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CelestOrion
Working on a long-running Sonic comic series and other game related projects!

Age 34, Male

Management/Comics

Oklahoma City

Joined on 3/13/09

Level:
26
Exp Points:
7,358 / 7,510
Exp Rank:
5,397
Vote Power:
6.79 votes
Audio Scouts
6
Art Scouts
6
Rank:
Private
Global Rank:
3,249
Blams:
1,005
Saves:
1,708
B/P Bonus:
18%
Whistle:
Gold
Trophies:
21
Medals:
467
Supporter:
2y 9m 9d
Gear:
1

CelestOrion's News

Posted by CelestOrion - September 9th, 2009


http://kotaku.com/5355153/sonic-return s-in-new-2d-hd-game

SEGA, if this game is good, I'll start liking you again.


Posted by CelestOrion - July 3rd, 2009


Upon permission from SuperMarioBrosS, http://supermariobross.newgrounds.com, I have decided to put some of his reviews on cleaning up Newgrounds up in my journal, so that other users can see this and help out in the cleanup.

In this post, information about flagging flash submissions will be presented AND elaborated. Note that this isn't primarily focused on abusive reviews although it mainly is focused on abusive reviews. Without further ado, it will be unleashed:

Note: I know the proper verb usage is 'blow' instead of 'flag' in this case, but some people like to use the word 'flag' so I will use the verb 'flag' instead of 'blow'.

~ Terms of Service / Submission Guidelines ~

Q: Are there any general submission guidelines?
A: Yep. Here they are:

Read the Terms of Service (AKA the submission guidelines) carefully:

-We do not seek movies that are racist or excessively pornographic. Artists should use their best judgment, based one what they see here at Newgrounds.

Self-explanatory. If a movie is racist, has hardcore porn and/or posts NSFW (Not safe for work) shit without a warning, then flag it under this category:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

-We do not want "demos" that have no functionality. If an artist has a decent demo then he should consider posting them to the Alphas section. If we see multiple entries in the Portal such as "Crap Movie v0.3" then "Crap Movie v0.5", we will delete them because they are annoying.

This one is very tricky and dangerous. The Alphas from what I heard is not functioning well. Leave demos alone. If you flag them, chances are that the flags will be cleared and penalty will be given. HOWEVER, if the author is repeatedly crapping out entries with no difference, flag it under either of these 2 categories:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).
This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

Remember though, an admin reads all the complaints submitted when blowing an entry so even if it's in the wrong category, the admin will be able to see the reason the whistle was blown.

Again, flagging movies under this category is tricky. Best advice: avoid them.

- We despise movies that auto-redirect or auto-spawn windows to other sites. If people like a submission they will click on a link that takes them there anyway. If we catch a user using an auto-redirect or auto-spawn, the offending NG account may be deleted.

Self-explanatory. Flag it under this category:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

-Artists should not beg for high votes. If a comment reads "Vote a 3 or higher and I'll make more" or something similar, we will most likely delete it. Also, ploys like "Vote a 5 if you support Napster!" warrant deletion too.

Now for THIS ONE, there is NO flagging option. So if you see something like this, send Wade a PM or leave the movie alone. Flagging it will screw your whistle. Besides, the voter can vote whatever the hell he or she wants; the viewer cannot do anything.

-Users MUST NOT upload movies that they did not make. We will ban the IP address of any offenders and Newgrounds suddenly won't be so fun anymore. Also keep in mind that a user uploading a movie to the Portal is making a legal claim that it is their original work. It is a good idea to put a Newgrounds validated e-mail address somewhere in the beginning or ending of a movie so we can easily determine if the movie is stolen or not. We also love it when users put the NG tank logo in their movies. Check out the NG Preloaders page!

YES, this one is deadly. If you upload a stolen movie, YOU ACCOUNT WILL BE FUCKING TERMINATED! Yes, that is right, DELETED! This isn't like the audio portal where if you submit copyrighted work, you'll be permanently banned. Your punishment for uploading stolen flash is ACCOUNT DELETION.

Out of flagging all the movies, flagging this one is the easiest. When flagging a stolen entry, provide links to the source it was stolen from and (if possible) the original author's name.

Obviously, flag it under:

This movie is stolen.

If you are the creator of the entry and feel your work was unfairly flagged, email wade@newgrounds.com immediately to explain the situation. Be sure to include your NG username and the name of this submission. The subject of your email MUST include "Newgrounds Help - Admin Review" or it will not be received.

