Screenshot of the Newgrounds BBS
The Newgrounds BBS is a bulletin board system (BBS) that allows people to post comments and statements about Newgrounds and various other things. The name BBS is used to refer to the whole system, commonly referred to as "The Forums" and labeled as Newgrounds Forums in the BBS section of the FAQ, however, this is a wrong term: the forums are actually separate subject sections within the BBS. Currently, about 200 users post on the BBS daily.
History[]
The BBS started in 2000 and was devised by former staff member Ross, who also made the modern submission system. It soon became an essential part of Newgrounds as both a way for Tom Fulp and other Newgrounds staff to communicate with their users and a means for people to talk about Newgrounds and explore ideas and a community in its own right.
BBS as part of Newgrounds[]
Since it has sections about things unrelated to Newgrounds, the BBS attracts people to talk about just about anything. A large part of the Newgrounds community is centered on the BBS, including well known figures such as Malachy, bigbadron, and ramagi. The BBS is therefore a notable part of Newgrounds traffic. As of March 2010, the BBS had over 18 million posts saved on it.
Newgrounds encourages people to use the BBS frequently, including putting the users number of posts in their user page and setting up User Of The Day. In order to balance this with maintaining usable forums, Moderators enforce post limits on individual forums and advise people not to subscribe to too many different clubs. Some people consider a persons number of posts as important, to the point of being thought of as Statwhores.
Forums[]
Member Forums[]
General[]
Often in the General forum, certain topics are endlessly parodied for the ridiculous nature of their title. Although recently parody threads like these are frowned upon, and poorly written ones are usually deleted.
The General forum was the largest forum on the BBS and covered the most ground; most Newgrounds users used to go at here. Due to the fact that General had so much traffic, with competition for attention on the first page, the General forum tended to be more rigourously policed by the BBS mods.
On Wednesday March 22, 2023, it was closed after a drama caused by regulars Seth (deleted), DrunkGecko and Taka, who leaved the forums over a ban dispute caused by them moderator Malachy and TurkeyInAStick, along with permabanned user Mist.
Where is/How to?/Help![]
This forum is for questions and suggestions about content on Newgrounds. It is used as a guide for people looking for something or instructions on how they might do something on Newgrounds. Previously known as "Where is/How to?"
Clubs & Crews[]
The clubs and crews forum is used to organize clubs on Newgrounds attracting people with similar interests, or threads about already existing Flash Crews. As of 2010 it is the second most popular forum, with approx 10% of all posts. As each club has just one thread they use, the threads are very long here.
The Wikigrounds thread, started in February 2010, is a focus of Wikigrounds interest and news posts on the General forum direct people to it.
Perhaps, the most noteworthy Club on the history of the subforum is the Elite Guard Barracks, who dedicate to report questionable content on Newgrounds. Other ones would be the Newgrounds Police Department, the Review Request Club, or the Icon Mod Crew.
Video Games[]
Discussions on Video Games and Gaming are held here. Despite the Forum description says it is for discussing Newgrounds games, few threads about Newgrounds are held, with the majority of the threads being questions about Videogames.
Politics[]
This forum was for expressing political and religious views. The Politics forum was closed 3/22/23 as part of the General forum dissolution for unknown reasons.
Artist & Creator Forums[]
Animation[]
This forum is where artists can discuss techniques and methods of animation in hopes to improve. It is also the forum where users can ask for feedback on submissions to the Newgrounds Dump.
Art[]
This forum is a place where artists can share their original artwork with other artists. Art contests are held in this forum. Large images (200kb max. filesize, 595 pixels x 700 pixels) can be uploaded in this forum, a privilege normally granted only to people such as admins, staff, and moderators. Prior to the implementation of the Art Portal, this forum was the only way users could share their artpieces.
Audio[]
The Audio forum is the gathering place for Newgrounds's audio artists. Here artists discuss different recording and techniques.
Writing[]
This forum is where Newgrounds's authors gather. This forum is for sharing scripts, poems, stories, or any other literary work. Writing contests are held.
Collaboration[]
In this forum, artists can plan and execute collaborations with other users. It is a great way for new artists to get their art into the portal.
Developer & Programmer Forums[]
Game Development[]
The Game Development forum (previously named the Flash forum) is the place where animators discuss various ActionScript problems, animation techniques, and stuff about Flash.
Programming[]
This forum is for discussing programming and scripting. It covers C,C+,C++,C#, PHP, Java, Perl, XML, HTML, CSS, XHTML, and many more.
The Games Factory 2[]
This forum was similar to the Game Development one, but instead focused on programs The Games Factory 2 and Multimedia Fusion 2. It was closed on 2014, although can be still accessed.
Mobile[]
This forum was similar to the Game Development one, but focused on development for iPhone and Android. It was closed on 2014 along with The Games Factory 2, and can be also accessed.
Site News Forums[]
Unlike all other forums, only site administrators can create topics in these forums. All users can reply, however.
NG News[]
This is where Tom Fulp can post any site news. These topics also show up at the top of every other forum for a certain length of time. On earlier days, moderators and staff members such as WadeFulp or liljim also posted here.
P-bot's Postings[]
P-Bot
Every day, P-Bot posts the top 10 scoring submissions from the previous day in this forum. Every Wednesday, he also posts the top 10 of the previous week, and also posts various submissions done by popular artists that are mostly previous winners.
These posts are always frontpaged under the name "P-Bot's Daily Picks" at the left side of the page.
