I thought I might share something that might be interesting for some of you who reading. I will say right now that this might be longer post but I try to shorted it as I can.
Around very late in 2018, DeviantART have made an post on their upcoming major site update that would change the way DeviantART woulds interacted by making it very more up-to-date like any other social media. At first, many people like the idea that DA are going toward to more of modern look (because honestly, Version 8, I one I remember the most, was bit dated). However after it was released for all Beta Tester, their reaction was bit mixed but it wasn't until in beginning of 2019 (after I join NG) where it was available for everyone and the reaction was bad. So bad. every change log that DA staff make, most of the comment was negative and hateful. There even an Group that goes against Eclipse the moment it was released. Most of user who been around DA for decades or so has plan to leave the communtiy and many were also dropping the support of CORE membership.
The hate of DA has been growing strong for long time and I usually avoid these hateful and focus on actually criticism. I give Eclipse a least some hope because I know that DA need some change if they wanted to get newer people. During all this however, I started looking for newer platform for the first time (since DA was my only place to post art). I been joining most place and so far I find no luck, but then when I saw an list of Alternative to DA, I saw Newgrounds on the list.
I thought "Damn, that the name I haven't heard of in long time." I been here for long time with all those parody flash animation I used to watch and play when I was an young lad. I took a look to this place and it was looking promising. So on October 26, 2018, I joined NG. Now at the time, I served this as an another place to post my artwork but my attention was still at DA (due that most of people I know of was in DA) and since NG is kinda hardcore when getting noticed, I post my artwork that was in good quility (at the time. It was shitty honestly).
Throughout 2019, hate of Eclipse was continuing to grow and I managed to deal with it for while. I always thought that "Eclipse can get better later on", over and over. I can tell you right now, when I try out Eclipse when it was released to the public, it was shit at the start. Buggy and laggy at same but since it was in Beta, I can let that aside.
Fast forward to May 2020, when DA email everyone that Eclipse will be permanent and old site will be retired, I was pissed. Yes, the staff of DA did warn us that will happened soon year ago, that was not the reason why I was pissed. The main reason was that Eclipse was not even close of being competed. Many feature of Version 8 was missing, it was still lagging and part of pages was still not remake. Not only that but part of Eclipse was also unfriendly when it come to navigation. It took them almost 2 years and it still an mess (Fun fact: It still is to this day though it have been majorly improved since).
At that moment was an big change. Newgrounds became my main platform and I have to update my own website where I post my artwork there for now on (when previous it was only for my project) in case I have to move platform to platform. By that time, my artwork was improved and I could finally posting my artwork on NG without any hesitation.
But then, I started to learn a lot of Newgrounds community and how it was operated. It wasn't based on recommended, instead every submission was based on users vote and all donation and support are done by the people, not sponsor. The way NG handle art submission very well and very clean was that, there an "Scout" feature where artist who been scouted can scout other people. They can get in front page while unscouted artist have different section and usually less views and in order to get scouted, you have to really push yourself by creating forum thread to promote your artwork and such. Sure, it was bit rough but it was really smart decision that Tom Fulp and his crew made. On DeviantART, shitty and less attempted artwork was featured on front paged all the time while NG managed to showcase talented artwork on Art portal for those who scouted.
That show how hard you have to try if you really want to impress people. This is where I decided to change my own artwork and experiment until I got it right. On late 2019, I got some noticed with my first ever scouted and goddamn, I was happy and proud of myself. I also managed to get a least 5 vote on couple of drawing that time.
Another thing was the people. My god, I never saw bunch of people that are so unique, interesting and fun to chat with. Even some are bit crazy, it still enjoyable nevertheless. Even you can talk to Tom Fulp, the founder of Newgrounds, the father of Flash content himself. While it not as big as DeviantArt is, it is lively and with ninjamuffin99 Friday Night Funkin success, I have some hope that Newgrounds will rise again as biggest visited site.
And now in December 2020, I recently became an Supporter and donating some of my money toward Tablet giveaway that Tom is doing right now. Newgrounds is still going strong with independent works and all those upcoming Jam they putting up with. It surprise me how an 25 years site that started out as Tom edgy flash collection to having an biggest flash portal ever, even some flash game are now running under Ruffle where you can play the any flash content without the need to use Flash plugin. It almost shocked me how they managed to run an 25 years old without any business change. Even they did lost their edge, they still the same as they were back in 2012.
I will say this to @tomfulp right now. Thank you for maintaining this website for everyone to access to. I prolly won't make it far as an artist without Newgrounds. Even I do have Twitter and Reddit and Discord right now, Newgrounds is always stick to my mind. The first thing when I upload my artwork is this place. I don't think I ever leave this place anytime soon unlike DA. NG has an charm to what it is and that people can act themselves without getting criticize on.