There is a way to get out of the shithole if your work has been unfairly flagged. Email (not PM) Wade with the information and explain the situation. Just because something is under admin's review doesn't mean that the entry will be deleted.

If you broke any of the terms listed (other than stealing), you'll receive a hefty portal ban but not an account deletion (unless you commit multiple offenses). If you have stolen a flash, your account will be deleted.

~ Submission Guidelines in Flash Submission Page ~

Please note: If your movie violates any of the following rules, it will be removed and your account may be deleted.

That is written in red font.

- Your movie must not be someone else's work! We will delete your account as punishment. If you see something you like elsewhere, ask them to submit it, or notify us.

Like it says in the submission guidelines, submitting stolen flash will lead to account deletion.

Flag it under:

This movie is stolen.

- Your movie must not auto-redirect to a new site or open pop-ups! If your submission autospawns RPG links (such as Outwar or Urban Dead), your account will be deleted and admins for the target site will be notified.

Same thing has been said in the submission guidelines in the FAQ. If you see shit like this, flag it under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

- Your movie must not simply be an ad for your site.

This one is like the auto-spawn thing. Flag it under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

- Due to new laws, you may not submit photographic images of nude people engaging in sexual activity.

I must say, these 'new laws' are good laws.

Anyway, it is the same as the first guideline listed in the FAQ:

We do not seek movies that are racist or excessively pornographic. Artists should use their best judgment, based one what they see here at Newgrounds.

Flag it under:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

- Do not submit photographs that are illegal, such as child pornography and bestiality. We WILL contact the FBI!

Same thing as above. Flag under:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

- Your movie must not be racist or downright hateful towards specific groups of people.

Again, it's the same as the first guideline listed in the FAQ:

We do not seek movies that are racist or excessively pornographic. Artists should use their best judgment, based one what they see here at Newgrounds.

Flag it under:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

- You may parody existing Flash submissions, but you must use your own artwork and not rip another author's art.

If someone does rip another person's art AND parodies a flash submission, then flag it under:

This movie is stolen.

Be sure to explain the situation THOROUGHLY.

- Personal attacks towards other Flash authors will result in deletion.

If you see these, flag it under:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

- Your movie must not be a pointless "demo" or "preview" without any redeeming qualities.

This is where NG elaborates. They say that demos are prohibited in the portal and should be sent to the alphas; however, IF it has some redeeming qualities like some interactivity or has SOMETHING INTERESTING worth watching, then it is fine.

If it is pointless and has no redeeming qualities, flag it under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

- Do not submit movies or games made from public .FLA files, these will be flagged.

This is like stealing a movie. Flag it under:

This movie is stolen.

- Do not submit pictures in a slide show format with no interactivity. Quiz games are okay.

This is like posting a demo or preview with no functionality or redeeming qualities. Flag this under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

- Do not submit copyrighted video clips that you did not make.

Downright blatant; flag it under:

This movie is stolen.

- Do not submit crap entries with the intent to give users "free blam points."

If you see this happening, it's the same as submitting the same flash with no significant improvements. Flag it under either:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).
This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

- Do not swap out your original entry with something totally different, we will terminate your account.

If you're wondering how spam entries are getting past judgment, this is why. File swapping (that is what this method is called) is posting a legitimate flash and when it passes judgment, it is overwritten with a spam submission. Most often, it will be a flash tutorial and when it passes judgment, the bastards (spammers) will overwrite the tutorial with a spam submission.

Spam accounts are being deleted because of NUMEROUS REPEATED offenses of this rule.

- Do not re-submit your entry after it has been BLAMMED without making noticeable improvements. It will be flagged!

This is this guideline in different wording:

We do not want "demos" that have no functionality. If an artist has a decent demo then he should consider posting them to the Alphas section. If we see multiple entries in the Portal such as "Crap Movie v0.3" then "Crap Movie v0.5", we will delete them because they are annoying.

Flag it under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

- Make sure your submission has been properly rated. Entries with grossly inaccurate ratings may result in account termination or flagging.

This can go either way:

Let's say that Flash A has porn in it.
Now let's say that Flash B has content suited for everyone.

If Flash B is rated as 'adult', then it does not violate this rule.

