General Questions
Q: How do I flush my browser cache?
This site will show you how to flush your browser cache on any browser.
Q: I found a bug or I'm having other issues with the site. What do I do?
Scan through the recent threads posted in the help forum to see if anyone else is having this issue and has posted about it. If someone posted about it, then we already know about the bug. If you have additional information you can provide, please reply to THAT thread.
If you don't see any recent threads about the bug, create a new post with the following information:
- URL where you found the bug
- List of steps to recreate the bug
- What you expected to happen, and what actually happened
- Screenshots and any other information you can provide. TIP: use LightShot.
- Provide your OS and browser version. TIP: Go to this site and click the "Find Out Now!" button. Then, on the following page there will be a "Share Your Browser Info" box with a URL. Copy this URL and paste it into the thread. This will show us what browser you're using and other info.
You can also email the above information to our support email address.
Q: I have some feedback I want to provide. What do I do?
You can post that in the Where is / How to or send an email to our support email address.
Q: Someone is harassing me, what can I do about it?
You can try blocking them first. You can also set your messaging options to "Accept Only From Friends" on the edit profile page. This will prevent blocked users from creating another account to PM you after you've blocked them.
If you receive a harassing PM, you can click the flag button to send a copy of the PM to the staff. You can even do this if a moderator is being weird; mods don't see PM reports.
Above all, ignore these users. Don't give them any attention whatsoever as that often seems to be what they crave most.
If they still find a way to harass you, send an email with their username and any evidence of harassment you can provide to our support email address.
Q: How do I report a submission / user?
To report a submission, click the Flag icon in the submission page title bar. You can also discuss questionable games and movies in the Elite Guard Barracks or questionable audio in the Audio Portal Cleanup thread. If you would like to report a user for a private message they have sent you, there is a flag option in the PM. Otherwise you can contact us at our support email address.
Q: How do I make a game?
The wiki has a section on game development tools and tutorials that might get you started, as well as tools/guides for the other content forms.
There's a forum for game development if you have any specific questions as well.
Search Questions
Q: Why doesn't search return what I'm looking for?
It's possible your content filters are hiding something. Make sure you've enabled every content level you are willing to browse (adult content is disabled by default).
Q: Do you know how to find a particular old submission?
Post as much info as you can about it to the help forum. Someone there can usually find just about anything.
Also give Advanced search a try; look for the "Advanced" link on the top right of search results. Advanced search lets you filter by date range, genre, whether something was featured on the front page, length of submission, etc.
Account Questions
Q: How do I delete my account?
At the bottom of your Account Settings page, you will find a link that says "Request Account Deletion." There will be a follow-up confirmation page. Once you confirm, you'll be logged out of your account, which will then be locked and added to the delete queue. Everything you've done here will be gone, forever.
Make sure you REALLY want to do this because once your account is deleted, it cannot be recovered!
Q: My 14 year old self posted some really embarrassing forum posts / reviews / etc. I want to keep my account, but how do I delete these embarrassing things?
PM Tom and he can delete it. We intend to give you the option to do it directly but other features keep getting priority.
Q: How do I change my username?
First, you need to become a supporter because only supporters can change their usernames.
Then go to the edit profile page, change the username field to what you want it to be, and then click save.
You can change your username once per 30 days and you have the option to redirect your old user page to your new user page for 30 days. Users with over 100 followers can create a permanent redirect.
Q: I changed my profile pic / icon / forum signature pic, but the new one isn't showing up. Why?
This is likely due to caching. Try pressing your browser's reload button (or press F5 OR ctrl-r on the keyboard). If that doesn't work, try uploading the image and reloading again. If that still doesn't work, see "Q: I found a bug or I'm having other issues with the site. What do I do?"
Q: Why was my account locked?
Things that will get your account locked (sometimes automatically):
- Spamming
- Abusing other users
- Uploading copyrighted or otherwise illegal content
- Using tor or any other open proxies which spammers and abusers use too
- Creating a lot of alt accounts which appear to be for spam / abuse / self-voting.
