Best of January 2016!

[TomFulp]

Remember that downtime we had last week on Tuesday morning? We kept it secret at the time but we were actually moving NG to our new hosting facility!

The transition went flawlessly thanks to months of planning by @BrenTheMan, everyone please give him a hand.

I don't know if you noticed but as far as we can tell NG is running better than ever! Supporters will have the best experience of all because NG isn't trying to call any third party ad or analytics code when their pages load. Have you noticed a difference this week?

This is a good time to become a supporter because through February we are carrying the costs of both hosting facilities while we finish out our previous hosting contracts.

For $25 a year or $3 per month, you can join the Wall of Honor and browse NG ad-free, while gaining the ability to change your username, have an animated forum sig, a supporter badge and other perks! Our short-term goals are to pay the bills but long-term we want this system to completely transform Newgrounds, with a massive increase in content sponsorships, prize money and revenue share with artists, with reduced ads around the site for everyone so it makes a better impression. You can make a difference! If you like NG more than 1-2 sodas / coffees / beers a month, trade in those drinks and be part of something really special.

That's my sales pitch and I'm gonna keep doing those because it's important.

Here is your Best of January, determined by the monthly voting pool!

Top Five Movies

• 

  Raw Latex 3

  by Sexual-Lobster

  Latex forehead strap-ons. You're intrigued now.

  Movie

  59,105 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Super Mario Bros. Z (Episode 1)

  by Alvin-Earthworm

  The first episode of the Super Mario Bros. Z reboot!

  Movie

  357,394 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  resident evil epic parody

  by hinca

  a resident evil 3 parody :v

  Movie

  247,205 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Monster Hunter In a Nutshell

  by RongRong

  Monsters not included.

  Movie

  31,649 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Flowey's transformation

  by NCH

  a newgrounds exclusive of flowey's transformation...

  Movie

  62,723 Views

  (Ages 13+)

The top-ranked movie based on original material and winner of $250 is Raw Latex 3. Congrats @Sexual-Lobster!

Top Five Games

• 

  Super Dangerous Dungeons

  by AdventureIslands

  Guide Timmy through the Dangerous Dungeons and reach the legendary treasure!

  Game

  216,481 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Earth Taken 3

  by SeethingSwarm

  A post-apocalyptic action-shooter in the midst of an alien invasion!

  Game

  103,715 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Imperil

  by HenrikSahlin

  Aesthetic platformer adventure

  Game

  76,138 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  StrikeForce Kitty League

  by DeqafStudio

  The kittens have returned in this new and amazing game!

  Game

  44,491 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Alula Falling #2

  by JackAstral

  A group of highschool students play a deadly game amongst the shadows. Episode 2.

  Game

  41,721 Views

  (Ages 13+)

Runner-up Movies

6. Sans Battle - Stronger Than You
7. The Phantom Box
8. Game Grumps: SANIC DA HORDGEHEG
9. Payday In a Nutshell
10. Leeches in a Jar
11. Globe Spinning
12. Dragon Ball Z - Fukkatsu No F - Thrue Final Battle (parody)
13. Game Grumps: Updog
14. There She Is!! another step Teaser movie
15. Red Vs Arceus- first 1/4
16. Dark Sauce PART 4
17. Epic Minequest 5
18. Dark Sauce PART 5
19. A New Heart
20. HOW TO GET THE PUSSY IN FIVE EASY STEPS

Runner-up Games

6. Welcome to Winkletown
7. Super Gonad Smasher
8. Bad Viking and The Curse of the Mushroom King
9. Basket & Ball
10. Dead Detention 2; Episode 3
11. Confused Travolta Clicker EXTREME
12. Escape The Car HD
13. The Splitting: Chapter 1
14. 10 Seconds
15. Wild Wasteland
16. Puppy Stew
17. 0/0
18. Cope
19. Whack the Burglars
20. AsteroidX

Thank you everyone who participated and congrats to the winners!

The voter of the month and winner of $100 is @valfire.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Effective March, we will discontinue the $100 per month prize for voter of the month. There will be a final winner from people who voted in February but that will be it for the immediate future.

I can't emphasize enough how important the Supporter Upgrade is to the future of Newgrounds. We had an exciting rally in January that covered a portion of our hosting transition but we need that much and more on a monthly basis to cover all the expenses not covered by traditional ads.

Newgrounds has been extremely fortunate to make it 20+ years without outside investment but the web isn't the same place it was even just five years ago and our revenue model has to change with it. This isn't something to be sad about; it's actually something to be extremely optimistic about because relying on ads ALWAYS sucked. Please join us on the journey to create the best-ever NG!