HOWEVER, if Flash A is rated as 'Everyone', then IT IS violating this rule and your account will be terminated. If this is the case, flag it under:

This movie is unsuitable (e.g. hardcore adult, porn slideshow, hateful, illegal).

~ More Guidelines & Hints ~

Always check the email address of the author when flagging a submission. For example, if a flash comes from a 'gmail.com' domain but the author has a 'yahoo.com' address, then it could be stolen.

A flash that is already on NG that is uploaded again by a different person is obviously stolen.

If someone says 'I didn't make it, but this is the author: (Insert real author's name)', then flag as stolen. However, if a relative of a submitter (like say the submitter's cousin) has made the flash, then it may be left on the site. It's when you steal something from a completely different person that opens the flash to deletion.

The file size is something to look at. If a file size is small or too big, then it could be malicious or stolen. This one you shouldn't depend on when flagging a flash.

If a flash tries to do something with your computer (like log you off, eat up all of your computer's memory, spreads viruses, etc.) then flag it under:

This movie is malicious (e.g. auto-spawns pop-up windows).

Tips for finding stolen submissions:
- Look and see if the submitter has previous submissions
- If his first submission is good, you have the right to feel suspicious
- If the preloader is from a different site, then it's stolen
- Try a quick Google search and see if the flash is on another site

WARNING: IF YOU FLAG A SUBMISSION, YOU ARE RISKING YOUR WHISTLE. If the submission gets deleted, that's good because you will receive points for it. IF THE SUBMISSION IS CLEARED WITH FLAGS, YOU WILL LOSE A SHIT LOAD OF WHISTLE POINTS. Yes, you can PLUNGE from GOLD to GARBAGE if you incorrectly flag a flash. The curve is VERY NASTY compared to flagging reviews. The penalty is lighter for incorrectly flagging reviews in contrast.

If a movie you flagged passes, you do not lose or gain any whistle points. However, if it is deleted later, you will get whistle points and a blam point if you voted 0 or 1 during judgment.

If a movie you flagged that was under admin review is no longer under admin review, then you will have lost A LOT of points.

If a movie you flagged that was under admin review has been deleted, you get the whistle points.

Remember, the loss outweighs the gain BY A LOT!


Posted by CelestOrion - June 27th, 2009


Upon permission from SuperMarioBrosS, http://supermariobross.newgrounds.com, I have decided to put up some of his guidelines on my profile so that other users can help us clean up Newgrounds.

---

NOTICE: This guide can be used for flagging abusive reviews AND writing good reviews. If you don't break any of those rules listed (ie. if you follow the rules to make it non-abusive) then you got yourself a good review. Sure it doesn't help your organize your review, but it will at the very least add a barrier around your review to protect it from deletion. Break any of those rules and you leave a hole in the barrier which exposes it to deletion. Think of it like that. I may create a post about writing good reviews (most of the aspects of making a good review will come from here).

---

First of all, for those of you unaware of what is going on, read Part 1 and Part 2 thoroughly. You probably will mostly be interested in Part 2 though.

Cleaning up NG and Whistle Points Part 1: Explanation

Cleaning up NG and Whistle Points Part 2: Flagging Abusive Reviews

Anyway, in order to prevent users from bringing in non-abusive reviews into Part 2, here is a guide into finding abusive reviews:

NOTE: This has been created SOLELY based on EXPERIENCE of flagging reviews.

Here are the review guidelines: Review Guidelines

Below is the guidelines listed with explanations.

Stay on the topic of the submission and do not make personal remarks or insults towards the author. This is a big offense. Telling artists "You suck!", "You should go kill yourself!", or "You are gay!" will get you banned and you may lose your account. Without our contributors Newgrounds wouldn't be what it is, so we take seriously any insults directed at them by reviewers.

Pretty self-explanatory. If you ever see a review that shouts an insult to the author, it's abusive, regardless of the rest of the review. Flag it up! Examples include: Jump off a bridge, please shoot yourself, you are a faggot, etc.

Do not post TONS and TONS of crappy reviews just to get high in the rankings. If we catch someone doing this we will delete all their reviews - wouldn't that be a pain in the ass? Take your time and write a sincere review for every movie you wish to critique. Make sure your review is relative to the submission. Reviews that are found to offer no benefit to the author may be deleted.

If you ever see a user posting TONS of shitty reviews, PM a review moderator and let them know. Don't flag them because individually because they are probably not abusive (depending on the reviews).