Network News[]
This forum is for news regarding the Newgrounds Network. It was emptied somewhere at 2008, and was finally deleted on 2012.
Flaming[]
A generic Flame post, referring to Tom Fulp.
Flaming is an infamous action on the BBS. This is the act of diminishing another person's popularity through insulting comments. It may lead to a ban.
Flame Bait[]
If a user creates a topic that is likely to create a flame war between users either due to controversial issues being discussed or an insulting opening post, the thread is usually locked speedily and the user banned for 3-5 days without warning.
Fads[]
IT'S OVER 9000!![]
The scene that started the fad.
IT'S OVER 9000!! is an Internet-wide fad that started on 4chan. The quote comes from an episode of Dragonball Z. In this anime, devices known as "scouters" are used to detect an opponent's power level. The person with the higher power level is considered more likely to win in a fight. Although the average human's level is about five, it can be much higher. The phrase is exclaimed in Episode 28 (21 in the dubbed version), immediately before a fight between Goku, the series protagonist, and Nappa, one of his major adversaries and an ally of Vegeta. Vegeta had a scouter at the time, and was calculating Goku's power.
Nappa: Vegeta! What does the scouter say about his power level?
Vegeta: IT'S OVER 9000! (breaks scouter at the same time)
Nappa: WHAT? 9000?!
Nappa was surprised since he had expected Goku to be a weak opponent, and had a significantly lower power level of only 4,000.[1] Goku went on to defeat Nappa with little difficulty.
The fad did not instantly become popular until a 4channer submitted a video, editing parts from it including characters' voices. When it was submitted, the fad soon became popular on Newgrounds and other sites like YTMND. People will usually use this quote to whore about their stats, such as when a user has gotten past their 9000th blam/protect total points. Usual responses from other users will end up being 'WHAT?! 9000?!'
Ironically, the original Japanese manga and anime said that Goku's power level was over 8,000. 9,000 was the number used by Vegeta's voice actor, Brian Drummond, in order to lip-sync more closely to the animation.
"Fail" pic[]
The Fail pic is a picture of the illusion as if someone stamped the words "FAIL" in the current topic. To this day some people are still doing it. A thread that is usually a stupid topic, breaks the rules with no excuse, actually does something bannable, or even if the thread is about to be locked (Most people post FAIL and then the picture and then they have a hidden text stating "In before mod.")
Win[]
Some people have been known to add a "WIN" picture to a topic; it is more or less the opposite to Fail. The Win pic is used the same way as the fail pic, except for the fact that the Win stamp means you've won. Most people usually state "Epic Win" and post a pic of it when there is a really funny, good, awesome, or any sort of positive topic on the BBS.
Because you touch yourself at night[]
An inside joke used as a response to certain users who asked why things happens. The line was from the Family Guy episode Wasted Talent.
Peter (when he's hungover): This sucks worse than that time I went to that museum. (Flashback to childhood, standing in museum looking at dinosaur skeletons.)
Peter (as a child): Why did all the dinosaurs die out?
Man at Museum: Because you touch yourself at night.
BYTYAN is used on the BBS either as a joke response to someone asking a genuine, perhaps ethically questionable question, or simply to flame a user who asks a completely stupid and ignorant question.
Currently saying it on the BBS will likely result in a ban if a moderator notices it.
Why is there a big cock in the corner[]
Why is there a big cock in the corner is a BBS bandwagon started by BBS user Dusty-Gorilla. It is also known as, "Why is there a huge wang in the top left corner?" and "Why is there a cock in the top left corner?"
The picture that spawned the Fad.
It all started on a BBS thread called "photo shop me", created on 5/16/06. Someone's elbow got in the upper-left corner of the picture, and people assumed it was a giant penis. The thread was finally locked by Maus after 8 pages of almost nothing but that quote.
The quote is still used today in stupid threads, Photoshop threads, and image generator threads.
The thread that spawned the phrase here
It's a trap![]
The standard image, which was often altered.
It's a trap! is a popular meme on the BBS and throughout internet culture. The Quote comes from the movie Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, and is said by Admiral Ackbar. Ackbar says the line after he leads his fleet to the Evil Empire's space station, the Death Star. The plan was to attack while the Death Star was incomplete and incapable of defending itself. However, the Evil Empire knew he was coming, and laid a trap for his fleet.
The phrase entered internet culture in 2002, on the website Something Awful. At one point, it was so commonly used that any mention of Ackbar or the phrase became banned on Something Awful. Since its popularization, it has been used in a variety of situations. For example, somebody might respond to a suspicious link by posting a picture of Admiral Ackbar with the phrase attached.
Newbs[]
A newb, or n00b (slang word for "Newbie") is a new person. They often ask stupid questions, and make topics like "Hi! I'm new here!" This often leads to them being flamed. Generally speaking, "newb" simply refers to a new person, whereas "n00b" has a derogatory tone.
Significance[]
Considering how popular Newgrounds is, 1,027 users is quite small.
Although the BBS hundreds of users each day, it only makes up a very small percentage of Newgrounds traffic.[1] However, the BBS is considered an essential part of the Newgrounds community. Tom Fulp discussed the importance of the BBS in a 2006 interview.
- Traffic-wise, the forums are a small part of Newgrounds traffic. Financially, they play no direct role in advertising revenue. From a community standpoint, however, the forums are vital. They are the place where all the fans can hang out and have an ongoing dialog. Without the forums, NG would just be a showcase of movies with no real feel of a community around it.[citation needed]