Internet Archive logo and wordmark.svg by The Internet Archive, March 2011, source: https://www.logoeps.net/internet-archive-logo/

The Internet Archive is a name well known for those who visit the web frequently and more than often saved them time and resources when original links are deleted. As you know it is an American non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. The key core of this site is free access to collections of digitized media including websites, software applications, videogames, music, audiovisual, and print materials. Its spirit is all about free access to knowledge as it should always be. The Internet Archive allows the public to upload and download digital material to its data cluster, but the bulk of its data is collected automatically by its web crawlers, which work to preserve as much of the public web as possible. Its web archive, the Wayback Machine, contains hundreds of billions of web captures. The Archive also oversees numerous book digitization projects, collectively one of the world's largest book digitization efforts. I think that the website's words well encapsulate its spirits:

Most societies place importance on preserving artifacts of their culture and heritage. Without such artifacts, civilization has no memory and no mechanism to learn from its successes and failures. Our culture now produces more and more artifacts in digital form. The Archive's mission is to help preserve those artifacts and create an Internet library for researchers, historians, and scholars.

Because I sometimes feed on nostalgic feelings, I would like to share here the pic and link to the very first archived image on May 10, 1996, at 2:42 pm UTC (7:42 am PDT):

link: https://web.archive.org/web/19960510144231/http://www.microsoft.com/ie/IE.HTM

If you look carefully nothing before that date is archived, we are witnessing a piece of internet archeology and it's giving me goosebumps just by looking at it. This is the earliest known archived page and then by October of that year many and many other pages were archived in large amounts. Then the archived content became more easily available to the general public in 2001, through the Wayback Machine. In late 1999, the Archive expanded its collections beyond the web archive, beginning with the Prelinger Archives (collection of films relating to U.S. cultural history, the evolution of the American landscape, everyday life, and social history). Now, the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software. It hosts a number of other projects: the NASA Images Archive, the contract crawling service Archive-It, and the wiki-editable library catalog and book information site Open Library.

In August 2012 BitTorrent was added to its file download options for more than 1.3 million existing files, and all newly uploaded files. In November 2016, Kahle announced that the Internet Archive was building the Internet Archive of Canada, a copy of the Archive to be based somewhere in Canada. The announcement received widespread coverage due to the implication that the decision to build a backup archive in a foreign country was because of the upcoming presidency of Donald Trump.

Keep in mind that the Internet Archive acquires most materials from donations,(1) such as hundreds of thousands of 78 rpm discs from Boston Public Library in 2017,(2) a donation of 250,000 books from Trent University in 2018,(3) and the entire collection of Marygrove College's library after it closed in 2020 (4).

Why am I writing this boring history lesson on the Internet Archive? Because it has been brought to my attention (thank you Yatsufusa!) that the site is facing a critical moment because a coalition of major record labels has filed a lawsuit against the Internet Archive—demanding $700 million for their work preserving and providing access to historical 78rpm records, here you can read the official page:

https://blog.archive.org/2025/04/17/take-action-defend-the-internet-archive/

and if you click in the link provided there you can sign the petition and even make a donation but in case you can't donate spreading both links, especially the petition one can help a lot:

https://www.change.org/p/defend-the-internet-archive

I've already signed it, and contributed with money. If you want to share it with your peers, friends, relatives, etc. this will help a lot. Thank you for reading and let's keep the knowledge for all by all. Without them I couldn't be able to retrieve important info for me and for others when I provide links to my blogs. And it's also helping with my Newgrounds archeology collection since some forum threads not more accessible can be retrieved thanks to it, and some contain crucial information that are helping me with my Newgrounds guides for beginner users of the site. Thank you for existing, Internet Archive.

UPDATE: after reading Internet Archive is in danger, and needs your help! blog by TangoStar, I also decided to make a donation to Internet Archive website too, here the link if you want to donate to them directly, because donating to the link provided in the petition will boost the attention on the petition itself which can be nice to attract more people, but I personally prefer to donate to the site itself too.

I leave here the donation link to Internet Archive in case you can:

https://archive.org/donate?origin=iawww-TopNavDonateButton

References and footnotes:

(1) "How do I make a physical donation to the Internet Archive?". Internet Archive Help Center. Retrieved July 4, 2022. See also: "Tag Archives: donations". Internet Archive Blogs. Retrieved December 4, 2020

(2) "Boston Public Library transfers sound archives collection to Internet Archive for digitization, preservation, and public access". Boston Public Library. October 11, 2017. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved December 4, 2020.

(3) "Trent University donates 250,000 books to be digitized by Internet Archive as part of Bata Library transformation". Trent University. September 13, 2018. Archived from the original on November 30, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020

(4) Seltzer, Rick (October 21, 2020). "A new home online for closed college libraries?". Inside Higher Ed. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2020

Hello everyone, finally, after that sad/uncanny post, I can make a blog about something much more fun and nice: promoting smaller artists. And this time the person I want to promote is Kyoto-Beatz.

The very first thing that strikes the viewer's is the subject shown in his gallery: stickmen.

One could say "but stickmen are badly drawn!", well, listen me you little....

There are some examples of how his style is at a superior level of redefining stickmen art. First element that characterizes his works are the attention to details even in the simple designs typical of stickmen, second element use of shades such as in the same artwork I've just linked:

Pay attention to the second panel. The presence of shades on the face gives the character a more natural look, adds depth and overall creates a pleasant visual appeal to the character's design.

Third element I love about his art is the presence of backgrounds like in this already mentioned work:

Look carefully the details of buildings and road, I can almost see the iridescent effect that rain causes when it is on a road. I love the perspective of the city, the one-point perspective give a feel of vastness and size. I also like how background has this dynamic effect on it. It's a mix of futurism and cyberpunk-like feel.

