Editing Newgrounds (section)

==History==
In 1991, at the age of 13, Tom Fulp launched a [[Neo Geo]] [[fanzine]] called ''New Ground'' and sent issues to approximately 100 members of a club originating on the online service [[Prodigy (online service)|Prodigy]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history#wiki_toc_1|title=1991: The Zine|website=Newgrounds|access-date=April 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210331062514/https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history|archive-date=March 31, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref> Using a hosting service, he launched a website called ''New Ground Remix'' in 1995, which increased in popularity during the summer of 1996 after Fulp created the [[Bulletin board system|BBS]] games ''Club a Seal'' and ''Assassin'' while a student at [[Drexel University]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gimletmedia.com/episode/episode105-how-we-first-met/|title=#105 At World's End|publisher=Gimlet Media|access-date=September 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929015606/https://gimletmedia.com/episode/episode105-how-we-first-met/|archive-date=September 29, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> He then created ''Club a Seal II'' and ''Assassin II'', along with a separate hosting site titled ''New Ground Atomix''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history#wiki_toc_4|title=1997: The Tale of Two Newgrounds|website=Newgrounds|access-date=April 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429232222/https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history|archive-date=April 29, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The 1999 release of ''[[Pico's School]]'', a [[Adobe Flash|Flash]] [[browser game]] that "exhibited a complexity of design and polish in presentation that was virtually unseen in amateur Flash game development"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Andrew |title=History of digital games: developments in art, design and interaction |date=2017 |publisher=CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, an A K Peters Book |location=Boca Raton, FL |isbn=9781138885554 |page=219}}</ref> of the time helped establish Newgrounds as a "public force."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salter |first1=Anastasia |last2=Murray |first2=John |title=Flash: building the interactive web |date=2014 |publisher=The MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |isbn=9780262028028 |page=76}}</ref>

1999 also saw the consolidation of both sites into one domain name (newgrounds.com), and the creation of "The Portal", a place on the site for Fulp to put his Flash projects that were smaller and more unfinished. Site visitors began to reach out through email with their own Flash content, which was showcased on a webpage in The Portal.<ref>{{cite web |title=1999: Hot New Games |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history#wiki_toc_6 |publisher=Newgrounds |access-date=December 8, 2023}}</ref> By 2000, there were so many Portal submissions that submitting Flash content to the Portal would become an automated process with the help of Fulp's friend Ross.<ref>{{cite web |title=2000: Full-Time Job |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/history#wiki_toc_7 |website=Newgrounds |access-date=December 8, 2023}}</ref> Tom has stated that the automated Portal "ultimately defined [Newgrounds]'s purpose".<ref>{{cite web |title=Newgrounds Wiki - Staff|url=https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/about-newgrounds/staff |publisher=Newgrounds |access-date=December 9, 2023}}</ref>

While [[Macromedia Flash Player]] was required for Newgrounds in order to play games, the site also brought together members who were interested in producing Flash games and gained "considerable online influence" as a result.<ref name="fiamik2020">{{cite journal |last1=Fiadotau |first1=Mikhail |date=August 2020 |title=View of Growing old on Newgrounds: The hopes and quandaries of Flash game preservation |journal=[[First Monday (journal)|First Monday]] |volume=5 |issue=8 |doi=10.5210/fm.v25i8.10306|s2cid=225498838 |doi-access= free}}</ref> It subsequently became one of the most "active Flash creator communities in the English-speaking Internet" and served as a place that [[video game developer]]s could begin their careers.<ref name="fiamik2020" /> Flash was once described by Newgrounds as the "driving force" behind the site.{{Sfn | Van Buren | 2010 | p = 547}} Even so, those on the site had a "low tolerance for poor quality work", referring mainly to humor and storytelling instead of animation quality. Some animators on the site moved to [[YouTube]] by the mid-2000s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Darlington |first1=Joseph |date=May 22, 2018 |title=Techno-Wizardry and movie magic: the trace of labour (or lack thereof) in 3D digital animation |journal=Information, Communication & Society |volume=21 |issue=9 |pages=1258 |doi=10.1080/1369118X.2018.1476571 |s2cid=149557860}}</ref>

By November 2008, Newgrounds had over 1.5 million users and over 130,000 animations.<ref name="yardi2008">{{cite conference |url=http://yardi.people.si.umich.edu/pubs/Yardi_BlackBox08.pdf |title=Opening The Black Box: Four Views of Transparency in Remix Culture |last1=Yardi |first1=Sarita |last2=Luther |first2=Kurt |last3=Diakopoulos |first3=Nick |last4=Bruckman |first4=Amy |date=November 2008 |conference=CSCW Workshop on Tinkering, Tailoring, & Mashing: The Social and Collaborative Practices of the Read-Write Web |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181221095604/http://yardi.people.si.umich.edu/pubs/Yardi_BlackBox08.pdf |archive-date=December 21, 2018 |location=San Diego |pages=3 |format= |id= |bibcode= |oclc= |doi= |access-date=April 30, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>{{Sfn | Luther | Bruckman | 2008 | p = 344}} This had increased by August 2010, when it was reported that the site had over 2.2 million users and over 180,000 games and [[animated films]], most of which were animations made by only one person, with others collaboratively made by various individuals.{{Sfn |Luther |Caine |Zigler |Bruckman | 2010 | pp = 2, 7, 8, 10}} It was also said in 2013 that users had created "hundreds of thousands of animated movies and online games".<ref>{{cite conference |url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2470654.2466266 |title=Let's Get Together: The Formation and Success of Online Creative Collaborations |last1=Settles |first1=Burr |last2=Dow |first2=Steven |date=April 2013 |editor=Wendy E. Mackay |others=Stephen Brewster, Susanne Bødker |conference=CHI '13: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |conference-url=https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/2470654 |book-title=CHI '13: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |volume= |edition= |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |location=New York |page=2009 |format= |id= |bibcode= |oclc= |doi= 10.1145/2470654.2466266|access-date=April 30, 2021|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' ranked the website at No. 39 on its list of "50 Best Websites" in 2010.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=50 Best Websites 2010 |date=August 25, 2010 |magazine=Time |issn=0040-781X |url=https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2012721_2012922_2012919,00.html |access-date=August 18, 2019}}</ref>