The underlined sentence, however, is CRITICAL. Put yourself in place of the author. Read the reviews and think about this question: Is this review beneficial to me? If the answer is yes, then the review is not abusive. If the answer is no, then the review is abusive. If you use this question as a weapon, MOST of the reviews in NG would be gone. Keep the answer general though. Don't be too specific. If someone said 'I hated it', one author may find it useful while another won't give a shit. Try to keep it general. Think what the majority of the authors would feel if someone left a review like that.

Be sure that a lowly-scored review gives good advice. Saying 'work on your flash skills' or 'get some more practice' is useless advice while saying something like 'Change the background' or 'Get rid of this glitch/bug' is useful advice. Also, saying 'I didn't like it' with nothing else is also abusive.

Criticizing the author's work without giving criticism/advice is abusive. Example is saying 'This game is shit' with nothing more.

Do not use the review space for the purpose of promoting things. Stick to reviewing the movies - we don't want to hear about how great your website is. Also, posting links to websites that reward you for sending hits is prohibited; we will delete your account for the first offense with no warning. Posting unrelated links is also prohibited and will result in a ban.

This one is also self-explanatory. If a user promotes his/her website, flag it up! However, be careful. Check and see if the website is REALLY unrelated. Sometimes users place a link to a flash tutorial not on NG. Then, in that case, do not flag it.

Do not flood the review title or body. Examples would be long strings of characters or words with no breaks or repeating words or phrases over and over. Do not submit images made from text and characters, as this will also get you banned.

ASCII art is abusive and repeatedly do it in a number of reviews and you will be banned. Flooding the body with characters (at least 3 or more lines) is abusive regardless of score. This is normally found in highly scored flashes since people sometimes write 'AWESOME!!!!!!!' with the exclamation points flooding like 2 or more lines.

Do not use reviews to express your feelings that the entry should be BLAMMED. If you post "BLAM this" or something similar you will be banned. Use the review option to tell the author how they can improve their work.

Another self-explanatory rule. Say 'BLAM THIS PIECE OF SHIT' and your review will be deleted. HOWEVER, if you say 'BLAM THIS' and give lots of constructive criticism, then moderators will very likely leave it up there. This is often seldom, but just in case if there is a review like that, then don't flag it to stay safe. If there is something like 'BLAM!' or 'I WANT THIS TO BE BLAMMED', then flag it.

Saying 'How did this pass judgment?', 'Why didn't this get blammed?', 'I'm surprised that this passed judgment.', 'I'm surprise this was not blammed.', 'I blammed' or any of that type is also abusive.

Be sure that you read the sentence properly. Saying 'I am glad this wasn't blammed' is NOT abusive.

Do not use the review field to address other user's reviews you didn't agree with. You are to be reviewing the submission, not other people's reviews.

This one can go either way:

- Addressing other people's reviews without mentioning the submission is abusive, regardless of the score.

- Agreeing with another person that is going against the author is abusive.

- Supporting the author against another person is NOT abusive.

- Supporting someone else for their criticism can go either way (like saying 'I agree with the criticism <insert name> said'). Best advice, don't flag these. If the person supports the other person's criticism AND adds some of his own criticism, then it is NOT abusive.

- Disagreeing with others' criticism and adding your own can also go either way. Don't flag these. Disagreeing with others' criticism WITHOUT adding your own IS abusive.

If you believe an entry is stolen, do not comment about it in your review. If you are wrong, you may convince other users that the entry is stolen and you may cause a legitimate entry to receive an unfairly low score, or have the whistle blown on it. Use the whistle option, if available, to flag the entry as stolen when you believe that is the case. If there is no whistle option available (the entry is no longer under judgment) contact Wade with as many details as you can about the stolen Flash and where you think it was stolen from.

A HUGE amount of reviews violate this guideline. Saying something is stolen is DOWNRIGHT abusive. Contact Wade if the flash/audio is stolen and include precise information like where the flash came from, what user stole the flash, date submitted, etc.

If you think a submission doesn't belong on the front page of the site or sholdn't be featured in special sections of the site, keep it to yourself. The submissions on the front page and in special sections of the site are put there manually, meaning someone on our staff liked the submission. Keep your focus on how the person who submitted might improve their work.

NEWSFLASH: Typo error. 'Sholdn't' is misspelled. It's missing a 'u'.

