YoinK 2010-12-01 02:50:35

i'm a die hard newgrounder.. and i think every redesign you've done has made the site funner to look at. facebook is kinda boring.. so i had to add a skin to make it look spiffier. :)

Sheizenhammer 2010-12-01 04:32:45

This isn't really a typical social networking site, so don't worry about it.

Rhete 2010-12-01 09:02:32

What's wrong with being a gallery? To me Newgrounds has always been a place to display the things that you've made, and the social element, quite honestly, has been a bit of a joke. Which does a better job paying the bills, the few thousand or so worthless ingrates in the general forum, or a popular game like Happy Wheels or Super Mario Crossover getting millions of views from non NG regulars.

You shouldn't be trying to compete with Facebook/Twitter etc as a social site. You should be using those sites to your advantage by creating a culture where people regularly post content they've seen on Newgrounds there and help bring in new viewers. If anything on the site is outdated, it's the "Share this" link below every flash submission which still does not contain facebook/twitter links for some reason.

Newgrounds is much closer to Youtube in what it does. And going back to the layout issue, every time youtube changes something and becomes more and more minimalistic, I think it gets uglier and uglier. That said, I still use youtube, because they have all the content, and content is king. There's too much competition out there to pointlessly affiliate yourself with one site. Newgrounds is in a weird position because compared to other flash websites, there is way way more content here, but the site seems to get less traffic anyways. If anything I think your main priority should be upgrading the search tools, and updating the front page more often. Every day there are around 100 new things posted on newgrounds, but only a few get any real exposure and the rest just fall off the top 50 recent list and into oblivion. I cringe every weekend where the frontpage doesn't get updated for a few days and more and more movies get lost in the shuffle. A more often updated frontpage would hopefully create new mindset in people that Newgrounds is THE site to visit every single day for the absolutely newest stuff.

Sorry if this got a little long and unfocused.

PsychoGoldfish 2010-12-01 12:17:32

There is always room for a happy mesh of design and functionality. I think what the 'rules' are really pointing at is the design should be simple to allow for scalability and functionality.

If you look at what makes other social sites work, they aren't locked down by overkill css/template that prevent things from populating a page easily and dynamically. Their loose design makes it super easy for them to run new applications that keep their "party" alive.

I can say, in good confidence, the redesign will also allow for that ease of implementation with new features and applications and will not make navigation of the site a burden on anyone.

A lot of the people making up these rules are from sites that started with barely any budget and no access to quality designers. The succeeded with what they had and it has been assumed design is no longer needed to thrive. While this may be true, there is NO industry where the successful marriage of design and function did not ultimately tilt the scales.

Just look at how Apple went from almost phasing out to the more simple, inexpensive PCs of the 90s, only to come back with a new focus on mixing a user-friendly platform with a cutting edge physical design. And now ALL computers are moderately pretty.

This is just one more area where we will tread NEW GROUNDS.

adamkav 2010-12-01 14:27:32

First of I don't know how you manage to read all these comments, on top of everything you guys have to do, its very impressive. Secondly I don't find the aesthetic overpowering at all, I think its very in keeping with the rest of the site, in fact its what first caught my eye when I stumbled across Newgrounds and made me stop and actually look through the content. I think the design make it more welcoming, its warm and fun, unlike most other social networks like facebook which is more like a mental institute, everything is sterile and isolated, Newgrounds is in a different league, I wouldn't even call it a social network site, its past that. It should have its very own genre. Thats my two cents worth.

Desknight 2010-12-01 17:05:13

Does it seem un-welcoming? Nah, maybe a little overpowering which was my first reaction to the site "Whoa! All these vids and games! Where do I start?!".

One little thing that bugs me though is this blog system just a bit. If you were to say respond to this, I would have no idea you did. I just think some kind of notice system for the blogs like whether or not someone responded could allow a little better communication for the site.

FallowerOfHank 2010-12-01 17:22:04

Tomfulp. I have a problem with the dumping grounds. I am trying to upload a .fla file to the dumping grounds, but whenever I do, the file takes so long to upload, it never completes. Can you fix this bug or have any advice?

Thundaboom 2010-12-01 19:09:48

Just threaten Mark Zuckerberg.

