G2961 2025-04-24 11:07:02

Damn it, it's fucked up. DDoS attacks raided this site not so long ago, and dumb record companies are also trying to drive a nail into the coffin lid. This is undeserved, this site is non-commercial and they don't have reliable protection, so it's very mean of these companies.

Cyberdevil 2025-04-24 11:08:16

@Yatsufusa Ah I didn't realize regular users got to curate collections now! :D That's cool. Useful one too...

Gotcha. Indeed it took a loooot of people to get the archive to where it's gotten, tis a big thing. And yet to think sites like YT probably receive more than all the storage they total in a manner of weeks or months, the level of data being transferred on the daily these days is just crazy. To think we used to think that whatever goes onto the Internet lives forever...

Anyhow, indeed, partial archives of particular interest are ideal. :) All the good things!

Ah the almighty GOG! Well at least they do put a lot of work into those games, even if they're not all as DRM free as they claim to be, or as compatible with all possible systems... I didn't know about their transphobia or privacy issues, haven't interacted much with the community, I've amassed quite the collection there myself over the years though... good thinking on the installers. They're legally yours forever too, unlike Ubisoft's infamous The Crew... (another good example of why it's good to have copies)

Indeed. :) Groups like Archive Team (as in: https://wiki.archiveteam.org/ ) are really doing invaluable work , if we were all coordinated, and saved things others didn't, we'd have a real comprehensive collection overall. Unfortunately I think most people end up collecting similar; oftentimes the same files, the most popular ones... but hey, that is of course the kind of content you wish to have saved too should the Internet happen to lose it.

It's easy to get an unhealthy obsession for collecting too, all in moderation...

Mood-boostin' art, TY! XD

G2961 2025-04-24 14:35:19

@ADR3-N in May and October 2024

ADR3-N 2025-04-24 14:43:10

Okay, so I've read everyone's replies but have fallen behind enough to not know how to reply all, lol

Speaking of writing dissertations on hard drives, @CyberDevil, do you think you could look over my advice for storage at some point? I'd like to include quotes from others too! @Yatsufusa, this goes to you as well since you mentioned some drive failures of your own if I'm not mistaken.

I'm also looking to point people toward QUALITY legacy software and old devices that could have a home in their studio, either to run said legacy software, make some extra cash autonomously, or provide hot storage (serving up archives!)

Cyberdevil 2025-04-24 15:18:17

@ADR3-N you're writing up a chapter on it, or newspost or so? Of course, happy to have a look anytime. :)

Intrigued by how the autonomous extra cash bit might apply in regard to old legacy software and devices... serving up archives sounds like a grand incentive too!

Yatsufusa 2025-04-24 16:44:14

@ADR3-N My Seagate hard drive has not failed me, yet. It just makes "noises that are concerning". And I haven't got the money to buy a new one.

As for the rest... To quote Adam Savage from one of his impromptu interviews: "I'm not sure what I'm allowed to tell you, but I'll tell you what I know..."

The only 'semi-qualified' things I can say is that:
0) Always _unplug_ external drives once you're done archiving. When lightning strikes your computer or a comparable issue occurs, it will fry the things currently connected to it as well...
1) HDDs that are "lying down" inspire more confidence in me than the ones that are "standing up" and could fall over. (Has not yet happened to mine, because of "strategic placement".)
2) SSDs sound really nice, but my budget suggests that I should stick to HDDs for the time being.
3) Just a thought for your document: If somebody has only 100-ish GB of data they want to archive or lots of little projects, then sticking to a few USB-sticks would do the trick. Purchasing a giant external drive, just because "an internet-person has said so" but having TBs of space you're not going to need for the next few years is a waste of personal finances. An artist should look at their yearly output and determine what to do from then on out.
4) Archive installers!
5) I _always_, consistently, heard good things about 'Seagate' hard drives from people who know what they are talking about - since the days of Windows 95!
6) One of the great trappings of "shopping for PC-related hardware" is comparing offers by statistics (more TB... lower price...) rather than what you set out to buy when you looked up current offers.
If I had bought the external HDD from 'WD' I wanted to buy instead of the one from 'Seagate' I 'might' not be hearing "concerning noises" today. But I would also have filled that drive to capacity about a year back.

And as you can see, my advice in that regard is often 'neither here nor there'. There's "stuff where I know what I'm talking about", "common sense" and "personal experiences I've had".