In this other piece I love the use of highlights and lightings on the character's hair not to mention the details on hair:

And this brings to the fore the fourth element: use of lighting and highlights to create dynamism in the composition scene or enhance the character's design such as in these two artworks:

I want to conclude my promotion with his most recent work:

because it combines key elements of his art:

• volumetric shapes of the stickman character
• neat design conveyed by both shading and vivid colours
• dynamic poses
• facial expressions thanks also to the help of highlights

So if you like to see high quality stickman art I strongly advise you to give him a follow, fave, review and vote because he definitely deserves a spot in this fantastic site that is Newgrounds.

Once again one of those few not so funny posts about the extremely uncanny, creepy and unnerving situation in the country I live, or better shitty country due to its fascist nature (and no fascist is not used as insult but as a fact considering the political history of that monster called Giorgia Meloni, probably one of the persons I hate the most in Italy), but I need to get this off my chest because of the emotional burden is giving me.

This country is going down a dangerous, self-destructive path especially with an opposition that is still non-existent, but among the many things I could list to rightfully talk shit about this government there is one that caught my interest and not for the better.

Photo I've just took of the political talk show I watched about the thing that sadly caught my interest. I will first translate what it says:

Secret services powers

• can access University and public administration's information
• RAI circular requires video makers to film and make the sources traceable
• secret services can now access to journalists' sources
• with this decree secret services can direct and organize subversive organizations

Everything about this is horrifying at best and shows clearly how Italy is becoming gradually a slow, subtle yet silent authoritarian nation, why? Because the Senate’s Constitutional Affairs and Justice Committees have approved Article 31 of the “Security Bill,” on April 4, 2025. It is a bill promoted by Giorgia Meloni’s government that would like to address the fight against terrorism and organized crime, and police controls. And now you understand the title of my vent-blog.

The measure, originally a contentious security bill under discussion in the Italian Senate, was abruptly transformed into an emergency decree — a move that UN experts described as bypassing democratic norms and public transparency. “We are alarmed by how the government transformed the bill into an emergency decree that was swiftly approved by the Council of Ministers, bypassing Parliament and public scrutiny,” said the experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council (1).

The experts contacted the Italian Government in December 2024 (OL ITA 7.2024) indicating that if the proposed bill were not amended, Italy would be at odds with its obligations under international human rights law, including to protect the rights to freedom of movement, to privacy, to a fair trial, and to liberty, and to protect against arbitrary detention.

“The bill that is now a ‘decree’ includes vague definitions and broad provisions related to terrorism that could lead to arbitrary enforcement,” the experts warned. “The decree will also put freedom of expression at risk and may disproportionately affect specific groups, including racial or ethnic minorities, migrants and refugees, potentially leading to discrimination and human rights violations.” (2)

Everything is plain wrong on many levels but being a University student what scared even more was the first point (the one about the possibility to keep a file on everyone (students and teachers alike) deemed "dangerous to national security". To better make you understand this I will translate in English what is well explained here (the most important parts): https://www.laleggepertutti.it/718492_le-universita-potranno-schedare-gli-studenti

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Universities will be able to keep a file on students

With the new Security Decree, Universities will have to "collaborate" with the Secret Services by providing information on the political opinions of students and professors, in derogation of privacy.

The new Security Decree 31, already approved by the Chamber and currently under consideration by the Senate, provides that Universities will be able to keep a file on students, and also researchers and professors. There is no privacy that matters: the rules on the confidentiality of personal data can, indeed must, be bypassed in the name of national security. Article 31 of the bill – entitled “Strengthening of information activities for security” – provides, in fact, that all Public Administrations – including Universities and other research bodies – will have to collaborate with “Secret Services”, that is, the national security protection bodies (which are currently the DIS, the AISI and the AISE) in providing them with all the information deemed necessary for the protection of national security.

Example:

If a student – ​​or even a teacher – participates in a certain political movement, or an activist association, the University must communicate this upon simple request from the Services. The same must be done if a professor teaches theses in the classroom that are considered “dangerous” or subversive.

What changes

The difference compared to the past is that previously these national security protection bodies could ask the Universities for confidential information on enrolled students, as well as on teachers, but the Universities could oppose the reasons of privacy (and also the Authority for the Protection of Personal Data had intervened several times to limit these requests for access).

As Luciana Cimino writes in Il Manifesto, “the article in question aims to modify the 2007 law on the security information system. But if that text regulated that «the DIS, the AISE and the AISI can correspond with all public administrations and with the entities that provide (…) public utility services and ask them for the collaboration necessary for the fulfillment of their institutional functions», the new formulation of the Meloni government changes the order of the subjects and the verb, modifying for the worse the collaboration between state bodies and universities”. [Translator's note]

Mandatory collaboration

Now it will no longer be like this: the new rules make "collaboration" "mandatory" (as specified in the explanatory report accompanying the Decree), which can be requested - or, better said, imposed - by unspecified "needs to protect national security", which the requesting bodies are not required to specify or justify. It will therefore be necessary to respond to a simple request from the Secret Services, without the possibility of objecting.

In short: the good of the State comes before the needs of citizens to keep their sensitive data, such as political opinions or sexual orientation, private. And privacy is no longer valid: it melts like snow in the sun the moment the organs of the services invoke national security.

Why privacy is no longer valid

There is more: the same mechanism will apply to all Public Administrations in general, including controlled and participating companies, therefore the Secret Services will be able to ask for and obtain, in the same way, confidential information on their employees and collaborators, and all this even in derogation of the privacy regulations that otherwise should protect public employees to the maximum (from the garbage collector, from the magistrate to the municipal employee).

