NewgroundsNation 2014-11-26 00:32:50

Damn, this sucks to hear this is last formal interview. i remember when you first started up this thing. it was an interesting one of a kind concept.

i would say keep doing your thing, but to be creative you need to progress and move on

TomFulp 2014-11-26 12:58:55

It's curious that Zekey complains about the "edgy" and "angry" NG userbase, when him and a lot of his friends in the Star Syndicate were the definition of edgy and angry. Hell, they created a massive PDF on ways to exploit NG, including a whole section on bullying Wade. Then they get access to the mod forums and Zekey finds out Wade doesn't like him. Boo hoo? I have no clue if Zekey was involved in the PDF but it was the company he kept; guys who regularly bullied other artists and staff on NG who were "lesser" than they.

"But as I think back on it, I have almost no happy memories from my time there that didn't involve pissing off dumb kids."

Zekey had tons of fans on NG and made a lot of friends here. If he could have stepped back and appreciated that, rather than being self destructive and searching for negatives, his experience may have been different. I feel like he never trusted there were people at NG who wanted good things for him.

"The pros of AlbinoBlackSheep are basically the fact its run by 1 person, and the people who run TOFA are all animators and artists."

The administrator of AlbinoBlacksheep wasn't kind to me back when he was deep linking SWF files from Newgrounds. Our bandwidth bills back then exceeded $20,000 a month and part of that was people viewing NG content on ABS. I asked him many times to stop, to the point he eventually blocked "Newgrounds" from being said in the ABS chat. It is REALLY HARD for me to get over that.

Also MunchyMedia CREATED TOFA and originally hosted it on AlbinoBlacksheep but became unhappy with it and chose to move it to Newgrounds (I did not solicit him). After he moved it to NG, the ABS admin decided to keep using the name on ABS, which is why the NG version has since been renamed NATA. NATA continues to be run by the guy who created and ran TOFA. ABS is run by one person - yay? I hired artists from NG and developers in an effort to make NG better. Hiring developers is HOW we built a system that lets us track and pay out ad revenue to individual artists.

"The now-fired staff who used to work for Tom, mostly hated the animators and game creators and disliked the idea of giving them ad money."

I'm assuming this is because Zekey is friends with MindChamber and MindChamber didn't get along with Bob and Tim. Bob and Tim didn't dislike the idea of giving people ad money and didn't dislike animators / game creators. There were disagreements about the NG business model where NG was doing things that did not seem sustainable - namely the store. My memory is of arguements about store royalties and NG not keeping enough money from items sold. And look, we had to let go of most the staff and we closed the store, so maybe there were some valid concerns about our business model.

"The lax attitude and lack of competitive ideals has killed the site. It is bleeding money."

NG competes as hard as it can without outside money. Youtube, Vimeo, and Vine - MILLIONS in outside money. Our CPMs for artists are $3+ and we're paying out bills. As I recall, Zekey always thought NG was dying and wanted it to die. It's not gonna happen. I agree NG isn't as influential and infamous as it once was, I can live with that. NG is still an amazing place.

I've always liked Zekey's work so it's a bummer he's so hateful about NG. We've really tried and EVERYONE in the history of the staff had good intentions, despite disagreements. I feel like this is a Zekey problem more than an NG problem.

MindChamber 2014-11-27 10:34:55

a Bittersweet Interview, I fuckin love Zekey, he's an amazing, talented, and miserable artist just like the lot of us.. Goes with the territory. hopefully he'll give NG another chance.. While it wasnt as horrible as that, it did go through some growing pains, and its much better because of it.. Im totally excited to see where its going, and totally proud and honored to have said I worked there,
give the place another chance Zeke

Cyberdevil 2014-11-27 11:16:34

Reading all that behind the scenes knowledge on what was 'really' going on, about the disregardful ideas circulating the mod forum, the ban and half-assed apology... started making me doubt my so brightly flaring optimism about this place. Then reading Tom's angle on the topics those opinions started quickly dissipated! Such an elaborate response from the site owner himself, and with more fact to back-up each answer than the vague, gnawing doubt I received upon reading the above.

Looks like I'm pretty easily influenced. :/

It was an interview full of revelations though, controversial in a way that the further I read, the more surprised I was it's actually here, on NG, in the heart of all the interviewee appears to stand against. Even if it also takes up plenty of other topics, and it was interesting reading on about Zekey's future carreer, collaborations and notable creations. I don't which ones I've watched myself, but I remember being amazed. Along with Catoblepas, ZekeySpaceLizard is a name I relate to strange, often inspiring psychedelic artistry. And all memories I had of Zekey prior to this were entirely positive.

I actually asked him if he could make a few character artworks for an RPG I was building years ago, and he did! The RPG (Broken Katana - a PHP-based script I ran on my own site) never really made it that far, but I do still have those sketches. Zekey seemed like one of few famous users you could actually reach out to at that point, one involved in the community, helpful and dedicated, and it seemed like he was having a fun time too, which makes this response all the more surprising.

I admire his approach to artistic freedom - and the advice on how to part with all that negatively affects you - though in the end it feels there's a lot of unjust negativity still aimed at NG as a whole, though maybe more so linked to personal experiences. Anyway, this was probably the most captivating interview so far; a worthy end, though it looks like... it's not the end? Moving onto another account? Or just not interviewing with regular intervals? Thanks for the read!

Vert 2014-11-27 17:59:57

Oh, the irony... so many years ago, I wrote a brief response to the first interview with Zekey, and it pretty much applies to this day:

"Typical Zekey... opinionated, smart and making (some) good points, but also with a serious attitude problem. 'Tis shame he left the site, even if he did create so much conflict."

I guess the one thing I can point out is that quite a few things that I remember from those days were more along the lines of Tom's response, then what Zekey purports. Still is a damned shame to not see more of his or rtil's works around here.

And Interviewer, many thanks for some excellent interviews throughout the years, you should know that your efforts are much appreciated. Thanks!

AlmightyHans 2014-12-10 12:57:09

I love you Zekey. You are a pillar of my inspirations.

You are also an artistic and creative romantic. Unfortunately romantics are easily disappointed with the reality that surrounds them. But just remember the good stuff and hold it close to your heart, and keep being the artistic and creative romantic that you are.

Trust me, I empathize.

Josef-Eliasson 2015-04-24 13:04:21

JJ JJ