[Bit]

Good job, @BrenTheMan. These new servers must have flames painted on them or something because everything feels much faster.

Now I can post on the Newgrounds BBS IN HD.

[Bit]

At 2/8/16 02:04 PM, Amaranthus wrote: Also, fuck you Bit.

Somebody's jealous that my posts look better in HD.

[DoctorStrongbad]

Congratulations to all the winners from January. Glad to see some of my choices made in to the top five.

[BrenthEMan]

At 2/8/16 02:00 PM, Bit wrote: Good job, @BrenTheMan. These new servers must have flames painted on them or something because everything feels much faster.

We're running on new hardware now. Web servers alone are 2x faster in raw performance compared to our old ones. Plus we have much better connectivity now and are no longer in the middle of Cogent's peering disputes.

[Bit]

At 2/8/16 02:17 PM, BrenTheMan wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:00 PM, Bit wrote: Good job, @BrenTheMan. These new servers must have flames painted on them or something because everything feels much faster.

We're running on new hardware now. Web servers alone are 2x faster in raw performance compared to our old ones. Plus we have much better connectivity now and are no longer in the middle of Cogent's peering disputes.

Well, that explains why everything is so much faster.

But I still like to think that the new servers have flames painted on them. Flames make everything faster.

At 2/8/16 02:15 PM, Amaranthus wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:12 PM, Bit wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:04 PM, Amaranthus wrote: Also, fuck you Bit.

Somebody's jealous that my posts look better in HD.

Fuck you, Bit!

What was that? I can't quite read your post.

[Luwano]

Congrats to all the winners!

Now that NG runs so fast, can we all spare 10 of the newly saved minutes to vote on stuff under judgement?

The required votes has been lowered to 100, right? And there are still submissions taking several days to pass. This almost makes me cry.

[DoctorStrongbad]

At 2/8/16 01:45 PM, TomFulp wrote: ANNOUNCEMENT: Effective March, we will discontinue the $100 per month prize for voter of the month. There will be a final winner from people who voted in February but that will be it for the immediate future.

Tom, How exactly do you pick the top voter per month? I have never won the prize and have been the most active voter for around ten years.

[TomFulp]

At 2/8/16 02:38 PM, DoctorStrongbad wrote:

At 2/8/16 01:45 PM, TomFulp wrote: ANNOUNCEMENT: Effective March, we will discontinue the $100 per month prize for voter of the month. There will be a final winner from people who voted in February but that will be it for the immediate future.

Tom, How exactly do you pick the top voter per month? I have never won the prize and have been the most active voter for around ten years.

Each day that you vote, your name goes in a pool - so during a 30 day month you could get your name in 30 times. At the end of the month I run a script that returns a random user from the pool.

[DoctorStrongbad]

At 2/8/16 03:08 PM, TomFulp wrote: Each day that you vote, your name goes in a pool - so during a 30 day month you could get your name in 30 times. At the end of the month I run a script that returns a random user from the pool.

Thank you for the explanation. I must have very bad luck.

[TheGreyhound]

At 2/8/16 02:25 PM, Amaranthus wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:20 PM, Bit wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:17 PM, BrenTheMan wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:00 PM, Bit wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:15 PM, Amaranthus wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:12 PM, Bit wrote:

At 2/8/16 02:04 PM, Amaranthus wrote:

What was that? I can't quite read your post.

FUCK YOU, BIT!!!

SALTY SALTY OMG BIT YOU ARE THE GOAT

[Hallow]

I love how all of the top 5 movies are game parodies.

[Wiesi]

Congrats to the winners!

[Bigfoot3290]

Hmmm. Shame on me for not voting, but "Leeches in a Jar" finishing a paltry 10th just doesn't feel right.

[DoctorStrongbad]

At 2/8/16 04:33 PM, Bigfoot3290 wrote: Hmmm. Shame on me for not voting, but "Leeches in a Jar" finishing a paltry 10th just doesn't feel right.

No worries, you can always vote next month.

[AliceMako]

The audio player has magically ceased to be crash happy in firefox, even while streaming x amount of other things in the browser and/or going pew pew in an online multiplayer game.

Never something i regarded as particularly worth moaning about but eh, hey it's gone so way to go.

[ForNoReason]

You're the best Newgrounds ever!

[XwaynecoltX]

Lots of great choices this time, cant wait to see whats in store for us next time.

~X~

[Sexual-Lobster]

Yessss!!! Thanks Newgrounds and thanks everyone who voted for Raw Latex 3!

[LucidShadowDreamer]

Congratulations to the winners!
And yes, Newgrounds is indeed a lot faster now :O
Like... A LOT! :D

Great job ;)

[chris-the-stick]

aha! its good to know that NG's servers are up and running in perfect shape!
good news!

congrats to you tom, and to your loyal crew for keeping the flame alive!