The agreements to be stipulated

To define the concrete modalities of this new collaboration – which, where necessary, will also extend to “technical and logistical assistance”, therefore a sort of 100% availability of their own facilities – specific agreements will have to be stipulated between the secret services and the Universities, as well as other central and local Public Administrations. These agreements may also regulate the methods of “opening” to the investigative bodies of their respective databases and computerized or paper files, containing all the information on the employees or students enrolled in the Universities.

How the filing of students and teachers will work

Essentially, from that moment on, the possibility will open up for the Secret Services to file students and teachers based on their orientations, inclinations and political opinions, or any other data deemed "interesting" by the aforementioned bodies for the purposes of national security: Universities and other public bodies will no longer be able to refuse to provide information based on the legislation on the confidentiality of personal data, not even when it concerns sensitive data, the disclosure or dissemination of which would otherwise constitute a crime.

Who can collect information

The national security protection bodies authorized to request and obtain information on university students and, in general, on all public employees – those that we have just generically called Secret Services – are, precisely:

• Dipartimento delle Informazioni per la Sicurezza (DIS, 'Department of Information for Security' in English)
• Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Interna (AISI, 'Internal Intelligence and Security Agency')
• Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna (AISE, ?Italian: External Intelligence and Security Agency?)

When will the new rules come into force

Now we await the final approval by the Senate of the "security package" which includes the innovations we have talked about (and which contains many other important rules, such as the possibility for members of the Secret Services not only to infiltrate terrorist and subversive associations, but even to direct them) and its next entry into force, which will occur with the publication of the legislative text in the Official Journal, unless the President of Italy (currently Sergio Mattarella) raises objections of unconstitutionality by refusing to sign the measure and sending it back to a new examination by the Chambers. (3)

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I don't know what creeps me the most: the possibility to be filed because I participated for something deemed dangerous to national security (i.e. pro-Palestine demonstrations, rave parties, strikes, etc.) and so the fact they may know everything about me or the fact secret services can direct a terrorist organizations or subversive organizations such as Forza Nuova, Casa Pound, Azione Studentesca to keep at bay left-leaning or progressive movements. Not to mention the deep hit to privacy. If Partito Democratico doesn't wake up for real I won't wait for my rights to be taken away. Getting out of this shitty country is an alternative I can't wait to put in action. I am sick of living here and I don't blame the 156,000 young researchers who left Italy to never come back in 2024.

Sorry for this more anxiety-inducing post but it's important to be politically aware of what happens around the world, and I needed to get this off my chest. On a more positive note, in the next blog I will promote an artists, but I won't tell now who is ;)

Take care everyone!

UPDATE 16/04/205:

So after scrolling through various Italian media about this unsettling part, and after reading through the decree in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, the obligation for universities and public administrations to provide confidential information to intelligence agencies, as provided for by Article 31 of the bill, is dropped BUT collaboration will remain optional and must take place in compliance with privacy regulations.

Sadly the provision, which strengthens the undercover activities of the services by allowing undercover agents to direct and lead terrorist-subversive associations, still remains. (4)

Despite slight changes this doesn't change the severity of the situation because even thinking about this is enough to jeopardize political structures of this country.

References and footnotes:

(1) https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/italy-un-experts-concerned-administrative-enactment-problematic-security

(2) Ibidem

[Translator's note] this is not part of the article I translated, but I thought to add it to complete the info about the previous law.

(3) https://www.laleggepertutti.it/718492_le-universita-potranno-schedare-gli-studenti

(4) https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2025/04/04/dl-sicurezza-cosa-cambia-servizi-migranti-sim/7940926/

https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/atto/serie_generale/caricaDettaglioAtto/originario?atto.dataPubblicazioneGazzetta=2025-04-11&atto.codiceRedazionale=25G00060&elenco30giorni=false

Long time no see, dear photography, last time I posted pics in my blogs was during my 2024 Recap. I've been taking photos since the beginning of the year, it's just that I've been thinking about other things, between university, different types of blogs here on NG, collabs, etc.

Today I would like to share some photos I took while spending a bit of time with my mom to let her mind rest a bit since she always work a lot at home, and deserves a bit of relax after all. Let's begin:

Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus)

This fella perched on one of the Japanese maples of my garden. It is a native of the western Palearctic and belongs to the genus Columba. Because of its versatile diet makes, the bird is regarded as an agricultural pest, and due to this it is extensively hunted over much of their range. I am very glad that this does not appear to have a major impact on their population numbers though^^

There are 5 subspecies, but sadly one is extinct the Madeiran wood pigeon (Columba palumbus maderensis). Fossil records of the species are known from the early Middle Pleistocene of Sicily. Despite similar to the stock dove (Columba oenas) and the rock dove (Columba livia), the species has some key features that distinguish from other columbid species, such as:

• large size, 38–44.5 cm
• weight, 300–615 g
• white neck and wings
• wingspan from 68 to 80 cm
• tail from 13.8 to 15 cm
• a series of green and white patches on their necks is another feature of this species
• the eye is pale yellow
• overall grey plumage with pinkish breast (like you can notice here)

The species breeds in trees in woods, parks and gardens, laying two white eggs in a simple stick nest which hatch after 17 to 19 days. Wood pigeons seem to have a preference for trees near roads and rivers. Breeding can occur throughout the year if there is food is plentiful; however, the breeding season is usually between April and October. The survival rate for juveniles in their first year was 52%, and the annual survival rate for adults was 61% (1). Young common wood pigeons quickly become fat, as a result of the crop milk fed to them by their parents. This is an extremely rich fluid that is produced in the adult birds' crops during the breeding season (2).