Q: How do I level up/gain BP/increase whistle status?
Leveling up can be done by voting on submissions and gathering EXP. You can gain a maximum of 10 EXP per day by voting on five submissions each day. There's an unofficial list of current levels and their requirements here.
Blam and Protection points are awarded for each submission you judge correctly. If you vote 0-1 on a submission under judgement that's blammed, or 2-5 on one that's protected, you'll get a point.
There's no limit to the amount of B/P you can amount each day. More info here.
To increase whistle status you'll need to correctly flag abusive reviews and content that should be removed. This is done by clicking the flag icon (the system was originally whistle-themed but we changed the buttons to flags because they are more universally understood).
Here is some additional information:
Related submissions:
-
New Expert's Guide to NG!
by highwatermarkThe redesigned book full of NG information. -
Abusive Review Guide 2
by RohantheBarbarianA guide to finding abuse, flagging submissions and a short quiz.
Art Portal Questions
Q: How do I get scouted?
To be scouted, you must upload at least four pieces of work, at which point existing members of the art community have the ability to send you invites. A moderator may also scout you with less than four pieces of work, if they are confident your account is legit.
Please don't go around asking to be scouted but if you are active in the Art Forum, other artists will likely scout you if they like your work. If not, keep working to improve! Hopefully you'll get helpful feedback here.
Q: How do I start a contest?
Please PM an art moderator before you attempt to start a new contest.
Q: I want to show off my work and perhaps get some feedback. How do I do that?
Create a single thread that you will update with new pieces. Check out Gumbys Hideout or Lundsfryd's showcase for examples of this!
Audio Portal Questions
Q: What are the guidelines for uploading submissions to the audio portal?
Q: I found one or more submissions that do not follow the audio portal guidelines! This music is stolen! What do I do?
Please post the URL(s) to the audio submission(s) to the Audio Portal Cleanup thread.
Q: How do I enable downloads on my submission?
You have to be scouted to enable downloads.
Q: What is "scouting"? How do I get scouted?
Scouting is a way to vet users and weed out spam, stolen works, low quality submissions, etc.
When you submit a song to the Audio Portal, it's not directly visible for all users. When a user who has already been scouted, a mod, or an admin thinks your song is good, he/she can scout you. Once scouted, your audio becomes visible for everybody in the Audio Portal and you'll also have the ability to scout people yourself.
But make sure you scout wisely! You and everyone you scouted can be unscouted if you abuse the system!
In order to help yourself get scouted and gain more publicity in general, here are some tips:
- Post your submission in the Audio Advertisement Thread
- Post your submission in the Review for Review Thread
- Post your submission in the Review Request Club
- Make a news post about your new songs
- Link to your new songs in your forum signature
- Review others, help others out, and be an active Audio community member.
Thanks to LiquidOoze for the bulk of this answer!
Q: Why is my audio submission showing so many downloads with so few listens?
This is because of a very popular game called Geometry Dash, which allows users to use music straight off of NG. Users can use your audio submission in their custom levels, and some levels are VERY popular often getting 100K+ downloads.
Q: I don't want my audio submission to be downloadable. How do I disable downloads?
Edit your audio project. Under the Publication Details section, there is a check box at the bottom of the section labeled "Allow downloads." Uncheck this box and (re) publish your project to disable downloads.
Q: How do I get feedback on my audio submission?
Your best bet is to check out the Review for Review thread.
Q: How do I advertise my audio submission?
One way is to post the URL of the audio submission in the Audio Advertisements thread.
We're also now experimenting with self-advertisement threads. Here are some guidelines for making a self-advertisement thread (thanks to Step for the bulk of these guidelines!):
- Restrict your music all to one thread, entitled something like "<YourUsername>'s Music".
- Keep the focus on getting feedback, post works in progress and actively ask for opinions.
