not now, not ever.

I hear you, Phantom.

The flaw with all of the crap passing is the way the voting system is designed. However, with a few minor tweaks, we may be able to get Newgrounds back on balance:

1) The first 500 flashes a user votes on will count toward experience, but only be rated at 0.5 votes. Also, anonymous votes (not signed in) will be treated the same way.
Reasoning: prevent a bunch of new users to create accounts and immediately influence the votes

2) Users below a certain level (Portal security) can only vote on a limited number of flashes a day (20? 30?) - and if the vote is anonymous, limit by IP address

Reasoning: Same as before. You need to earn the right to vote.

3) You must have a bronze whistle or better for the vote multiplier to count.
Reasoning: Show that you know how to be a balanced user - if you have a normal or garbage whistle, you're really not trying.

4) If an entry is blammed, anyone who voted to protect it LOSES a protection point (just like someone who blows a whistle and shouldn't have)
Reasoning: The stat-whores who upvote the crap aren't being penalized when it is ultimately deleted by Newgrounds. Now you have to be careful.

5) Users less than a certain level (Private?) can only vote once on a flash, period. Same if voting anonymously - limit by IP address

Reasoning: You need to earn the right to have more weight in voting. New accounts will find it harder to up-vote a flash after it passes. Anonymous votes will also weigh less.

6) If a flash passes protection with a score of 1.5 or less, it should be monitored for additional votes, for a period of time ( a week or two?) and if it drops below 1.0, it should be auto-blammed.

Reasoning: This will give ALL Newgrounds users (especially those in the NGPD and the Barracks) time to properly evaluate flashes that may have passed while they were sleeping, and help remove the crap after the fact.

These changes may not prevent older accounts from being stat-whores, but the ability to do a post-pass blam and the risk of losing protection points afterwards will make it harder for them to be successful. Also, sweeping purges from the Fulps will reward the blammers and penalize the upvoters.

Just my opinion - but these are not hard to implement - all the data is in each user profile now; the voting code just has to be made "more aware" of the situation of the voter.

Maybe the Fulps will hear us out - and help us out.

Meanwhile, don't lose heart - it's always darkest before the dawn!

*Salutes*

At 3/30/11 01:10 PM, byteslinger wrote: 1) The first 500 flashes a user votes on will count toward experience, but only be rated at 0.5 votes. Also, anonymous votes (not signed in) will be treated the same way.
2) Users below a certain level (Portal security) can only vote on a limited number of flashes a day (20? 30?) - and if the vote is anonymous, limit by IP address

Interesting, I could see that working quite well, it'd act as a sort of grace period for the genuine newbies to learn the ropes of fair voting, while filtering out undesirable mass voters.

3) You must have a bronze whistle or better for the vote multiplier to count.

This again is a good idea in principle for people with Garbage whistles, however I just wonder for Normal whistle holders if it might create an issue with overflagging. Lets say I, a fairly new NG user, like the idea of B/Ping and am motivated to try and rank up so that my vote is worth more. However, to achieve this, I need a better whistle. So I go on review hunts, and perhaps become so wrapped up in trying to better my status I flag indiscriminately. Ok, I will be ultimately punished with a Garbage whistle, but still, if enough others pick up on them, a Review mod will have to sift through them. Now multiply my scenario by the number of new Portal voters who join Newgrounds daily.

I might be slightly oversimplifying things or being paranoid, I just wouldn't want to see a sort of decentralised Rage's Thread scenario where people are so focused on increasing their whistle status they let it get in the way of better judgement.

4) If an entry is blammed, anyone who voted to protect it LOSES a protection point (just like someone who blows a whistle and shouldn't have)

I'm afraid I've got to disagree with you to a point on this one byte. Not that it's a poor idea in principle; if it stops savewhoring of spam then great. However I envisage a problem with the borderline flashes, where based purely on someone's judgement of a fair vote, honest voters might be unfairly punished. I'd be dismayed to give a 2 to a new artist who showed enough potential to warrant a pass in my estimation, only for enough of the voting populace to disagree and blam it. You can't legislate for people's opinions; one's trash is another's treasure, so to speak.