FireWOLF109 2010-12-01 20:25:55

Well it depends on what the desighn will look like, but its up to you cause after all... it is your site

djInTheDark 2010-12-02 00:40:01

It's not necessarily un-welcoming, it's just a lot to look at as some others have said. I think this mostly applies to the forums overall. Because there's so much going on and so much to do and see, you tend to miss things like the forum rules or guide lines or information that they're looking for. I know this isn't really a suggestion thread but I do think that that new users should be required to read the rules, ect. before doing anything. This is already in place for flash and audio and is working for the most part but in the forums, it's definitely lacking. If there were some sort of pop up that appeared on a users first visit, that would give more of an incentive to follow the rules and punishment could be more swiftly charged. It's a little harsh, yes, but I think it would get the job done and make the mods jobs a little easier.

Rhunyc 2010-12-02 01:17:38

Well, there is a ton of stuff to do on this website like everyone's pretty much said already. A quick little suggestion though.. Make the searching of stuff a bit more easier to do.. Like have an option to just search for everything and not just one category (author, flash name, audio, etc.).. Sometimes I forget what the name of a flash or the author who made it, and it makes it a bit more of a tedious thing to do if you can't remember if "Gold" had something to do with the name of the flash.. or the author..

Oh, and another thing too, nothing to do with the sites design, but since I've got your attention (or probably not..), it'd make it really nice if you could receive any kind of notification from when people leave reviews on your art.. When you have 100+ images in your art gallery, it makes it a little tedious to filter through old pictures and find new reviews to respond to.. I kind of gave up on looking at older images and responding to reviews because of this. Just takes a lot of time..

But yeah, in my opinion, don't bother changing the website too drastically to try to draw in a new audience, because chances are you're just going to drive away your already large fanbase by doing this.. Well not all of them obviously, but you'll probably make a few of them rage... Site redesigns are cool and all though, I like to see the same old thing in a new light.. Makes it a bit more fresh. :)

tankmen6666 2010-12-02 07:39:03

hey tom i send you a messge but nothin came can you be my friend at facebook you do twiiter then send you a messege on twiter

Quicksmasher 2010-12-02 09:15:08

I love this design man, its handy and gives a good overview (actually the best ive ever got of a site like ng).

JulianCheese 2010-12-02 10:42:44

I think that in order to make the site more social, what comes up at the very top should be all the people we follow on newgrounds such as their recent posts, recent animations and games and audio. Featured stuff should be on it's own page, or maybe lower down. Also, at the "account" thing at the top right corner, the account button should be like the youtube one: It pops down with a bunch of links you can access a lot of your account easily.

I'm not the oldest member on newgrounds, but I do use facebook and youtube pretty often and can sort of see why somebody would say this isn't a social site.

However, just make sure you keep the featured stuff still noticable, but "Following" first!

HeRetiK 2010-12-02 12:20:46

Do you know what NG has that most social websites don't have? Personality. Sure, they all have corporate identities and sometimes funny little quirks, but most of the time it's still somewhat generic. I personally see Facebook and Twitter as tools, i wouldn't want this to happen to NG.

And I somehow consider NG more social in the traditional sense than the so-called social media websites. I think that although the community has a steeper "learning curve" it's still more personal than the addme likeme followme mentality that gets propagated nowadays.

anyways. i don't see anything wrong with using a visually impressive design, as long as it's functional and pretty. but then again i'm a die-hard NG fan, so i might be somewhat biased.

VINNIE-CAST 2010-12-02 14:53:53

our site is welcoming and awsome

InfinityAnonymous 2010-12-02 18:03:58

When I joined Newgrounds was very Intimidating but sometimes you have to just throw yourself out there to be known.

Vinstigator 2010-12-02 22:12:10

I actually happen to like the layout more than facebook and myspace. I'm so dedicated to this site that I'm actually posting this comment from the Nintendo Wii! Reason being my laptop got the BSOD recently. But the good thing is I get to watch all the awesome flash movies on my big screen TV :)

Loy6 2010-12-03 02:09:07

The layout is damn near perfect for Flash Submissions, and I really look forward to the redesign.

However, the current way newgrounds is set up kind of screws over people in the Audio Portal who aren't already popular, and the Art Portal could use a couple tweaks.

Lintire 2010-12-03 03:52:43

I'm not really sure that the basics of Newgrounds could get much more simple - the pages, the main aspects of Newgrounds are presented, well, up-front. How do you boil that down further? All I've loved the gritty design of Newgrounds, that might be it.