The call is a very characteristic coo, made up of 5 syllables, the last 2 of which are slightly separated from the first three, and with the accent on the second; it is reminiscent of a low-pitched "oooh, oooh, ooh, ooooh, ooh".

Easily mistaken with the call of the collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto) due to the intonation and the accent on the second syllable, it is however distinguished by having five syllables instead of three and by the more "vibrant" timbre. The tone increases in intensity from the first to the second syllable, the highest, to progressively descend to the last, which is the lowest (in the collared dove the highest syllable is instead the first). This stanza is repeated continuously from three to five times. I swear that the first I heard the call, I thought a collared dove was a little hoarse XD

Common Blackbird (Turdus merula)

This is a lovely friend I adore to see hopping in my garden and flying across trees. I always make sure not to disturb him when I see one, even if they are not bothered by my presence because they know I am no threat. Sometimes I even feed them with some worms I find in my vegetable garden, and they gladly grab them. This is a male, they are the ones I photograph the most because they are less fearful than females and more easily approachable. The male is all black except for a yellow eye-ring and bill and has a rich, melodious song (I love listening to them when they claim their nocturnal perches for night sleep); the adult female and juvenile have mainly dark brown plumage. I have other photos of these fellas such this old photo I took last year featuring a father with his fledgling (you can notice the dark, brownish plumage):

Father

Son/Daughter

Great Tit (Parus major)

One of my favourite bird to photograph yet one of the most difficult after the European robin. I can distinguish his call but it's very difficult to photograph because he's fast, agile and doesn't remain still for too long so following him with both my eyes, ears and the camera requires a lot of skills while trying not to be noticed by the bird at the same time. 15 subspecies are recognised for this bird. The nominate subspecies (P. m. major) is the most widespread species, which can be found throughout much of Europe, Asia Minor, northern and eastern Kazakhstan, southern Siberia and northern Mongolia, as far as the mid-Amur Valley. This is a male specimen as I could notice the broad black mid-line stripe running from the bib to vent. There is a dull white spot on the neck turning to greenish yellow on the upper nape. You can see the white spot on the neck of this female great tit I photographed two years ago:

Another photo of her (I have others but this one is particularly nice due to a feature I never realized until a user I met on FA made me notice):

Notice how big metatarsus are compared to the rest of the body, this is a feature I always try to keep in mind when drawing these birds because I tend to make them smaller like in other bird species.

Fun fact: higher levels of carotenoid increase the intensity of the yellow of the breast its colour, and also enable the sperm to better withstand the onslaught of free radicals. Carotenoids cannot be synthesized by the bird and have to be obtained from food, so a bright colour in a male demonstrates his ability to obtain good nutrition. However, the saturation of the yellow colour is also influenced by environmental factors, such as weather conditions. The width of the male's ventral stripe, which varies with individual, is selected for by females, with higher quality females apparently selecting males with wider stripes (3).

The length can range from 12.5 cm to 15 cm, wingspan is about 24 cm. The black head, the prominent white cheek patch and the black stripe going down towards the legs are the most distinctive traits of this little yet brave fella. The dark vertical stripe is narrower on females and often does not extend as far down toward the legs, and this is why I can safely say that this bird I photographed two years ago is a female even if from the angle of this photo cannot be seen clearly. The species prefers insects and other small invertebrates in the summer but will eat seeds, berries and fruit in the colder months when live prey is scarce. I often see them eating in my vegetable garden. During winter they can even enter pipistrelle bat dens and eat their brain by repeatedly pecking at the head because the brain is rich in fat. This predatory behavior was recorded in 2009. They have also been recorded using tools, using a conifer needle in the bill to extract larvae from a hole in a tree.

Begging for food

A young magpie begging for food, I could take the pic when the mother was feeding him/her. The breeding season begins with the first warm days, generally in spring (with a peak in nesting in April), although in mild winters, egg-laying can take place as early as December. Here, in Europe, clutches are typically laid in April and usually contain five or six eggs, but clutches with as few as three and as many as ten have been recorded. On average, the eggs of the nominate species (P. p. pica) measure 32.9 mm × 23 mm and weigh 9.9 g. On average, only 3 or 4 chicks survive to fledge successfully. Some nests are lost to predators, but an important factor causing nestling mortality is starvation. Magpie eggs hatch asynchronously, and if the parents have difficulty finding sufficient food, the last chicks to hatch are unlikely to survive (4).

A study conducted near Sheffield in Britain, using birds with coloured rings on their legs, found that only 22% of fledglings survived their first year. For subsequent years, the survival rate for the adult birds was 69%, implying that for those birds that survive the first year, the average total lifespan was 3.7 years.

Eurasian Jay (Garrulus glandarius)

As last photo a pic of an Eurasian jay perching on a tree during a windy day (you can notice the ruffled feather) I took last month. I liked how relaxed he/she was considering it's not an easy corvid to photograph if he/she notices you. It is a relatively small corvid, with a length of 34–35 cm (13–14 in) and a wingspan of 52–58 cm. The nominate species has light rufous brown to a pinkish brown body plumage. The whitish throat is bordered on each side by a prominent black moustache stripe. The forehead and crown are whitish with black stripes. The rump is white. The complex colouring on the upper surface of the wing includes black and white bars and a prominent bright blue patch with fine black bars. The tail is mainly black. I love listening to their harsh, rasping screech and sometimes I have fun at mimic it just to troll them a bit XD

Oh well, that's all for now because I reached the maximum number of photos I can post (10 photos per blog), others will be posted in future Shutter-bug chronicles blogs. Stay tuned and have a nice day!