I did suggest a similar punishment system before but only for usage of the "extreme" votes 0 and 5. 5 should be reserved for something which is truely wonderful, a shoe-in Weekly 1st based on superb all-round quality. One of the aforementioned borderline flashes would never warrant a 5 as far as I'm concerned. Just my two cents on the matter.

5) Users less than a certain level (Private?) can only vote once on a flash, period. Same if voting anonymously - limit by IP address

Not sure exactly how this would help the passing issue, however it would be great to curb award stealing. Though by extension I have to ask byte: how often do you, a top-ranking B/Per, feel the need to vote on a flash more than once anyway? I just wonder if it might be an idea worth extending to all users, make a vote like a review; a one off seal of approval or dismay that sticks.

6) If a flash passes protection with a score of 1.5 or less, it should be monitored for additional votes, for a period of time ( a week or two?) and if it drops below 1.0, it should be auto-blammed.

I've always been an advocate of flashes being able to be blammed post-judgement if they fall below a certain threshold. It could be a knockout blow for a lot of spam, after all with the spectre of deletion hovering why bother? Might also be an idea to tie this in with the punishment for giving it a high score as outlined above.

Meanwhile, don't lose heart - it's always darkest before the dawn!

*Salutes*

*salutes*

At 3/30/11 04:36 PM, SCTE3 wrote:

Kind of sad, they have incredible intros but then it turns to be an utter crap piece which is disappointing to me.

Reminds me of the Dailytoons. There were a few Dailytoons last year that had an incredible 2 minute into (Or something like that. Might have even been 3 minutes), and when you finally got to the menu, it was a couple of flash loops that last about 5 seconds each.

Wasted effort. But alas, they're spammers. Why bother to do anything constructive when you can simply annoy people?

2 stolen flashes:

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Link:

http://www.flasharcade.com/arcade-games/
spongebob-delivery-dilemma-game.html

(not original)

Original author: Nickelodeon

Date submitted: 12/07/2007

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Link:

http://flashgamesite.com/play1486game.ht ml

(not original)

Original author: Nickelodeon

Date submitted: (somewhere around in 07' i'm guessing)

I'm pretty sure both of these submissions are stolen since both of these flashes were uploaded sometime around 07' (i'm guessing) and if you look at the sign-up date of the author you'll see that it's pretty obvious to tell. Both of these flashes were made by Nickelodeon though when I went and google'd the games, the original links weren't working for me. It just directs me to the Nickelodeon.co.uk homepage...

Anyways here are the links if these are working for you guys:

www.nick.com/games/sb_delivery.html

www.spongebob.nick.com/games/spongeseek.
html

Well, it's almost April Fools Day. Just wondering what kind of silliness the Fulps have in store for us this time...Oh, wait. I know the PERFECT joke - NOTHING PASSES TODAY! Blams only...

Nahh.. that's not a joke - but it is a fantasy of mine (one of the few that do NOT include mechanical restraints, a tub of warm chocolate sauce, latex underwear, a bull whip, ceiling mounted block-and-tackle, and a very well endowed midget named Tripod).

(you can stop drooling now, Cobra!)

We shall see.

And what's NOT a joke - the Roster changes are final, and those of you who asked to be kept on active duty, but have NOT shown ANY activity recently better clean up those blam-rifles and keep in touch on the forums. Look alive, people! We have work to do, and I'm getting too old to be dealing with slackers (you know who you are.) Hell, on the NGPD if you don't post for a couple of weeks, they'll drop you on the spot. We want you here, and we want to grow and make a difference on the Portal.

In a nutshell: We need soldiers, not statues...

And I need a chocolate fix...

That is all.

*Salutes*

Yeah seeming as though I try to help out as much as I can in the portal I never seem to have much to say around these halls. But will do my part and pop in here and there and show that i'm still active and above all still alive lol.

At 4/1/11 09:05 AM, Pandamir wrote: Yeah seeming as though I try to help out as much as I can in the portal I never seem to have much to say around these halls. But will do my part and pop in here and there and show that i'm still active and above all still alive lol.