Yeah, saying 'how was this front paged' or 'how did this shit get front page' is abusive. However, like saying 'BLAM THIS', if you provide lots of constructive criticism, the moderators will very likely leave it alone. However, this is extremely seldom since artists that create animations that make it to the top 50 probably don't need your constructive criticism.

A reminder you get when you are writing a review:

If you are giving this submission a low score, please offer constructive criticism that will be useful to the artist. The review space is not a place for you to act like a total asshole. If your review is found to be mean, offensive, or generally not helpful, you will be banned and your account may be terminated. NOTE: Any attempt to promote an outside, unrelated website in this space will result in the deletion of your user account.

A nice summary of the review guidelines. It still misses some points like 'do not say if the entry has been stolen' so check back the review guidelines often in case if you're not sure what you are writing/flagging.

----------------Other Information----------------

Ratio from whistle points gained or lost is not 1:1. If you flag a non-abusive review, you will be punished SEVERELY with a large amount of points taken away. It will take several reviews' worth of whistle points to negate/heal the damage caused by flagging a non-abusive review.

Flagging a review is NOT an instant process. If you flag something as non-abusive, it will take a long time until many people also flagged it as non-abusive. If you flag something as abusive, then chances are that people also flagged it and therefore may come to a moderator's attention. It can still take awhile though, so be patient. If you have a garbage whistle, you will not have any effect in flagging. So if you flag something, you add 0 weight to it. The higher the level your whistle is, the faster the review you flagged will come up to a moderator's attention.

There aren't any expiration dates to your flags. You can flag a review like 5 years ago and it may have been dealt with today if you had a poor whistle back then or you flagged something incorrectly.

| Negative Whistle Points | > | Positive Whistle Points |

If you can't read that, then it says that the absolute value of negative whistle points is greater than the absolute value of positive whistle points. Technically speaking, a positive will always surpass a negative, so absolute values were used to make more sense. This inequality shows the comparison of lost to gained whistle points. You gain more negative whistle points if you flag something as non-abusive than positive points if you whistle something as abusive.

Abusive reviews shouldn't be too hard to find, although some are difficult. Most, but not all of the time, a review should come up to your brain saying 'I AM ABUSIVE' instantly.

Garbage whistle is NOT the bottom of the dump. You can still receive positive or negative points. However, if you continue to get negative, then you must have pretty bad luck to do so. IF you got a garbage whistle RECENTLY (like a day ago), then you're not far away from the normal level and may need to flag a few reviews until you get the normal again.

Try to target recent reviews. Don't go searching for old reviews because chances are that it won't be deleted and you would have wasted your time. You won't lose whistle points, but you would have wasted your time. If you want to help out authors, the site AND your whistle, then seek for the new reviews. Turd of the Week normally has abusive reviews. It is a very rich source of whistle points.

There are no true statistics about how many whistle points you need to level up, how many points you receive for each review deleted, how many points you lost or any of that stuff. Only the administrators know that stuff and can see user and moderators' whistle points. If anyone says some statistics, then they are talking out of their ass and you should ignore them or correct them. Not even the review moderators know, let alone a user.

Also, it is interesting to note that just because you flagged something incorrectly doesn't mean that you will lose whistle points. Review moderators have the ability to clear the flags WITHOUT the penalty. They normally use that feature when users flag really old reviews OR if a review isn't abusive but they can see how people have seen it as abusive.

REVIEWS VOTED 10 ARE USUALLY NOT ABUSIVE! If someone says 'Good work' and nothing more, it is not abusive since it offers encouragement to the author.

Saying that you loved the flash but leaving a score of 0 is abusive. It may be an accident, but flag it up regardless. Users have tried very tricky stuff like that. They praise the submission while trying to lower the average review score so that the submission doesn't win Underdog of the Week or (more likely) Review Crew's Pick.

If a review is written in a different language, then it's abusive. Flag it up. HOWEVER, if the author's response to that review is in the SAME language, then DO NOT flag it!

However, if like 1 or 2 sentences or a few words are in a different language, then it may be left on the site. Regardless, stay away from these types of reviews especially if they are rated 10.

If someone didn't watch a movie, and they left a review, then it IS abusive regardless of the score.

Saying that a movie should be whistled or deleted is abusive since it is equal to saying 'BLAM THIS!'.