BTW, for the ''voter of the month'' award, you dont need to cancel it...
just make it 5 $ per month.

that way, people will still want to win this award for the honour/bragging rights...
and it will be alot cheaper for the site in the long run.
(instead of spending 1200$ per year, you will be spending only 60$ per year, which is alot lower than that...)

and trust me, even if ''the voter of the month'' award will have less cash on its reward, people will still want/compete to win this award for 5 dollars and for the prestige points...
(i have been trying to win ''voter of the month'' for the last 6 years, so that means something..(despite me failing to win) )

anyways, those are my two cents, keep the site running, and we will always support newgrounds!
congrats to all the winners!(and runner ups)
(even tho alvin-earthworm and his ''super-mario-DBZ''/mario-Z series is WAY too overrated....)

[TomFulp]

At 2/8/16 07:41 PM, chris-the-stick2 wrote: and trust me, even if ''the voter of the month'' award will have less cash on its reward, people will still want/compete to win this award for 5 dollars and for the prestige points...
(i have been trying to win ''voter of the month'' for the last 6 years, so that means something..(despite me failing to win) )

That's a good point... Another possibility could be to send a shirt to a winner each month, if we ever get the shirts back up and running with a third party. And a voter of the month trophy would be charming.

[squidly]

Damn straight I'm feeling this speed boost. Nice job @BrenTheMan!

At 2/8/16 02:12 PM, Bit wrote: Somebody's jealous that my posts look better in HD.

I think this extreme abuse of the glare effect is exactly what NG 4.0 (?) needs.

[Void]

Wow, 100k is a lot of views for a Newgrounds movie nowadays!

[Ciullo-Corporation]

Hail to the winners

[DukeGarland]

While I'm no forum person this much has to be said, aside of the obligatory "congrats to the winners" stuff:

January was (to me at least) an absolute bitch to pick my favs from, while I'm typically quick to choose I could've easily used 15 or even 20 slots to fill this time. Also I'm surprised that not a single Rip Snorting made it onto the list despite all the work that went into them... Glad at least my game votes weren't entirelyoff... xD

(Also sorry Mr. Lobster, I knew you'd end far up the list (and you deserved that no less) so I didn't vote for you on purpose ;) )

[Whirlguy]

Thanks @BrenTheMan, stuff like this goes really unappreciated most of the time!

Also, congrats to the winners. I had to catch up on January before I got to vote, here's 3 of my favorites:

• 

  Pixel Mythology

  by chunderfins

  The Chunderfins are at it again!

  Movie

  5,205 Views

  (Everyone)

• 

  Sublo & Tangy Mustard #2 - Mascot Melee

  by Aaron-Long

  Two street mascots get in a fight

  Movie

  23,190 Views

  (Ages 13+)

• 

  Recluse

  by screamerclauz

  a short horror film about a woman and her pet spider in a psychadelic nightmare

  Movie

  5,007 Views

  (Ages 17+)

Warning for that last one. It's pretty messed up.

Hmm, not sure why I didn't vote on this one... I love it haha.

• 

  Rave Beans

  by WhoCaresAgain

  Think paint raves are weird? Think girls at paint raves are weird? You're right.

  Movie

  4,648 Views

  (Ages 13+)

[TomFulp]

At 2/9/16 07:57 AM, DukeGarland wrote: January was (to me at least) an absolute bitch to pick my favs from, while I'm typically quick to choose I could've easily used 15 or even 20 slots to fill this time. Also I'm surprised that not a single Rip Snorting made it onto the list despite all the work that went into them... Glad at least my game votes weren't entirelyoff... xD

There was a lot of great stuff to choose from in January. I think what hurt Rip Snorting was the number of episodes uploaded - fans were likely divided between them.

[DukeGarland]

At 2/9/16 08:58 AM, TomFulp wrote:

At 2/9/16 07:57 AM, DukeGarland wrote: things

There was a lot of great stuff to choose from in January. I think what hurt Rip Snorting was the number of episodes uploaded - fans were likely divided between them.

Quite possible, after all I merely decided to put ep. 1 into my choices even though I'd wanted to drag them all there - but then again despite their awards all 4 episodes combined have less that 17k views (roughly) and as such much less individual eXposure than Flowey's Transformation for eXample I guess. Really a shame but I certainly hope that future episodes will be uploaded to Newgrounds too. Things like that keep dragging me back every day! :D

[SolarFoxProductions]

I think the SMBZ reboot should have got first place here, but regardless... Congrats to the monthly winners!