In 2018, Newgrounds began to encourage contributors to submit their games in an [[HTML5]] format rather than Flash.<ref name="fiamik2020" /> In November and December, it experienced surges of new members originally from [[Tumblr]] when that site began restricting adult content after illegal [[child pornography]] was found on it, resulting in the Tumblr [[iOS]] app being removed from the [[App Store (Apple)|App Store]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Aparajita_1989|title=Tumblr shutting down? No. But there's exodus and Newgrounds is gaining from it|url=https://piunikaweb.com/2018/11/22/tumblr-shutting-down-no-but-theres-exodus-and-newgrounds-is-gaining-from-it/|website=Piunika Web|access-date=December 5, 2018|date=November 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118101049/https://piunikaweb.com/2018/11/22/tumblr-shutting-down-no-but-theres-exodus-and-newgrounds-is-gaining-from-it/|archive-date=January 18, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Asarch|first=Steven|title=Why Is Tumblr Banning Adult Content? Censorship Causes Alternative Platforms to Rise|url=https://www.newsweek.com/tumblr-censorship-ban-alternatives-pillowfort-1244094|website=[[Newsweek]]|access-date=December 5, 2018|date=December 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210325124636/https://www.newsweek.com/tumblr-censorship-ban-alternatives-pillowfort-1244094|archive-date=March 25, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

In the summer of 2019, with the discontinuation of Flash upcoming, the administration of Newgrounds unveiled the ''Newgrounds Player'' for Windows, which was described as a "solution for playing Flash games and movies" hosted on the site.<ref name="fiamik2020" /> The application would launch via the website upon a request to view Flash content and play it.<ref>{{cite web |title=Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/flash/player |access-date=5 December 2023}}</ref> The player would later be followed up with the [[Ruffle (software)|Ruffle]] Flash emulator in August 2019, with the two options being offered in tandem as development on Ruffle progressed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Flash Emulation & Brave BAT |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1444275 |publisher=Newgrounds |access-date=December 5, 2023}}</ref>

In April 2021, an update for the browser game ''[[Friday Night Funkin']]'' was exclusively released on Newgrounds at the time, causing the site's server to become overloaded after an influx of site traffic.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cohen |first1=Skylar |title=Friday Night Funkin' Week 7 Reveal Crashes Newgrounds |url=https://gamerant.com/friday-night-funkin-week-7-crashes-newgrounds/ |access-date=April 19, 2021 |work=Game Rant |date=April 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425043759/https://gamerant.com/friday-night-funkin-week-7-crashes-newgrounds/|archive-date=April 25, 2021|url-status=live}}</ref>

In July 2021, Fulp received the [[Game Developers Choice Awards]] Pioneer Award for his contributions to establishing Newgrounds and subsequent work in [[The Behemoth]].<ref name="gdc2021 special">{{cite web | url = https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gdc-to-honor-newgrounds-founder-tom-fulp-and-industry-veteran-laralyn-mcwilliams-at-21st-annual-awards/1100-6493519/ | title = GDC To Honor Newgrounds Founder Tom Fulp And Industry Veteran Laralyn McWilliams At 21st Annual Awards | first = Cameron | last=  Koch | date = July 1, 2021 | accessdate = July 1, 2021 | work = [[GameSpot]]}}</ref>

In September 2023, an update to the site's Art Portal was rolled out, implementing it in the existing Project system for animation, games and audio, as well as adding the ability to use multi-author credits on Art submissions and adding multi-art support in either Inline, Strip or Gallery formats.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1528343 |title = Art Portal: Multi-Art and Multi-Author! |publisher=Newgrounds|access-date=December 7, 2023}}</ref>

In March 2024, the site's reporting system was updated to enable users to report content predominantly [[Generative artificial intelligence|generated by artificial intelligence (AI)]].<ref>{{cite web 
|first=Tom |last=Fulp |title=This Week's Site Updates |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1532878 |publisher=Newgrounds |date=March 2, 2024 |access-date=April 22, 2024}}</ref>

On October 8, 2024, Takeover Tuesday was introduced, where every Tuesday, Newgrounds supporters could put a submission onto the front page for that day.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Takeover Tuesday! |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1538796 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=www.newgrounds.com |language=en}}</ref> On February 1, 2025, ''"normal" bird'' - a crude drawing of a [[bird]] - became the most reacted submission of all Takeover Tuesdays, with over 350 reactions by Newgrounds users.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Newgrounds.com — Everything, By Everyone |url=https://www.newgrounds.com/frontpage/takeover/2025/2/11 |access-date=2025-03-04 |website=Newgrounds.com |language=en}}</ref>