References and footnotes

(1) Saether, B.-E. (1989). "Survival rates in relation to body weight in European birds". Ornis Scandinavica. 20 (1): 13–21. doi:10.2307/3676702. JSTOR 3676702

(2) Gillespie, M. J.; Haring, V. R.; McColl, K. A.; Monaghan, P.; Donald, J. A.; Nicholas, K. R.; Moore, R. J.; Crowley, T. M. (2011). "Histological and global gene expression analysis of the 'lactating' pigeon crop". BMC Genomics. 12: 452. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-452. PMC 3191541. PMID 21929790

(3) Norris, K. J. (1990). "Female choice and the evolution of the conspicuous plumage coloration of monogamous male great tits". Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 26 (2): 129–138. doi:10.1007/bf00171582. S2CID 36757531

(4) Birkhead, T. R. (1991). The Magpies: The Ecology and Behaviour of Black-Billed and Yellow-Billed Magpies. T. & A.D. Poyser. ISBN 978-085661067-7.

Hello everyone, I hope you are doing great in this period. After noticing how well received my previous blog about B/P and the concepts behind them, I make this journal as personal way to keep track of future ideas/projects I have in mind for my series "Newgrounds Adventures". Initially it was just this blog about blams and saves and I thank you all for the nice reactions and comments given to me both privately and in the comment section since a couple of them made me want to update some things that are visible as "UPDATE XX/XX/XXX" at the beginning of the blog. In future I don't rule out to add comments/marginal notes/additions and/or appendices to the blog, and this might be done for future blogs about this series. This series is for those who are new to the site and maybe want to understand how it works. I know there are many guides around the site, and I think many are infinitely better than mine because of their greater experience. After all, I've only been here since December 3, 2023 XD.

I just want to add my personal touch to this living experience that is Newgrounds, a site that, if used well and with consciousness, can even help one develop some cognitive skills such as ability to distinguish abusive review from useless review, write helpful reviews, blamming from protecting, etc. Of course I keep repeating that there is not a single, absolute correct way to experience NG. NG is awesome because you can enjoy, use, experience it the way you like as long as it's respectful of the site's ToS, rules and law.

But I also think that a well-rounded approach to the site helps you to fully experience it, enriching your personal experience of growth both as a content creator and as a person. Keep in mind these guides are not for content creators such as game developers, animators, musicians and artists because I know jack shit about them, minus a bit of art but that's reserved for reviews and forum threads. These guides are for users of the site, are meant to understand a bit better how this site works and function as of 2025, so in future they might become obsolete if major changes are made and in this case I will make updated versions of said guides.

So in the meantime I plan to write future guides for beginner users such as (the order is not random but intentional since I want to take my time to fully grasp concepts in order to make easily accessible to beginner users):

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to Experience points and Voting Power

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to Reviewing

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to Whistle levels

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to Support

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to Scouting

Newgrounds Adventures: beginner guide to NG site layout

other guides might be added if other topics come in mind, for now these are the ones I would like to cover. Be warned: 1) they will be long so if you are a tl;dr person then they are not for you, 2) they are for users who want to be part of this site, so no stat whores guides here even if I learnt some tricks to boost some stats through some NG-related games, but I don't want to share because I would like people to understand why some aspects are the way they are and this will be covered in the guide about whistle points.

Along with these guides I also plan to do a sort of archaeological research on Newgrounds where I collect documents, videos and flash games, old forum threads that are no longer available, old site layouts, etc. To do this I started a playlist of how the site was since the beginning, and if I could even before since NG was originally a fanzine. You can already see the playlist I created and also put in the links next to my profile.

For now it's a ballpark, I hope to be able to do a more meticulous job, especially in terms of dates and related events. Here the first volume of these future playlists, thanks to Portal History pages that can be found here, I could already collect some material but others will be done with the help of the Internet Web Archive site:

I know some forum discussions (such as the forum thread that started Pico Day tradition) can still be found but I preferred to add them via Internet Web Archive when the site had a different feel in order to give that old, nostalgia or even anemoia-like vibe.

This blog is more a personal reminder for what I plan to do in future, than a way to spam my blog inbox for my fans XD but feel free to add suggestions, link or other interesting stuff that might enrich the experience. Now sorry but I have to get back Xiang as she stole the tank from the tankmen XD (runs after her just to be squished by the tank)

Newgrounds Font by Filiprb

old NG logo used as reference

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing great. With this title I would like to give an easy beginner guide to those who would like to know a bit more about B/P and this curious world of blam and protection points. The guide might be updated if people give me more correct info since it's based on my personal experience and I still consider myself a beginner B/P grinder. Another reason why I decided to make this guide is that for some concepts such as B/P bonus there are not exhaustive explanations besides the usual wiki page or help/FAQ page which are pretty simple and don't go in depth. I will use my OC Xiang to show with images some stuff and because I like to make things silly XD

Ok, without any further ado let's begin.

UPDATE 31/03/2025: added a small tip about the importance of blams in speeding up the rank leveling-up process.

UPDATE 08/04/2025: added a note about the "search for the red" tip at the end of the tip itself, after some things have been brought to my attention since the goal of the tip is not creating a hoard of people who want to blam for the sake of it with the risk to delete save-worthy stuff despite a possible low-technical skill element. The tip exists to help beginners to better understand how this system works, after they have developed enough skill to judge works then this tip is pretty much useless for more seasoned B/P grinders.

What is a blam?

Let's begin with the negative stuff or better with one of the things that characterize this system of judging movies and games that enter the Portal. It's so important to have become a verb itself in Newgrounds lingo: blam and to blam.

Basically blams are submissions that have been deleted from the Portal whether they are movies or games. From this derives the concept of blam point: a point earned for each deleted submission in the Portal, for example take a look at my statistics:

It means that I managed to get 162 submission deleted at the moment I'm writing this guide. Each deleted submission from the Portal turned into a blam point that my account gained.