My advice is: Go with what @Cyberdevil tells you. ;)

Yatsufusa 2025-04-24 16:52:11

@Cyberdevil I do not remember when I created my first playlist, but it must have been before I had my long NG hiatus - so it's probably been a thing for over a decade. It's just not being used very effectively by most users/artist. It's probably not "front and center" enough to be noticed by people who do not pay attention.
Personally, I prefer the playlist-format to present 'long link-lists' in to the News/Blog Posts because... "it shows up" on the included entries. Every time a regular user/artist looks at any of the tutorials a playlist links to, they have a chance to discover every single 'tutorial collection' that includes it.
I 'know' I cannot 'force' people to learn. But... You know... "I'm going to try regardless!" ;)

As for "collecting as an unhealthy obsession": Definitely! Been there; done that! Twice. And prying yourself away from that, is an incredibly liberating feeling. I think the most important thing is to fill the schedule with another "you activity", before you start collecting teacups instead or something. :)
While I think that 'helping out artists' is a worthwhile endeavor, I would make the claim tat it is extremely easy to quit - because in most of those cases, said artists are horrible. I don't even care about "gratefulness" or something like that. But just that some completely ignore basic stuff, like "This is against the rules. If you do that again, you could get banned." or "Please don't call your works "Episode 1", "Episode 2", etc. Come up with a title and add a title card with the title, a logo, and your name on it..."
Add to that the effort of having to manage an overflowing sentbox before every PM I write...
I "really" could quit at any time.

I like the idea of lots of people coming together and sharing what they have, but...
1) Most people I've talked to in this regard just safe files as "whatever the site title was" and throw them onto a pile. As a bare minimum, I note down the IDs in case I want to link something to a friend, look into an artist/uploader, check up on information in the reviews/comments
2) "Agents of Chaos". People who want to mess up neatly organized systems others made, because... I don't know. Most likely they have severe brain damage...
3) Organization. Even if I trust a person, sharing large quantities of data requires logistical effort on all sides: How to meet up... What programs to use...
I can't even talk people into using good old TeamSpeak - and I'm certainly not using Discord, that would effectively monitor everything I do.
4) Intellectual property. Even if you're assuming that a shared video (or even text) was created entirely by the person publishing it, aside from NG almost no site offers easy means to tell what the legal situation would be. I'm not saying regular artists would come after me, but after they invested all that time and effort I want to respect their wishes.
For example: ContraPoints made this amazing video explaining "Gender". I rewatched it about 20 times, often just for the entertainment value - so I archived it. But she also took that video down, because it does not represent her anymore. So I link to the transcript ( https://www.contrapoints.com/transcripts/archives/what-is-gender ). But who knows how many other things I have this applies to. I can share that video with a very close friend saying "but no uploading this..." and they will not upload it. But If I share something with a person I only know online, there's suddenly internal pressure to make them happy, but the uncertainty of not knowing how much they are actually true to their word/reliable in everyday situations...

It's a whole thing.

You can ask me to go digging for 'specific things' in my archives, but I can not make any promises... (I do not have ADR3-N's "Mariana Trench-flash" either, btw.)

I wish I could say "I'll look into Archiveteam this weekend", but it would mean "in a year or so".
I still haven't played Ovimanic's game... and I have a certain backlog of other things I promised to take care of... Essentially: I log into NG every day, do a short sweep of the "current stuff", check if any fires are so big they are visible from orbit and then I grab something from the backlog pile that I should email Mr. Fulp about, or add to the suggestions, or...
In the end I often end up 'doing what I feel like' in order to avoid insanity.

Yatsufusa 2025-04-24 17:10:26

@ShangXian @ADR3-N (I wish the replies by guest showed up at he spot they reply to...)

(For reference: This is the reply to ADR3-N's request of me writing a forum post.)

"No way in hell!" ;)

You or @ShangXian can feel free to cannibalize whatever you like from my News Post, though. 'Even if' I was the type to sit on the dragon hoard of "my intellectual property", I see this whole endeavor more as a group project towards a common goal and both of you are skilled enough to not botch it. There's no need to credit me in that regard either.
Just leave my "Time Machine-quote" in - if you can. It's no "The angels have the phone box", but as somebody who's in love with 'the concept of time travel', I'm _unreasonably_proud_ of that bit of dramatic writing. ;)

Cyberdevil 2025-04-25 06:15:24

@ADR3-N Nice, looking forward to that!

Ah, gotcha. Mining bitcoin certainly got to the point only those with serious investments can really hope to make serious investments there, unfortunately. :) Video sites though hmm... I do surveys for extra $$$, video seems a bit more fun... may pursue that too.

Cyberdevil 2025-04-25 06:15:38

@Yatsufusa @ADR3-N Btw regarding the lightning strike thing: get some surge protection too! Surge protected sockets are relatively cheap. Keeps electrical components from getting fried in case of both natural disasters and just unrelated electrical anomalies. I'd like to say I'm using that right now myself but actually I bought some a couple years ago and still haven't actually plugged it in; rerouted cables and stuff, good reminder here...

I've dropped some drives in the past, hopefully learned my lessons on placement. Sometimes I gamble though...

