Q: Why are you doing this?
A: Good question. The answer to this question is truly unknown (undefined). Trust me I'm even struggling to find the answer, and it's a real awkward feeling.
Sometimes I ask myself "Why can't I just drop this project and be a normal user?" and I can't manage to find the answer to that question.
Q: What do you attempt to get out of it?
A: An improvement in the Newgrounds community, such as users writing good reviews in submissions and posting good posts on the BBS, along with polite behaviour and whatnot.
Although it's a vain attempt, it's still an attempt nevertheless.
I don't expect to get anything out if it however. If I were to get something out of it, it would be $50 from the Newgrounds Revenue Sharing Program.
Q: What HAVE you gotten out of it so far?
A: Nothing except a huge workload that never has decreased. Along with so much shit from the moderators and plenty of mod-wannabe users (users that want to be mods in vain). Maybe the guide threatens their chance of getting moderator status, for they fear I will steal it. I dunno, but I do know is that this shit never ended; it kept growing and growing.
Q: What is driving you to do this project?
A: Nothing. And yet like the first question, it's an undefined answer.
Q: Are there any obstacles you encountered that gave you a hard time?
A: Yes. The goddamn BBS is the biggest obstacle I faced, and also slowed down guide progress greatly. An equally-big obstacle is when Wade accidentally deleted my 2,200 news posts, which also deleted a lot of the guides. It was an accident though, so no sweat. The BBS/Review moderator Malachy also threw shit on my face, which deteriorated my progress on the guide, and also damaged some of the guides. I also suspect he was participating in the deletion of my 2,200 news posts, but I can't confirm this. The moronic BBS users also gave me shit on the BBS, so I ended up wasting all my time on the forums. Not a single second was well-spent posting on the forums. Reading itself was more of a pleasure than posting (as awkward as it sounds), and was worth the time more than posting itself (despite it being frowned upon).
In short, the NG BBS and Malachy are the two biggest obstacles I faced, and these two continued to torture me throughout the entire guide production.
Q: How did you solve the problems from the obstacles?
A: For the BBS, I had decided on quitting posting on there. Primarily the quitting of the BBS has gotten rid of one of my problems: The annoying-as-fuck BBS regulsrs.
However that didn't get rid of Malachy, for he still continued to chase my ass everywhere on Newgrounds (except the portals). He continued to leave harassing comments on my user page despite taking the ultimate action of sacrificing my BBS posting privileges; something Mal said I didn't need to do but I don't trust him and did it anyway.
He also was involved in the first destruction of the guide, where he tricked Wade into deleting my 2,200 news posts; which increased production time to 10.5 years instead of 9.9.
Q: Why do you intend to do this for 10.5 years?
A: As I write this, I have come too far to back down. I can't quit now. A lot of aggresive planning has been done, and I cannot leave Newgrounds until I finish this project.
Newgrounds is the greatest website I have ever seen in my life, and I just wanted to give back to the site I love somehow. I don't have flash, but even if I did, I would only submit shit to the portal. The Audio Portal is largely ignored, so that doesn't do anything either.
I did submit some art to the art portal and became scouted, but that's it. That itself is a very small contribution. More of an atom of contribution.
I then decided that the only thing I can do to give back to the site I love is to make a guide out of it. I mainly got this idea from the Where is/How to? forum on the BBS back when I posted. The regulars gave shit answers, and I wanted to dish out something better.
Q: Why is this guide almost 100,000 news posts long?
A: I wanted to create the ultimate guide, the ultimate Newgrounds Guide that will blow the crap out of all the other guides on Newgrounds COMBINED. Also will surpass the explanations of the smartest users in the site, and maybe a few mods.
Length does not equal to quality, but in this guide it will.
The guide is long because:
(1) The inability to add more than 1 image to a news post
(2) The ability to provide plenty of information
(3) Interactive guides where users can play with the news post to gain knowledge. These guides are the most active out of all guides on NG.
(4) Blank posts that is stuffed in each section so that if I get excess information I can let it fill up the next blank post. It would be a shame if I ran out of news posts and got good juicy information.
(5) A security feature to prevent plagarism of the guide, where someone may steal it and claim it as their own shit (which will be impossible due to the time stamps of the news posts). Stealing 1 post is easier than stealing 2,000 news posts that has the same amount of information.
Q: Is this what you only do on NG?
A: Along with writing the guide and posting news posts, I also flag loads of abuse daily, be it review abuse, stolen flash, stolen art, etc.
Occasionally I be a lazy ass and only work on the guide, thus letting abuse slip through the cracks. I'm slowly tightening up my hammer, and will start hammering out the abuse as soon as it strikes before it's never to be found again.
However
Q: How do you manage to complete all these tasks?