If a user votes a 0-1.5 on a movie and it is subsequently deleted (see deletion qualifications below), the user receives one blam point. Movies and games are deleted if they fall below the listed score at the listed number of votes (if it gets a vote of 1.0 then 40 voters are enough to blam it):

40 votes: 1.0

50 votes: 1.5

60 votes: 2.0

If I recall well decades ago 100 votes were necessary to make something blammable. For those who have been on the site for years you will have noticed the change in the numbers required to blam a movie or game. I will quote what Tom said in the news of 6 December, 2024 Congrats Horizonauts & Site Updated!

Movie & Game Under Judgment Update

We made some tweaks to the Judgment process this week, reducing the max vote threshold to 60 and raising the blam threshold from < 1.75 to < 2.00. This means entries will finish judgment more quickly and get blammed (removed) more frequently.

What is a save?

Saves are the opposite of blams: they are submission that managed to stay in the Portal because they reached the minimum threshold to pass judgment. Every time you give a positive score and this gets summed to other peoples' positive votes, and the submission passes judgement you get a protection/save point. For example in my account I have 2,215 saves.

So every time you vote for a submission in UJ Portal section you award a point: blam point if it gets deleted, save point if it passes.

What is B/P bonus?

B/P bonus is an important tool that increases the voting power of a user, without it the voting power would be strictly based upon experience and increasing one's vote power would become more difficult. Basically it's a number that increases one's vote power. Thanks to this website you can check your stats, all of your stats, you can have a very in-depth, detailed view at your own profile and see yourself from a different and new perspective. Just insert your username and you will see everything related to your account, BP included:

https://www.wkrconcepts.com/nglogs/index.php?id=home

The total BP is given by the sum of blams and saves, so in my case 162 + 2,215= 2,377 this result gives a hint of the rank, here the full list:

So what is that percentage you see in B/P bonus? It's a number that takes your current vote power (5.99 in my case) and then adds an extra value of that amount to it, so for example:

5.99 X 0.16= 0.9584

5.99 + 0.9584= 6.9484

You can see that my vote base or vote power is 5.99 but with the 16% of B/P bonus it increases to 6.95, pretty cool huh?

pro-tip:

if you want to grind "faster" the bonus try to have an almost balanced number of blams and saves in order to speed up the process. I know finding blammable stuff may be difficult compared to past years, but in the long run it will help you level up the rank more smoothly than relying only on saves which are easier to get (I read that decades ago you could get a good chunk of blams in a day, even 80-100, now it's become more difficult. I can get almost 20 blams in a day if I am active almost an average of a hour). For example today I reached the rank of Private in a relative quick way thanks to my blams that summed to the save points instead of waiting to only reach 2,499 save points. So if you want to reach more blam points try to act like an active predator and hunt mainly for them for a while in order to reach a balanced number as much as possible.

Now that you know the basics of these concepts, let's go a bit in depth on how to vote with awareness and consciousness, so if you have the stat whore mentality (one who cares more about his/her/their NG profile stats more than the quality and honesty of the vote, this applies to every other NG stats though) then this guide is not for you.

Where to start?

Go to the Portal, once there you will see the list of movies and games ready to be judged by you:

(yes, you can see I've already voted on plenty of them minus the A-rated stuff simply because I'm not interested in that type of works)

Hunt for the red

This tip works only for the initial stages of your apprenticeship as a B/P grinder since you probably have to fully grasp what B/P is. I used it a lot when I was still a newbie in actively figuring out what was blam-worthy. When you see a movie/game highlighted in red, it means that the submission is about to be deleted from the Portal. Click immediately on it and give a low score, I personally zero vote it simply because it's the only case where I don't even take a look at it since it's already on the verge of deletion so why wasting my time watching or playing something that is already about to be deleted. It's like beating a dead horse. I initially used this method a lot because I didn't fully understand what blams and protection points were and I lacked experience and knowledge of what it's worthy of being blammed. So I used this cheap method to gain some blam points but I don't suggest to rely solely on it once you've gained enough experience to discern what to blam and what to protect.

Pros:

• cheap way to get a blam point in a passive way
• useful tool to grasp the core concept of blam point

Cons:

• very slow way to gain blam points in the long run especially if you are an active blam hunter
• not that useful once you are experienced enough to actively and proactively hunt for them

Important note to highlight: this tip is aimed at beginner people as initial and rudimentary tool to grasp the concept of blamming in a more passive way (I see the red, I blam the red, I get the blam point), not as a way to always go after the red independently of the content. It shouldn't be used as a way to harass a user or block content that might give an added value to the site. This helped me in the initial stages of blam learning, but now I prefer a more active/proactive approach, plus I highly suggest to still watch the move/play the game even if it's highlighted in red because it can help to develop a judgement skill that can be useful when one can determine blam-worthy submissions from save-worthy ones. Initially when I had to understand how this system worked, I went for the red and blammed it, but now if I see one I prefer to watch/test the submission and then give the low score according to its characteristics.

When to blam?

One of the things I love about NG when it comes to decide how to vote stuff is the lack of a prescriptive status quo. There is not a fixed rule that dictates one to always give a 0 vote under certain conditions except for those submissions that truly deserves a 0 vote. So what are usually 0-worthy submissions?

0 vote worthy submissions:

Extremely low effort animations, very short loop animations, effortless stickmen fights, effortless Madness animations, animation tests, Madness/stickmen animation tests, FNF short, loop animations, stolen stuff (in that case flag it with the appropriate type of report for the mod to review it), extremely effortless animations with no background, AI-generated stuff since it's not allowed here, everything that doesn't look effort or tutorial-educated, flashes and games with lots of bugs that need to be re-made (i.e. the game that doesn't even load or it's a black/white screen).

