Asandir's interviews with Newgrounds forum users

When did you find Newgrounds and why did you join?

Asandir:

"When my memory doesn't betray me, then I stumbled across Newgrounds the first time 2009. I didn't really recognise it as site, but more as place to play Toss the Turtle. One year later in December 2010, I played this game again. I wanted to keep my earned medals so I decided to make my very first account on a website. My main goal was to earn medals and to play a lot of games. Since my english is not really good, I used the forums very sparely at this time."

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Why did you choose the username Asandir?

Asandir:

"Well, I didn't want to use my real first name (which wouldn't be available anyways, since an account with that name existed already when I registered), so I just took a name from one of my favourite book series, The Curse of the Mistwraith. When you look it up, then you will notice that the name Asandir originates from there. It is kind of funny, since I originally wanted to choose the username Arithon, but someone took that name already. In the books, Arithon means Destiny Changer, and I always wanted to change my destiny for the better. As my closest friends on Newgrounds know, the history of my family is quite sad and filled with way too early deaths. However, since that name was taken, I decided for Asandir, not because of the meaning but since I think that it sounds like a good username. The meaning for Asandir would be "Heart of Stone", which is quite ironic, when I think about it."

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Do you think that you changed over the time you were here, as user, or also in real life?

Asandir:

"Definitely. I am here since a rather limited amount of time, but the process that I made should be pretty noticable for anyone who knows me since the early months of my membership. I mainly played games in my first months on Newgrounds and almost got bored enough to leave. I thought to myself "Hey, why not checking out the forums a bit, maybe you could have fun?" And so I started to post more on the forums, my daily postcount raised up a lot, I became kind of known on the forums and made some friends, who made me decide to stay on Newgrounds. My posts were not very good back then, I have to admit it. Then the day came where I passed 10.000 posts, while being on Newgrounds for less than a year. I thought that it was time for a change, and since I had the wish to join the Elite Guard Barracks, I tried to become a better user. I already had a Deity Whistle due to massive flagging of older abusive reviews, but there were aspects that I had to work on. Jolly gave me a lot of advice, and so I managed to get my reviews deleted with the help of Tom Fulp. However, I had to work most on my post quality. I still find it difficult, but I think that I became a decent poster by now. I am now a proud member of the Elite Guard Barracks, something that was one of my biggest goals. So all in all, I became a better user and I am proud about the process that I made."

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Are there users that you like, and how do they affect you?

Asandir:

"There are plenty of users that I like. When I look back at the early months, then agustana was one of the first users that I started to like. Everyone who knows me well should know that I like her. I also have to mention Suprememessage, we had some kind of stat gathering rivalry back then and he is one of the reasons that I started to post more. I was pretty sad when he left, since he is one of my best friends and it makes me very happy that he recently decided to return. A list of the users that I like would be without meaning when I wouldn't mention Gimmick. We are Newgrounds friends since a lot of months and of his biggest values is that he is one of the few users who criticize me in a honest way. With all the praise that I got, it is important to get some feedback that shows how I can become a better user. One of my best friends has to be bilalz, he is most likely the user who I talk the most with. He has a nice attitude and when you check out his art, then you will see that he is very talented. As I mentioned earlier, Jolly had a l lot of influence on me. He is truly underrated in my opinion, I hope that more users appreciate his work for not only the Elite Guard Barracks but also for Newgrounds in general. I wouldn't have improved without him and I would have probably left Newgrounds, but he believed in my ability to become a member of the Elite Guard Barracks, a group that I respect so much, that I can't decribe how happy I am that I was allowed to join them. The last user that I want to mention is Light, because I always saw and still see him as perfect rolemodel. I admire his post quality and I want to thank him for increasing the quality of a topic, when he decides to leave a reply. Without him, I wouldn't have a Deity Whistle. I also know that I can always talk to him when I have a problem and I am very thankful for that."

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Are there any other users that you like, and how do they affect you ?

Asandir:

"You probably expect that I say that I don't dislike users on Newgrounds. However, that is not true. I don't hate anyone or would go as far as to call them my enemies, but there are indeed some users that I dislike for their posting behaviour. Calling names is useless, giving them more spotlight is not needed. I think it says enough when the majority of them gets banned regularly from posting on the forums."

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I guess that you have an opinion about the moderators of Newgrounds. Do you think that they do a great job or not?

Asandir:

"I indeed managed to get an opinion about the moderators, yes. All in all, they do a great job in my opinion. When I get the feeling that they oversee rule-breaking behaviour, then I send them a pm. I think that some of the moderators are already tired when I yet again report someone for the usage of homophobic language, since this rule is broken quite often. The vast majority of the moderators is really nice and they reply when you got a question. From all the moderators deckheadtottie is my favourite one and I think that he is a bit underrated. It also made me pretty happy that Dean became a forum moderator recently. He is a good user, with a lot of knowledge and he appears to be very sincere."

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Would you like to become a moderator on Newgrounds? If so, what kind of moderator?