A: I don't. I'm in a sloppy mess. However I do get my shit together at times, so it's a mircale how I manage these tasks. I primarily thank the fact that I can fill in the news posts more quickly than I can post them (as in making more news posts).
Q: Do you ever allot some time to spend with your NG friends or the community?
A: Sadly, with the massive growth of the NG Guide I don't really talk to my NG friends anymore, nor my favorite artists. Shadic93 is one perfect example (and the anime fanboy even bitched about it). I only talk to my friends if they send me PMs or comment on my user page, or they meet up in The Newgrounds Guide Chat. Not until the workload of the NG Guide lessens to a managable level where I can squeeze in socializing with work.
I don't participate in the BBS like the community does, so that's an absolute NO. I never will too, for I have been given enough shit treatment from the moderators and users to permanently change my view of the BBS from positive to negative infinity. The worst part is, the user base can't change it back to positive; my view of the BBS will always be negative as long as I live in this planet.
Q: Is this giude some lame proxy attempt to become a mod?
A: A hard-core mod-wannabe user would think like this, but the answer is no. Getting mod status may actually destroy the guide at the end, for the workload will become way too massive to handle. It's like as if I have to make TWO 70,000 post NG Guides.
ALthough I have gotten so many comments resembling something like "SMBS for review mod", I told all of them that it's not going to work. BBS mod status, which I know I won't get due to the shit the user base gave me, will definitely destroy the Newgrounds Guide no fucking questions asked. With review mod status, I only swap flagging reviews with deleting reviews, so it isn't that bad. Still, as a review mod, I would have to deal with butthurt users, curious users asking questions, dishing out bans than mindlessly deleting abusive reviews, etc, etc. It definitely will slow down guide production to a snail's pace, or may even halt it permanently.
For someone like me, Wade giving me review mod status is somewhat of a bad move in his part due to my nature of spamming news posts. Besides, chances are I would refuse, for as surprising as it sounds getting mod status is something I DO NOT want.
There's probably someone else out there that's better suited for the position than I am, hahaha.
Q: If you never started this project, what do you think you would be doing here and when would you have left?
A: I easily would have left the site after I was kicked out of the BBS by Malachy and SevenSeize. The portals weren't looking too good, and coming to chat with the same people is boring.
This ACTUALLY would have happened if I followed that prick's advice into shutting down the most active part of the Newgrounds Guide (Part 2; more specifically the Ex-Ex-Part 2), in which the NG Guide would be a ghost town to a degree.
However I didn't, and that rewarded me with this. Whether the reward is positive or negative can be interpreted in different ways. I'll leave it to you to decide if it's positive or negative.
Q: During guide production, what things have you done on NG that you regret the most?
A: I can put an endless list of all the things I regret, but here are some:
- Leaving the BBS
* It gave the mods, and some stupid users a very bad image of me for some reason (probably because of being a reculse and not contributing or entertaining the community).
* Was leaving the BBS the best choice? That's a question I also can't answer. On one hand, I was able to escape from the moderators and their abuse, and therefore the NG stress level went down to almost 0. On the other hand, I completely alienate myself from the NG community for good. It's a double edged sword. At first sight it looks like leaving is a good idea because mod abuse can be painful at times, but after being gone for 11 or so months you'll eventually suffer from being separated from the community, and ALTHOUGH my situation is an exception it probably will affect a lot of users who have nothing to do (which may also force them to leave Newgrounds).
- Meeting that punk Malachy
* All my troubles started from him, and twice he tried to trick Wade into deleting the NG Guide (one of which his plan actually succeeded; in which I lost 2,200 news posts)
- Ranting about the BBS
* Kind of made me look immature, and also I can use this as an example on what NOT to do when you get banned/pissed (which is why I never deleted them despite those posts being linked to like 50,000 times).
- Isolating myself from my friends
* The best example I can give who slightly suffered from my prolonged absence is Shadic93, who usually wonders what I am doing. This happened since the beginning of 2010 all the way to June 2010 (6 month stretch).
Q: May I help you in the guide with-
A: No. Forget it. If you want to help the guide, you're better off staying away from interfering with the system. The guide is mine, and I will do whatever I want. I do not need outside help.
Some help I will accept and credit are:
- Random glitches that have been saved as a screenshot
- A BBS thread that has an NG rule I missed
- Anything reported in the preliminary section (errors, advice, images, criticism, etc.)
- A news post that has something important posted in someone's page
Ideas like creating an account to speed up the blank posting will be denied. I am the one who will reserve supreme control of the NG Guide, and I will not accept any help from those who decide to assist.
This guide was meant to only be created by ME; not by the community.
If by any chance I DO need help for someone to set up another account to make more blank posts or anything similar to that sitation, I WILL ask someone if they can do it; do not bother volunteering yourself to do so (as it also reduces your chances of being asked to control a section).