Did not know Seagate actually had a good reputation that far back, that's good to know... I guess reputation really comes and goes; some drive generations are just better than others, between all manufacturers.

So good HDD management advice here overall! 👍✨

Anyone looking for advice here: Definitely go with that @Yatsufusa tells you too. :P

Cyberdevil 2025-04-25 06:17:58

@Yatsufusa playlists are great for sure, I've created quite a few over the last decade or so at least, not quite this extensive, but as far as I know no Collections... do playlists simply get turned to collections if they're good enough/acknowledged by staff though, or do you somehow get moved into that role overtime? Do you get special user access to make those?

Hmm I've been there and... I'm still there. XD I haven't pried myself away, I just don't so actively maintain collections when I just don't have time to; when other things take over... I ponder that potential sense of liberation occasionally, but then think 'what a waste it'd be to just throw all this away', and so time moves on! Regarding the overflowing sentbox: the account backup feature's pretty helpful in 'archiving' those as well. ;) Just download the whole sentbox, delete all messages on NG; work towards a new archive once again... am amounting quite a few of those. I just wish emojis were included in the backup files, since you lose a little bit of context without them. And a bunch of recipients just show as <deleted user>...

1) Indeed, structure's important in maintaining good archives. I've gotten better at that overtime...
2) It's more fun to destroy than to build too, I suppose? It's more rewarding to opt for a primal instinct than to really consider options; go for the more beneficial one too...
3) Very true. I do have Discord but dislike using it, since everyone (well, most! Good to see there are exceptions) else does though; wants to share files there...
4) Yeah this part's definitely the bigger problem... respecting creators wishes, but also archiving their stuff... I'm torn about this. On the one hand, if you upload something, then you agree that work is published; can potentially be shared and downloaded and consumed endlessly, and you should be aware of this from the start. But most people don't really consider the ToS, or the implications of what they upload potentially being around for ever, and even if they do circumstances change, and what may be legally fine to archive may for whatever reason not be morally; ethically; sensibly ditto. I think we all to some extent overestimate the level of control we have over circumstance, and the services we use - control's an illusion, but also... as some artists do say, once you publish something for people to consume, it's not yours anymore, it's the consumers. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. In a way I feel it's selfish to give someone something, and then take it back, and that this is essentially exactly what you do when you publish any form of freely accessible artistry on the Internet... but it's complex, of course; it's selfish to think that way too.

No need to get into Archiveteam at all m8. :) That's quite the dedication, I wouldn't be ready for it either. I just think they're cool. Also unfortunately have various unrelated commitments and things to do that hinder me from pursuing such things...

That sounds like a good way to go about your day... my NG routine's pretty similar, minus the fires and email Mr. Fulp thing. :P

Alas I haven't been archiving any flashes @ADR3-N. XD If I'd had better systems in place; been able to automate that kind of collection earlier though, I know I would have...

Yatsufusa 2025-04-25 11:13:30

@Cyberdevil Maybe as a footnote when [whoever will write this] writes about the 'surge protection': Before readers go on a quest for the holy grail, it would be worth mentioning that there is no 100% protection from damage due to lightning strikes apart from severing _all_ the connections that connect a computer to the wall. In other words: You have to pull the power plug (and the network cable for good measure, if you're not using WLAN).

As for 'Seagate reputation' I feel that I should clarify something: To me, 'use of software' is in flux. When I wrote "the days of Windows 95" I was referring to the era Win95 was 'actually still in use' - not "1995-1998". While some people I knew switched to Win 98 and Win2000 respectively ("because that's what you do, right? Wait... Why I am so miserable?"), I had Win95 until WinXP became more reliable (than "just a collection of bad drivers"). The conversations I was referring to cover that "era" for me, but I could not pinpoint exact dates. I asked a friend to verify my statement given here, and their one-word reply translates to "Accurate enough."
Nevertheless, it might be 'a European thing' (I'm also from Europe). The Wikipedia article ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seagate_Technology ) is a bit muddy on the country of origin, but I think the original company was Irish.
(Also, a fun fact: "Shugart Technology" sounds a bit like like "Shoggoth Technology". ;) )

When you wrote "I've dropped some drives in the past" my heart sunk. My condolences. (I reckon you too keep some data 'exclusively' on external drives - where they are "safe"...)

Yatsufusa 2025-04-25 12:17:57

@Cyberdevil (On "the Playlist- & 'ethical file sharing'-conversation")
'Now' the penny dropped for me. "Collections" (And "Series" as well as "Albums") are just "Playlists" with another name (and category) to better differentiate them by purpose.
Here's the announcement for the change: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1528841
You can see then in the search categories: https://www.newgrounds.com/search/conduct/collections?terms=Show+me+the+stuff%2C+please. (... How the FUCK did that random search return 'those results'? O_O)

The last time I tested it, the "account backup feature" did not work. It backup'ed my avatar and that was it. I wrote a PM to Mr. Fulp about it, though. Not to accuse him or anything, but 'even I' can agree that there are _more_pressing_matters_ right now. Like 'not showing Reviews for "A"-rated submissions when users are logged out - because of horny words and horny thumbnails'... Don't tell anyone. ;) (I informed the support, of course.)