1 vote worthy submissions:

Here you find all submissions that still deserve a low vote but are not complete shit, usually low effort 30-45 seconds long movies unless they are good and in that case they get a higher vote from me, demos/previews that aren't any good and flashes (movies or games, doesn't matter) with lots of bugs but looks promising. In the past even good test animations got blammed easily than today because at that time people were more brutal at blamming stuff. I've found some very good test/project animations that, despite being shorter than 30-45 seconds, looked very good due to the presence of a background, fluid animation, funny elements and a short but effective plot in it. So don't take these traits as absolute, it's just a descriptive nature of what is blammable and what not. Nothing it's prescriptive here when we surpass the 0 vote.

2 vote worthy submissions:

This is the grey area between the blam and protect, now with the new threshold (2.0) things are deleted more easily and I admit thanks to this update my blams are gradually increasing along with the fact I've gained more experience at recognizing blam-worthy submissions. Now in this pool basically all 1 vote worthy submissions but slightly better fall into this category but they are not good enough to get a full 3 star vote.

(yes I blammed this video since it was an upload of a copyrighted animated series episode, another case to blam and give zero vote, zero tolerance for such type of acts and in this case I also flagged it as stolen material)

pro-tip:

when seeing a work check the title (if you find something like "animation test", "my first animation" go for a blam most of the time because a good 90% of the time they are effortless works), the description (notice if it has some suspicious elements that link to something that has been stolen, even in the case of copyrighted music that is linked in the description), the account who uploaded it (accounts with numbers are suspicious of stealing stuff, recently created accounts that usually don't read rules first are more likely to post rule-breaking stuff so blam-worthy stuff and flag-worthy stuff) and last but not least the video itself (look carefully if there are signatures that can help you to track the real origin of the video in case it's stolen or it's AI-generated, and trust me I could see some AI crap not only because it's was evident by the video itself but also because the signature had the logo of the AI-generated video tool).

When it comes to blams I usually blam and move on, but if you want to leave a review you can always hide your score and give a constructive review despite the low rating:

You can hide your score

To the save and beyond!

Everything that is 2.5 stars is something that I usually want for it to stay because I want to give the author a chance even though I don't think that anybody would actively seek this particular content out. It is one of the millions of forgettable submissions that nobody would miss if the servers got purged of them. Starting from 3 stars is usually the average of votes I give for UJ movies (for games I am less forgiving and I pretend higher standards simply because I see the videogame as the quintessential nature of art due to the combination of visual arts, music, animation and ofc game).

Aesthetically pleasing movies/games (even if there are flaws, I don't care), smoothly integrated works, good humour/parody/idea and everything that has the potential to get better in the future deserve this vote from me. Experimental movies have a higher chance to be protected by me because I love when people pushes their boundaries and comfort zones and in this case I don't even care about the aesthetic, the more surreal, the better^^

4 and 5 rates are for those submissions that make me say "wow, I enjoyed a lot this submission" both aesthetically, story-wise, animation techniques-wise and from the perspective of the message conveyed (whether it's humorous or serious). A detailed background, smooth animation, creativity, nice character design, the fun/entertainment inner value, and a well-written plot are all elements that enter in the territory of "Art". If I see that there is something promising for a 4.5/5.0 I give 4 star, if there is something still slightly missing I give a 4.5. But sometimes I give straight a very high rating when something moves me emotionally this strongly that I enjoyed the work a lot or I already know the creator for making very good quality works.

pro-tip:

If you want to maximize and optimize at the same time both the base voting power and the adjusted voting power through the B/P bonus whenever you start a new day on NG and want to vote things, go first to the UJ Portal section and start vote the first five submissions. This way you will increase your vote power aaaand will accumulate first blam and/or protection points.

Soooo where do the blammed submissions go?

Here:

This is the cemetery where all deleted submissions go and you can navigate through past submissions like I did it here. Notice the titles of some of them, sometimes even the title can guide you in blamming something because you immediately see that the person is doing it just for the sake of it or because he/she/they want to fill their gallery with something, thinking Newgrounds is Dumpgrounds or Testgrounds XD

Last advice:

I know that one is more than free to approach this site as one wishes, however I personally believe that if one really wants to nourish a creative community and creativity itself, and cares about the site as whole, it is important to take the time to look at the various submissions even if they require a lot of time as much as possible if one has the time. One is not obliged to watch and play all submissions and if one is too long (and by long I mean 1 hour), one can always select the type and length. It's also a way to pay respect to the person who made said submissions after noticing they are save-worthy ofc, for blammable stuff see points above. They spent time to make something and share part of their being, so it's the minimum that I take my time to interact with them, vote them and if I feel even to review them (I take my reviews very seriously, even more than my voting power).

Final thoughts:

Well, my guide ends here but as I said at the beginning if people correct me or give me further technical info about blams, saves and B/P bonus I am more than happy to update info with proper credits. After all this guide is meant for beginners like me and I shared my experiences that allowed me to extract these type of info since I wasn't fully satisfied with what I read in both forums and especially the help/FAQ section. Below you find the references from which I took a small part of my info and images. No need to give exposure to stolen stuff used as example of blatant blam-worthy submissions. Yes, I used Pico emoticon since he was the voting icon for flash movies/games Portal before the Tankman took the place and now.....

Enjoy the show!

References:

Expert's Guide to NG-DX

https://newgrounds.fandom.com/wiki/Blam_%26_Protect_Rank

Hello everyone, I hope you are having serene times especially now that Easter is gradually approaching. And speaking of something that is approaching I would like to share a little sneak peek of what I am doing for Pico Day since last year I couldn't participate due to the many exams I had:

This is the lineart of something that won't be a single work as I plan to draw the trio. I hope to finish it in time but since I am done with collabs I joined these months and I am relatively more free in terms of free time, I think I can manage it.