Which brings to mind one of my favorite songs....This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: HUGE SUCCESS.
It's hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Aperture Science
We do what we must
because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.
But there's no sense crying over every mistake.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
And the Science gets done.
And you make a neat gun.
For the people who are still alive...
BTW, Portal II will be released in the next few months. I can't wait. (I am such a geekette!)

At 3/31/11 11:49 PM, byteslinger wrote: (you can stop drooling now, Cobra!)

Can I stop trying to stab my mind's eye out now, too? >_<

And what's NOT a joke - the Roster changes are final, and those of you who asked to be kept on active duty, but have NOT shown ANY activity recently better clean up those blam-rifles and keep in touch on the forums. Look alive, people! We have work to do, and I'm getting too old to be dealing with slackers (you know who you are.) Hell, on the NGPD if you don't post for a couple of weeks, they'll drop you on the spot. We want you here, and we want to grow and make a difference on the Portal.

I do feel the need to point out that the surge of activity from half the memberlist, when the roster PM was sent out, has well and truly died. Already. There were like 6 or 7 members who came back when their membership was on the line... for about 2 weeks.

I was gonna track who's fucked off already, but now we've got the awesome new grading gadget to play with, I don't think I need to. YAY 4 LAZINESS!

And I need a chocolate fix...

I will not spam chocolate pictures... I will NOT spam chocolate pictures... !!!!

Hi, Lizz! Good to see you again!

Yes, I did tweak the roster with "grades" - it helps each of us see how active we are compared to a general average. The two elements graded are B/P points and posts per month in the EGB forum on Newgrounds. A rating of "C" is average - For B/P, you're getting at least 5 per day, and for the EGB forum, you've posted at least once a week. A "D" means you're below that average, and an "F" means you had zero activity. A "B" is better than average, and "A" means you're really leading (at least 1 post per day, and over 40 B/P per day average).

Some people (like yours truly) tend to B/P more and post less, and others reverse that. What we're trying to see is from month to month to month who is generally active - and who needs a wake-up call. There are no awards for the grading, except for knowing that if you get a "C" or better in both elements, it means you're pulling your weight in the Barracks.

Hope that clears things up!

*Salutes*

Stolen flash:

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Original link:

http://slideme.org/en/application/wonder shmup

Original author: Xe-Media

Date submitted: January 31, 2011

This game is originally made for the Android phone.

The frame is all messed up and if it was his game then at leasthe'd remember how to spell the title right. Also, it doesn't show that he is affiliated with the actual group who made the game in either his page nor the e-mail validation info. So yeah, I call stolen on this one.

At 4/1/11 03:46 PM, Lizzardis wrote: 15) 06,701 | 1,338 | 43.16 | A | +000.00 | Tycrane Staff Sergeant +12 | --- | B

I don't know how I've gotten a B on my first roster list update, must've been frequently posting here though not enough over at the official EGB forums. Anyways, that's still pretty good on my books seeing as I'm a part time medal hunter in the day and part time town watcher at night, I barely have any time to post in the actual EGB forums.

Top 5 Gainers::
Jolly - 1,672
byteslinger - 1,584
Coop - 1,455
Tycrane - 1,338
Cootie - 1,242

Woah, didn't expect to be on the top 5 gainers list in my first roster appearance. Though it seems that not much people have been B/Ping lately due to the lack of activity or stuff happening IRL.

And wow, nice going Jolly. :P

Wee! RogerBK is BACK!! Teehee!

Well, as you guys may know, I went to Ozzy Osbourne's show, it was completely ultra megra super duber kick ass. fucking hell, when he played Mr. Crowley, people went crazy. I was one of them :3

And, it's not an April Fool's prank, it's true!

SO, I see the Barracks have been updated, and A LOT of people were discharged :( . But it's nice to see that a lot of people ranked up (specially me, levelling 14 ranks! Wee) and see that all those people are together protecting the Portal. Yeah!