- Introduce yourself and your music in the opening post of the thread, and append context to each piece of music you post in your thread (like "this is my first attempt at X genre" or "a score I'm working on for Y's animation"). Overall, don't be a nobody who tries to exploit the forum as a means to spam links and advertise! This will get you banned or worse!
Q: I submitted a song to the audio portal, but there was nothing close to the genre I think my song is in. Can you add more genres?
There are endless genres, so we could always add more (and do). But in the meantime, what we've been recommending people do is to select the closest genre they can, and then getting specific with tags.
For example, you could select "Easy Listening - Solo Instruments" for an acoustic guitar heavy track, and then add "acoustic" and other related tags to the submission.
Q: How does music make it to the front page Featured Audio section, or to the audio section of the Featured Content section (bottom of the front page)?
The Featured Audio section is hand picked mostly by moderators. This section can sometimes include admin picks and contest winners as well.
The audio category of the Featured Content section (at the bottom of the front page) is generated automatically based on various pieces of information like listens, score, etc.
Game Portal Questions
Q: I'm having problems getting my Unity or other HTML5 game to work. What do I do?
You can start by reading the Unity3D WebGL Support page.
Forum Questions
Q: What are the forum rules?
You can find the forum rules here.
Q: I was banned for a long time over nothing! Who do I complain to?
Honestly, don't even bother. By the time you are banned from the forums for a long time, every mod and admin knows about your behaviors and nobody is going to take pity on you.
Q: How do I get a cool forum signature pic like other people have?
Ask the Newgrounds Sig Makers really, really nice, and one of them might make you one.
Q: Why am I not being notified when people @ / tag me in the forums or in news posts?
Notifications are ONLY sent out when the @ is NOT inside of reply text (which is text preceded by a colon). For example, this will send a notification to user Monster64:
@Monster64 is a cool dude!
This will NOT send a notification:
: @Monster64 is a cool dude!
Also, make sure you're not blocking the user and make sure you don't have notifications disabled for the user(s) in question.
Q: Can I have all my forum posts wiped?
PM Tom if you would like to have all of your forum posts deleted. Please have a good reason, as we like to preserve as much history as possible.
Geometry Dash Questions
Q: I am having a problem with Geometry Dash. What do I do?
The first thing to understand is that Newgrounds IS NOT a Geometry Dash music hosting service. If you have original tracks that you've uploaded and want to use in the game, you first have to be scouted (see the Audio Portal Questions section). If you've uploaded tracks you did not create, they will never work in the game and will probably be deleted off our systems fairly quickly.
If you're having problems with the game itself, please send a message to the developer. We allowed the developer of GD to use audio portal submissions for custom levels, but we do not support the game itself.
Q: I found a track I want to use in a Geometry Dash level. Where do I find the "audio ID"?
The audio ID is the number in the URL of an audio submission. For example, for the URL:
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/576668
the audio ID is 576668. Audio submissions will only work in GD if the artist has been scouted (see the Audio Portal Questions section)!
Q: I submitted a song I made to use in Geometry Dash, why is my song not working?
RobTop or a Geometry Dash Elder Mod must personally approve and whitelist your account after you have been scouted for your original work to be used in Geometry Dash. No mod or admin on Newgrounds can get your song approved for use in Geometry Dash so do not bother asking any of them. For more info check out this post on Newgrounds.
Swivel Questions
Q: I'm having issues using Swivel. How can I get help with this?
Swivel is considered community supported software. New releases may or may not be under development.
You can search the forums for "swivel" to see if someone else has had the same problem. If that doesn't help, you can post your question in the help forum and someone might be able to help. If you tag the developer of Swivel, Mike (i.e. add @Mike to your post), he may drop in at some point and offer some advice when he has time.
Supporter Questions
Q: I bought the Supporter upgrade but it doesn't seem to be working.
It's possible your transaction failed. For any issues with the supporter upgrade, PM Liljim.
Q: How do I cancel a Supporter subscription?
The Supporter Options page linked from your Account Options has a cancel button; you can cancel your subscription at any time.