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Another curious thing I discovered in these days while browsing the image folder of the assets folder from FNF game I've installed in my PC was this:

I personally don't know if this is just a test from the creators of the game when it comes to character select placement or a possible foreshadowing of the future playable characters. If someone knows more feel free to correct my assumptions.

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Totally unrelated to these two topics, I plan to continue studying Russian language by myself despite the course is over and I passed the university exam. I will miss both the course, teachers, students and even the exam itself but this won't prevent me from continuing studying it and keep writing those Russian Diaries which helped me a lot in shaping my perception and study skills of this language.

Well, that's all for now. See you next time and drink plenty of water!

Hello everyone and good day/evening (depending where you are), I hope everything is alright but speaking of "being alright" I take this opportunity to spread some news that, I know most of you already know because now it's in the site main page's news but I would like to take part with my very small audience compared to the one these two people have. I am referring to BrandyBuizel and ADR3-N, two amazing and talented artists I discovered thanks to Tankmas ADVENTure and Audio forum respectively. I can't directly help them financially but I want to spread this nonetheless. Tomorrow I will spread it on Discord too with my other friends in the hope more people can reach or just spread it by themselves.

1) BrandyBuizel

I discovered him because he is responsible for having helped organized the Tankmas ADVENTure, the Endless Summer Lovin' Collab, not to mention the cool short movie LUCKYBOY:

Seriously when I watched it the first time it was love at first sight because of how cool animation looked and the different media employed to deliver a fun and relatable story. Go check it out, if you haven't.

Sadly he has been facing some difficult times recently especially on the job front, but if you want to learn more check the Gofundme page which explains more in depth the problems he's currently facing. I am very glad to see that, at the moment I am writing, 43% has been raised, but there is still need of other people help/spread.

2) ADR3-N

As I said above, I discovered this talented artist first through forum threads of the Audio section, mainly the Audio Portal clean-up because I want to learn how to distinguish AI-generated music to flag the shit out of it, seriously thank you for making me discover this gem because I am gradually learning the pattern of AI-generated music (at least with Suno). I also want to thank from the bottom of my heart Quest, without your efforts and skills we wouldn't be able to learn these things and I agree that education is a strong tool to fight off AI-generated music. Thank you, really!

Asides from the forum threads I also discovered ADR3-N's talent thanks to this wonderful piece:

I fell in love with her music and way to deliver lyrics in such powerful way that energizes your mind and spirit, so I am listening to other amazing pieces such as:

These are her Ko-fi and Gumroad pages where you can support her (the latter even has free goodies in case you are a music producer) since her delicate financial grip that is affecting her life.

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If you prefer to go directly to their respective blogs here the links:

https://droid.newgrounds.com/news/post/1518995

https://adr3-n.newgrounds.com/news/post/1519544

I wish you guys all the best, take care and remember that you are not alone, I'm seeing the community is trying to help and support. You rock!

I know I am a nobody here with a small following but it doesn't hurt trying to spread at least. As I said tomorrow I will spread it on Discord servers I am in to reach more people, thank you to those who have donated, and thank you for reading this blog. See you next time!

Hello everybody! Today I would like to promote another underrated artists that was suggested by my friend ChronoNG: Slushie Sweetheart

If I had to sum up her style in one sentence it would be: neon colour happiness.

And this is clearly noticeable since her first works such as:

A characteristics element that I've noticed looking at her gallery was the use of thick lineart around the character and this is well balanced with linearts of different thickness within the character itself and the bright colours like it's well shown here in these two pieces:

I seriously love how vivid the colours are but other elements that make her art truly enjoyable are the different angles from which the characters are depicted, because it creates a nice deconstruction of the overall composition. This other piece is amazing:

Explosion of vivid colours, dynamic pose and quite tasty visually speaking (the background helps to enhance this feeling).

In these two pieces another element I love, asides from the bright colours and fun design, are the strokes that combine with shading and lighting creating a cool and different way of building a three-dimensional effect. Her art is really enjoyable to look at and I personally think that reflects her personality too: fun, bright and lively. So why not giving her some support and hit that follow button? I would love to see more people discovering her. See you next time!

Hello everyone! I hope you are doing great! It's been 5 days since I reached 200 fans but I didn't want to celebrate it at first simply because I had put this post up and wanted to leave it for at least a week (feel free to drop your best work for a review if you want). But now I take the opportunity to say thank you for the 200 people who decided to follow this crazy bird person who likes to share stuff, fun facts and a bit of support to the fantastic and talented people who enrich this website:

An extremely simple draw not that different, from a textual point of view, from the drawing I did for the 69 fans where some of my OCs were featured. Here I wanted to show them more in detail or at least in full body. Yes, the "F" and "N" are not random in their font.

Once again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for deciding to follow me^^ it means a lot, it's really nice being appreciated I will be honest and I will do my best to keep being the person I am. I am also happy to see I am gradually reaching 100 reviews, because, even if I haven't stated it explicitly in my resolutions of the new year for NG, it's one of my goals for this 2025. I hope to surpass it and write even more reviews to help, support, share my thought and in general have fun with the community.

I am also participating some new cool and fun collabs like the Crazy Clown collab and the Tarot Card collab, while preparing at the same time for Russian oral exam I have this month since I passed the written exam in January with a very good result since I studied all A2 level in just two months.

I also started drawing the 6 fanart challenge I started last year, first two characters have been drawn. I can't wait to finish it and post it. In the meantime see you soon!