Also, did you guys remembered my Birthday?? March 29th!! Oh, come on guys, I tought you loved me!

BTW, what the hell is this year's prank?? I can't find it!! lol

*Salutes!*

At 4/1/11 05:00 PM, byteslinger wrote: Yes, I did tweak the roster with "grades" - it helps each of us see how active we are compared to a general average. The two elements graded are B/P points and posts per month in the EGB forum on Newgrounds. A rating of "C" is average - For B/P, you're getting at least 5 per day, and for the EGB forum, you've posted at least once a week. A "D" means you're below that average, and an "F" means you had zero activity. A "B" is better than average, and "A" means you're really leading (at least 1 post per day, and over 40 B/P per day average).

Interesting new system you put in place there. Glad to see no one has an "A" grade, that would probably mean some of you have way too much time on your hands and need to get a real life.

I've been relaxing lately, enjoying my last term. I am finally about to get my bachelor's degree here in June, and I currently only have school on Tue and Thu. This spring should be easy as pie for me.

Thought I'd pop in and say hello! Thanks for the roster Lizz as always, I know you go out of your way to get it done, it's much appreciated. Sad to see the ranks thin out so much though. Oh well big movement in placement for me lol!

At 4/1/11 07:31 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote: Interesting new system you put in place there. Glad to see no one has an "A" grade, that would probably mean some of you have way too much time on your hands and need to get a real life.

I would have gotten an A two, three times over during my best days. ;-)

Of course, that was when the Portal was much more bountiful and less...yeah.

It is a real milestone for me to be Master Sergeant at last it has taken me long enough. I did not think I would get in time for the monthly Roster ,but I did so this is great stuff. I have got 7000k b/p really an huge big deal to me. But I like the new grading I think C fits with my posting and my b/p rate is low still not to much of a shock there. Thanks for the Roster Lizzardis and the April's fools day joke this year seems to be a puzzle I miss the funny jokes of the previous years. China or Kevin Bacon was funny. My favorite was Chinagrounds from 2009.

At 4/1/11 07:58 PM, SlashFirestorm wrote: I would have gotten an A two, three times over during my best days. ;-)
Of course, that was when the Portal was much more bountiful and less...yeah.

Yep, like in the olden days of star pace where all that effort and lost sleep would result in a beautiful and ever-lasting mention of the star-pace list.

Which I lost the link too many years ago and haven't bothered to find it.

At 4/1/11 07:58 PM, SlashFirestorm wrote: I would have gotten an A two, three times over during my best days. ;-)
Of course, that was when the Portal was much more bountiful and less...yeah.

Is that an admittance to wasting too much time on Newgrounds? lol

I can't even push myself to visiting this website more than two three times a day. Too many other things to do.

At 4/2/11 03:23 PM, SpiffyMasta wrote: Is that an admittance to wasting too much time on Newgrounds? lol

Well let me put it this way. At my peak, a day where I got less than 100+ B/P was a bad day for me. 120 was fairly normal. 150 was not terribly unusual.

So yeah, I spent an absurd amount of time on the Portal. Back then it was actually fun rather than frustrating.

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Isn't this just the original Annoying Orange, ripped from YouTube and cropped poorly to fit NG?

Yeah. Source here.

STOLEN FLASH

Stolen:

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Original:

• 

  Madness interactive

  by max-abernethy

  An extensive game based on the Madness Combat animations by Krinkels

  Game

  15,835,243 Views

  (Ages 13+)

Stolen from... Hell, he stole Madness Interactive?? FUCKING HELL, this passed? Fucking statwhores.

Also, it comes with some abusive revs in the package :D

At 4/1/11 03:46 PM, Lizzardis wrote: Barracks Roster as of April 1st, 2011:

yep the best day to past it XD

The List:
No. B/P / Gain / Average / Level / Change / Username / Rank / Posts / Level

still trying to assimilate that...