One word reviews are abusive. If someone wrote 'I lol'd', then flag it.

Copying someone else's review IS abusive! However, PM a review moderator before flagging them and get their confirmation. Review moderators see only 1 review, not the nearby reviews.

Saying 'Why is this in the Top 50' is same as 'How did this get front page?' and should be flagged.

DO NOT FLAG A REVIEW JUST BECAUSE THE AUTHOR'S RESPONSE IS ABUSIVE! YOU WILL LOSE WHISTLE POINTS!

Discouraging an author like saying 'Please stop already' is abusive and should be flagged.

If someone says 'it lags a lot' or 'didn't load' or 'couldn't finish it' and everyone else could watch the thing entirely, then that review is abusive. If everyone else also says it didn't load or it lags, then don't flag it.

If someone says 'this game is too hard' or 'I don't get the controls' or something very similar, then it is abusive. Just because someone is shit at a game doesn't mean that it deserves a low score. Deliver That Fulp got many of those types of reviews. The same thing applies with games with medals. If you can't get a medal, then don't let that impact your review score.

Do not let your personal opinions get in your way of reviewing the submission. If you are a Mario fan and you watch a Mario vs Sonic flash and Sonic wins, then do not review it as a 0 because Mario lost. The author won't give a shit. Review only the quality of the submission. Opinions are fine as long as it doesn't hurt the score too much (like a 1 point deduction that Mario died is fine). If it hurts the score too much, (like '0 because Mario died'), then it is abusive.

Do not say that something belongs on YouTube or something similar. The author has a right to submit whatever he/she wants as long as the submission doesn't violate the submission guidelines. Saying something like this is abusive.

If you hate a submission, then do not rate it lowly. If you decide to rate the submission low, provide some constructive criticism to help the author improve. Low score reviews aren't always useless. If you say you hated the flash, gave a low score and no advice, then that is abusive & useless to the author. The amount of constructive criticism a reviewer should give depends on the review score. Generally speaking, there should be more criticism if you rate a flash 0 than when you rate a flash like a 4. Higher score should generally have less constructive criticism. As long as the review has constructive criticism (preferably 2 or more), then it is not abusive.

Do not let the author's opinion let you affect your review score. For example, if the author likes Sonic a lot and hates Mario a lot, and made a Mario vs Sonic flash where Mario dies, then do not say 'Sonic fanboy' or 'Mario hater' and give a 0. It's just like your personal opinions influencing the review score. Review on quality. Your are to be reviewing the submission, not the author. Reviewing the author because of his/her opinions is abusive.

Do not let the 'no music' or 'no sound' facts interfere your review score. Be sure your speakers are on. If others complain about no sound, then include it. If not, don't include it or else it is flaggable.

Do not say '5/5, 10/10 because you told me to give you that' or something similar. It is abusive since it doesn't mention the flash at all.

Watch the entire thing and then critique. This is one thing that will piss authors off. The intro may be crappy, but the middle of the flash may be good. If the intro is good but the middle and end is crappy, watch the entire thing and let the 'quality of crap' affect the review score. If you can't bear watching the entire submission, don't bother reviewing. It's as abusive as saying 'didn't even watch' or 'didn't even watch for 30 seconds' or something like that.

Now lately there are some reviews that have these annoying situations. Here are some situations with an example review under each situation: (The hyphens are splitting each situation apart so it's easier to read it)

---

Release the whole thing instead of a preview

Score: 0
Review: Stop posting the fucking previews! Release the real thing already!

---

Make something that is worth watching

Score: 0
Review: Dude, nobody wants to watch this shit. Make something that is worth watching.

---

People that give 0s for 1 tiny minor error!

Score: 0
Review: No sound in there. Try adding some sound in here.

---

Reviews that do not mention the submission and tell people to stop bombing 0 on it or telling people to not watch it.

(This one has 2 parts)

Score: 0
Review: People, don't watch this. It's crap. All he wants is attention. If you review, you give him what he wants...

Score: 10
Review: People, you really need to shut up. Shit is shit. Awesome is awesome. Stop bitching and get a life.

---

These examples are borderlines of abusive and useless reviews. If you face any of these reviews, do not flag it. Whether or not these reviews get deleted depends on the moderator. With that being said, do NOT write reviews like these. There is still a chance it may be deleted.