Some remarks on "a bunch of recipients just show as <deleted user>": I have a lot of those as well. Oftentimes then can go in the bin, but some are still dear to me. As long as they are stored on NG, you can still reconstruct the users if you sort by recipients. If there was more than more PM, you'll see the "[ThisBloke] wrote on [date]" quotation.
And NG keep the avatar data for deleted accounts or from the old avatar system. Like this edgelord here:
https://uimg.ngfiles.com/icons/3117/3117876_large.jpg?f1366955837
https://uimg.ngfiles.com/profile/3117/3117876.jpg?f1366971167

3) Just a little remark on TeamSpeak: Their server-software allows users with permission to store files in chatrooms. A little-known feature that I frequently used if an when I had admin rights.
"So for those who just failed to perform 'the complicated maneuver of having to run from left to right and back again'... As I said 'in the introduction', you can look in our TS and download a file called "heigan-dance.swf" that will make it quite clear why I am currently cross with you."
(...Which I archived from the now-defunct theorderls.com. *dig* I actually still have that, if you're interested: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/9f7563d66ce5df7af8dc7d405bb42895 )

4) I agree with you, but as you alluded to "sometimes, it depends". Some things (like the file I recklessly shared above for a nicer flow) where 'meant' to be spread. The authorial intend could hardly be clearer. But like I demonstrated with my "What is Gender?"-example: circumstances can change. And not even I document the rights situation on mp3s I download from the Audio Portal. "Because when am I ever going to share 'those'?"
Lets be realistic: "A bit of (quote-unquote) piracy in private file sharing" is absolutely unavoidable. I ain't the fun police. But when you start sharing something with "the world" stuff is bound to become a legal headache - that I am personally not prepared for. I could dump the contents of my entire external drive-collection at a friend's house and say "I know _nothing_ of this. Do as you please." but I could not be asked to handle all that decision making myself.

And as for my "routine": I often feel like a janitor of the Artist News. Fortunately, I am not the only one "helping out", but all of us are just regular users with regular lives. And we have no shared system to keep track of posts we looked into. I'm absolutely certain a lot of people's concerns 'fall through the cracks' - because they are shit at titling their posts. And I only cover 'current "artists"' in the first place.
Even on days when I do not do a 'daily sweep', I check for "obvious" emergencies, but that's still just a concession to "actually looking": https://www.newgrounds.com/search/conduct/blogs?advanced=1&terms=help&match=t&sort=date-desc
In all honesty: While some of the people I help have very real and personal concerns that they could not discuss in the forums (because 'the new General' is paywalled), many others are idi-- "clueless teens(?)" who have not even 'considered' that there could 'be' a FAQ - let alone that they could read it.

Yatsufusa 2025-04-25 12:32:08

@ADR3-N & @ShangXian
Something actually 'on topic':
jthrash had some great insight into... "that whole affair" *gesticulates upwards* from an angle of media-preservation and overzealous lawyers:
https://jthrash.newgrounds.com/news/post/1530254
(Edit: In a reply to 'yours truly' in the comments. Probably should have lead with that...)

If your current structure allows for it you might be able to incorporate some of that.
Seriously though: No pressure. I just thought it was a good example of 'a community member having in-depth thoughts on the matter without necessarily speaking up on it in their own, dedicated News Post.'

"A silent majority can have strong opinions on something, even if we are not permanently up in arms about them or log into NG more than once a week."
That kind of thing...

Yatsufusa 2025-04-25 16:46:39

@ADR3-N (about "Playlisting blogs")

You can add links in the 'description' of a playlist, but that is the extend of it. Otherwise, the only thing you can do is to create sort of an 'index post' as a News/Blog Post (like I had been meaning to do in December, before... "stuff happened".)
Such an 'index post' would 'have' to get a place in your profile's link list, though. Or else it would be buried _so_quick_!

The current limit is 10 links.
I could do with 20+... So many things to say that they will become their own 'index post'. And then I'll need an index for my indices/indexes. It's 'turtles all the way down'! ;p

...Speaking of 'turtles all the way down': I personally think it would be 'feature creep', but you 'could' request 'a feature to put blogs into playlists':
https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1407692

Since liljim ( https://liljim.newgrounds.com/ ) was the mastermind who made the miracle of 'putting playlists into playlists' happen, I bet that 'this nightmare of a project' would become his task as well if it ever were to become reality.
"If you like him, don't suggest it..." ;)