bkdude 2008-10-07 19:19:10

Sadly, thats how the portal works. I've been here long enough to know that. I've been comming here since about 03' and recently i havent been doing much but watching a few "gems" as they are called, and replying to reviews on my existing flash videos.

I really got into NG around late 2005, early 2006, making posts on the BBS, being an overall silly boy just screwing around. I had about 1400 BBS posts and my mom found them and wasn't very happy. I got grounded for a while. Now that i think about those old posts that i had Tom delete, i'm actually quite disgusted at how stupid i used to be. I decided to just drop all the stupidity around this time last year. Things just got boring and repetitive. It was fun for a while, but it really got old. Back in 06 i was a member of The Star Syndicate for about 2 weeks until their leader kicked me out, and then i participated in the Uzi Union. I made quite a name out of myself. When i quit everything, the people I used to "hang out with" wouldn't stop bothering me, so i just deleted everyone on my MSN contacts list, and removed all of my useless Flash that i had spent but 2 minutes each on.

I would greatly suggest not getting into those parts of NG. Try to stay away from the idiots on the BBS, as thats all the BBS is made up. The educated people on NG are but a minority on this website, but nevertheless, they can be found. If you really want to get into flash, go ahead and get into it :). Its actually quite fun when you make something you're inspired to do. Just don't let others pressure you.

In the end, if you decide to start submitting things to NG, don't expect more than 400 views unless your work is really great, and for people just getting started, it might take a few tries to get something to pass judgement, but after a while you will find everything passes. The scoring system on NG is greatly flawed. I would say its only accurate for Flash with under a thousand votes (not views). After that point, you get a lot of fanboys and idiots voting on the work. Then theres mass-voters who pass crap into NG... Ignore these people's work as well :p

I figure the 400-1000 people who have viewed some of my submissions appreciated them much more than the millions of people viewing the more popular Flash, as the effort put into the work was more directed to an audience searching for such a thing. Like my flash Koyaanisqatsi. If you type that into the search box, my flash is going to be the only one to come up, and the people searching for just that will think its pretty cool that someone decided to make a flash related to it, and regardless of how many people watched it, theres going to be atleast one person who was looking for that specific thing.

To gain inspiration, I would suggest typing just random things that come to mind and searching for them in the portal, and try watching the less-viewed ones. I've seriously found some decent stuff that hardly anyone else has taken the time to find.

One great way to showcase your work is to wait for a new season The Star Syndicate's "Daily Toons" to begin, and email your Flash work to them following their dimentions, and your work will most likely end up in one of their collaborations. It is a very good way to see people's reactions to your work without actually submitting it yourself. The Star Syndicate does act like a goof-off group most of the time, but they can make some quality stuff sometimes.

And at a final note, don't obsess over certain artists. Tom Fulp for instance has shown his true colors over the years and dosen't really seem to care about the quality on NG anymore. Mods and admins on the forums all have their flaws and i would greatly suggest staying away from them. Some are alright, but some are just middle aged children.

I better get started on my Trig homework. Good Luck :)