I thank and credit BR for supplementing this 'Abusive and useless borderline' section of the guide

Again, here are the links to the first 2 parts:

Cleaning up NG and Whistle Points Part 1: Explanation

This explains this event.

Cleaning up NG and Whistle Points Part 2: Flagging Abusive Reviews

This has a HUGE list of abusive reviews.

Review Guidelines

The Review Guidelines.

Review Answers Part 1

Review Answers Part 2

Post a question in this thread and a review moderator will answer. Read Part 1 thoroughly because for some reason, it got locked. Ask the question(s) in Part 2.

WARNING: DO NOT POST A LINK TO A REVIEW IN THIS THREAD! YOU WILL BE BANNED!

Now with that being said, go look for abusive reviews. If you find any, report them to the previous post. The link is already listed.

Feel free to comment here. If you want to leave links to abusive reviews AND want to get credited for it, leave a comment with the links to the abusive reviews in the previous post. Leave it here and you will NOT receive credit for it.

Anyway, hope this helps! I spent a lot of time thinking and typing this.


Posted by CelestOrion - June 25th, 2009


Upon permission from SuperMarioBrosS, http://supermariobross.newgrounds.com/
, I have decided to post a few of his guides to cleaning up Newgrounds, since the place can use a bit of it. He has other matters to attend to, and can't check his guides all the time, but I sure can! So, without any further time-wasting, here is Part 2 to his Guides. This post is a mix between part 1 and 2.

If you have any questions about if a review is abusive or not, then ask a question in this thread.

A review moderator will answer your question in the thread. Don't post an entire review there or else they won't answer and you will get a BBS ban (trust me, I did that once accidentally and got banned for 3 days) with your post deleted. Posting your deleted reviews there will allow you to receive feedback from the moderators so take full advantage of that thread but don't misuse it!

Now there are some criteria involved so here there are:

Criteria/Rules:
- It MUST BE a review; no flash submission or anything since flagging flash submissions normally result in lost whistle points
- It can be from a flash or audio submission
- You must provide the URL to the flash/audio submission that has the abusive review
- Give the FIRST LETTER of the person's username
- Before flagging it, use some common sense and make sure it violates the review guidelines
- Any attempt to try to get people a lower whistle/garbage will immediately qualify the deletion of the comment. Continuation will lead to a permanent user ban. Again, read the review and make sure it violates the guidelines.
- This is intended to help everybody earn a higher whistle status so contribute!
- If you have any doubt about any of my responses to comments, feel free to mention it in your comment
- Approval Process is in effect but don't worry about your comment being disapproved. Chances are that it will be approved as long as criteria & guidelines are followed. I implied the approval system because it's easier to check back to posts and see if anyone has commented.
- Follow guidelines so that users aren't confused
- Criteria/Rules may be enforced/edited anytime

Guidelines: (Fairly simple) It should look like this:

URL: (Inserts URL here)
Username(s): (Lists first letter of the user that wrote the abusive review)

*****or instead of username initials*****
Number of occurrences: (Lists the number)

It helps for the username initials since it's easier to find the suspected review but number of occurrences is also acceptable.

URL - This URL should link to the submission that have/has the abusive review(s)
Username(s) - This should list the first letter of the user name. If 2 or more abusive reviews are written by 2 users that have the same first letter, then include the first 2 letters.
Number of occurrences - The number of abusive reviews the submission has

*****OR you can link to a thread*****

URL: (List the URL of a forum thread that have links to flashes that have abusive reviews)

Criteria for this one: It cannot be a thread that is more than 2 months old

Following the listing guidelines and criteria should be pretty simple.

********NOTE*********
Links TO the Abusive Reviews are located in the next post.

Also, if you want an abusive review for YOUR submission to be deleted (when someone wrote an abusive review for your flash/audio), provide the URL(s) and make sure in the author's response that you write mentions something like 'This review sucks' or 'Thanks for the abusive review' (best one) or 'Thanks for the pointless review'. Doing that results in a higher chance of the review being deleted. It's a useful opinion and many people will flag it since reviews that offer no benefit to the author may be deleted.

I will delete comments if the abusive review(s) the person is referring to is deleted. If you mention 2 or more reviews in the same submissions, as long as 1 of the abusive reviews you have mentioned is still up, your comment will stay. I will delete comments so that users do not need to do unnecessary searching for the 'deleted' abusive review and the post is neater/cleaner.