01) 89,112 | 1,455 | 46.94 | A | +004.75 | Coop Sup. Commander | --- | C
02) 80,268 | 0,793 | 25.58 | B | --015.46 | Phantom Sup. Commander | --- | C
03) 71,141 | 1,584 | 51.10 | A | +002.39 | byteslinger Sup. Commander | --- | B
04) 50,902 | 0,002 | 00.06 | D | --080.00 | EagleRock Sup. Commander | --- | F
05) 49,720 | 0,116 | 03.74 | D | --061.59 | Little-Rena Sup. Commander | --- | D
06) 39,291 | 0,185 | 05.97 | C | +002.78 | aldlv Sup. Commander | --- | D

#6 and it is impossible to get better, and look like need to post more... ok i will try
anyway i really like this idea =)

Top gainers, repeat appearances::
byteslinger (27)
Coop (26)

wow... i mean... wooowww!!

i other notes... the I am number 4 movie was cool, i was expecting more... but it was ok

Stolen Flash Alert

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Original Link:

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/55 7900

True Author: Stone-Steven; 12/30/2010

Breakdown: Basically the whole flash was ripped from Stone-Steven and remixed in a choppy fashion with some music added to it, I'm pretty sure this qualifies as stolen as the guy who submitted it never asked Steven's permission or cited his work.

Hope you guys don't mind if I report here, until things settle on the NGPD thread.

• 

  by <deleted>

  Under Judgment

  (Everyone)

Description:

"*READ BEFORE WATCHING*

I'm not the original author of this vídeo, this is a re-upload of a YouTube vídeo to Newgrounds.
Original author: SuperMario9080 (YouTuber)

Enjoy!

YouTube vídeo : http://www.youtube.com/wa tch?v=5ke_0UXKxW0
"

At 4/2/11 10:04 PM, BigMike47 wrote: Stolen Flash Alert

...How dumb do you have to be to upload a video-rip of a frontpaged flash? : /

Hope you guys don't mind if I report here, until things settle on the NGPD thread.

Ahh, don't worry about it. If anything, I'd report it exactly because of what's happened. Giving everyone a reminder of what the thread is largely about can't be bad for the thread. It can only move things back towards how they should be. Regardless of who's to blame or what exactly happened, dwelling on it is pointless, so if you want my advice, don't let things like this stop you from reporting stuff either in the NGPD or the EGB (should this place fuck up, which isn't as impossible as some of the members here would have the NGPD believe). The quicker you resume normal service, the better, so what are you waiting for? ;)

At 4/2/11 10:15 PM, Jolly wrote: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/56 6465
Description:
"*READ BEFORE WATCHING*

I'm not the original author of this vídeo, this is a re-upload of a YouTube vídeo to Newgrounds.
Original author: SuperMario9080 (YouTuber)

Nice work! Lmao you beat me to this one by three seconds (according to our post times), also thanks for the advice SheizenHammer, will do :P.

Hmm, did you guys notice that there's a growing number of spam and hentai flashes? And most of them have a terrible bad quality,

I hope there's somebody here to help me keeping those flashes out of the portal...

Specially YOU Byteslinger.

Anyway, it seems there's a new spam group (or it's an old one and I don't know... lol), called The Lucky Stars - [L*] - and they're submitting crappy flashes with (amazing) Pink Floyd songs. It feels bad to vote 0, those songs are too good to be blammed, lol.

Anyway, I hope this anormal activity fade away soon. :D

At 4/2/11 11:38 PM, RogerBK wrote: Hmm, did you guys notice that there's a growing number of spam and hentai flashes? And most of them have a terrible bad quality,

No shit, detective Holmes.

Anyway, it seems there's a new spam group (or it's an old one and I don't know... lol), called The Lucky Stars - [L*] - and they're submitting crappy flashes with (amazing) Pink Floyd songs. It feels bad to vote 0, those songs are too good to be blammed, lol.

First time I ever truly wanted someone to be prosecuted for copyright infringement.

Oh yeah... today's gonna be a good day, I'm sure.

Seriously, I don't get why people stick "It's my first flash" in the comments. I mean, it's as if they're advertising the fact that it's most likely crap before you even make your own mind up on it.

Still, it is funny when this happens.