Have fun! Also, try to spread the word especially to users who have a garbage whistle or those who want to upgrade their whistles. We can help each other out!

Word of advice: Look for abusive reviews in Turd of the Week, Underdog of the Week and/or Review Crew Pick. These 3 flashes that earn these awards normally have abusive reviews (especially Turd of the Week). If the Review Crew Pick flash is listed under 'Best of all Time' (aka the top 50) as well, then don't bother looking in there. Sometimes the staff will give Review Crew Pick to shitty animations so yeah, constantly check these 3 (more likely 2) spots for abusive reviews.

Here is a hint that will lead to a HUGE amount of abusive reviews: Submissions that have passed judgment with a score LOWER than 2. Go through the reviews and mark those that violate the guidelines as abusive (stay away from reviews rated 10; go for reviews rated 0 and/or 1).

Let's hope that we all can get a deity whistle!

*****Update*****

If you decide to join, you don't need to continuously throw in links. You may quit anytime although hopefully we can provide lots of benefit for this site and to your whistle! Even if you provide 1 link a month or just 1 link and nothing more, that provides benefit, one way or the other!

Also, I won't be available in NG all the time (most of the time I'll be) so don't start spitting comments about me not leaving links or responding to comments because they will ALL be disapproved and you may get a permanent user ban from posting here for leaving LOTS of stupid comments. The user ban probably won't happen, but if someone becomes a pain in the ass, then they will receive one. Complaints are only permitted if it has something to do with an abusive review or if someone left an abusive review(s) for your submission(s).

If you have any doubts with a review, post the review in your comment and I'll look at it. Also, be sure you use the link to a thread I have given. Ask a question in that thread and a review mod will answer.

It should look like this when posting reviews in your comment (so it's easy to read. It's similar to M-bot's format):

---Review---
Score: (Place score here)
Title: (Place review title here)
Review: (Place the body of the review here)

----Part 2-----

-----------Information Section-----------

For Part 1, go back to my previous post and read everything there or you will not understand this properly.

Here's the link: Cleaning Up the Site & Whistle Points

Also, if someone reports abusive reviews but you have a feeling that it isn't abusive, DO NOT FLAG IT! Follow your gut; flag what you believe is abusive. If you don't think it's abusive, don't flag. This was a problem in Rage's thread. So far, I've seen everyone dump BLATANTLY abusive reviews here (maybe a few borderline once in awhile) but still, if you don't think a review is abusive, DO NOT FLAG IT!

-----------Links Section-----------

Now for the links to the abusive reviews:

The number is the link and tells you the amount of abusive reviews. Below it is the review description to help you identify the review. If the count is higher than 10, then browse through it yourself and mark it. Click on the number to go to the submission/review page to find the abusive review. (Note that if it's redirected to a review page, it may have been knocked off of it and you may have to browse through the next page of reviews.)

Here is an outline into how to read the format of the links:

(Number of reviews goes here. Click on the number to go to the submission/review page.)
- Bullet list that gives a short description of each abusive review (Score of review goes here)

It's that simple to read it.


Posted by CelestOrion - June 19th, 2009


Well, the channel's gotten a bit lonely, so I'm dropping a link to my game streaming channel here.

http://www.livestream.com/exstreamgami ng

Basically, if you haven't been there before, we're a group of people that just hop on and stream some live gaming in full quality. No cameras, we link our systems to our PC for the best quality imagineable. Now, if I'm streaming my DS, then I'll use a camera, since DS emulation sucks at the moment.

If you come tonight around 11 PM US Central Time, I'll be streaming the new Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days live, but of course, in Japanese. Might do some Gamecube/PS3 streaming after that, as well. You should check us out sometime when we're active.


Posted by CelestOrion - June 13th, 2009


SO. I'm a little late on making this post, but I'm still quite glad that one of my favorite RPG's of all time, Golden Sun, is getting another sequel for the DS. I have no idea what the story is, but the gameplay is enhanced, with a 3D look instead of the overhead angle.

I don't know too much about the game, but to celebrate its announcement, I will be covering every Golden Sun track to kick off a fresh start. Plus, it'll give me something to do instead of staring at my Desktop for three hours.

Other than that, no new videos for ExstreamGaming are up, but I have a clip to upload of a Grunt from Halo getting Plasma Grenade'd and screaming 'NOT AGAIN!' for the lols. I'll try and get it up sometime.