Asandir:

"That's a though question. Would I like to be a mod? The answer is "Yes, absolutely". However, my chances couldn't be lower to become one. The forums are by far my favourite place on Newgrounds but I am not qualified enough to ever become a forum mod. When you compare the forum mods, then you will notice that all of them have pefect language - although Rucklo hides that sometimes - and they are highly intelligent. I am intelligent too, but my english lacks heavily. so, we can easily outrule a position as forum mod, it isn't realistic. From the other positions, I am only interested in review and icon moderation. The first one, since I know the review guidelines pretty well and would love to help to get rid of abusive reviews more than now. However, you also have to be able to make good reviews and a lot of them, so that is also no option. I think that I would be best suited for being an icon mod. My english wouldn't be a problem, I could contribute to Newgrounds and I could even keep my blue aura. so, when the day comes when I don't make interviews with forums users anymore, then I would try to become an icon moderator. Now it becomes kind of funny and it shows that it is kind of bad that I had this interview since quite some weeks saved on my harddrive and I am too lazy to rewrite the answer completely. I became an icon moderator in early December and I am doing a pretty good job in my opinion and enjoy the opportunity to help out. The redesign comes closer so it is good that we get some more icons ready for it. Do you want to know the amount of flash icons that I made? It's over 9000!!! The interviews will be still continued since I can choose my working schedule pretty freely as icon mod, so please look at my userpage every Monday when you want to read a new interview :) "

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The redesign is rumored to happen within the next months, are you looking forward to it? What kind of changes do you want to see?

Asandir:

"I am probably one of the users who is looking forward the most to the redesign. The current design looks really good, but I believe that there is place for improvement. I heard that there will be new level icons, which means that I wouldn't have to use the Level 22 icon, which is my least favourite. I just hope that they improve the search function, since the current one is not useful at all. The introduction of the new portals will change Newgrounds and allow more content, which will hopefully result in more amazing projects. More custimization for our userpages would be also appreciated but I heard that this will happen sometime after the redesign."

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Christmas will be there in a few weeks, a special time on Newgrounds. Are you looking forward to experience Christmas on Newgrounds?

Asandir:

"Well, I am looking forward to Christmas on Newgrounds for sveral reasons. First of all, I hope that we get those nice christmas/winter icons again, they help to get me in the christmas mood, similiar to the Halloween icons that we had this year. Secondy, christmas time means more flashes, and more content is always good, especially since we have many talented artists."

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Some users say that you are a stat-whore. Would you agree with them or not?

Asandir:

"I like to be honest. And it is therefore impossible for me to disagree with them. One look at my userpage should be enough to show you that I like top gather stats. With a 100% deposit rate, a Deity Whistle and a decent B/P rank, I indeed qualify as stat-whore. My postcount is also pretty high for a user with such a young account. The only thing that I don't care about is reviews, I find it too time-consuming to write constructive ones and I know that there users who can do that better than me"

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You have over 10.000 posts. What do you think about Newgrounds forums? Do you consider yourself as a forum regular?

Asandir:

"Well, I like the forums a lot and had tons of fun there in the past. Although I have to admit that I was pretty unhappy with the recent quality of topics that were made. It seems like the quality is now increasing again, thankfully. I am indifferent about the question if I am a regular or not. After all, I don't post much anymore, so you won't see my name in every thread anymore like in the past. Still, I post every day, so you can definitely say that I actively participate in our lovely forum discussions on a daily basis."

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You won the Rookie of the mid-year award for the NGBBS mid-year awards 2011. Do you think that you deserve this award and how did you feel winning it?

Asandir:

"Well, I indeed think that I deserved to win this award. POTaTOS is also a great new user and I think that he also would have deserved to win. But I still think that I had from the three nominated users the most impact on the forums, and my influence was not bad for Newgrounds in my opinion. I was of course very happy with this result and I want to thank everyone who voted for me. Now I am looking forward to see who will follow in my footsteps at the end of the year awards. I for one hope that Emma will win the award, I like her the most from the users who joined 2011, and winning such an award is a nice way to get some feedback."

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You recently started to make interview with forum users. How did you get the idea for this?

Asandir:

"Well, it all started when Suprememessage mentioned in a thread that he was never interviewed before. I offered to him in a joking manner that I could interview him, which I did then. The idea grew on me, so I continued to interview users, and the leayout of my interviews became better, thanks to the help of The-Great-One, who also interviewed me in the past. Different to The Interviewer, I am not looking for famous artists, but for forum regulars that I find interesting. Past experience showed that those interviews can be pretty interesting and that different users leave highly different answers to similiar questions. my goal is it that the interviewed person shows his/her personality, so that we get to know the person better. I found out a lot of interesting things through those interviews."

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What can we expect from you in the future, Asandir?

Asandir:

"I think that you can expect from me that I will continue to interview forum users. I won't go back to post as much as I did in the past, so you won't see much forum activity from me, although I am used now to make posts with a somewhat decent quality, but keeping up the pace from the early months of my membership is impossible. However, I am often online, looking out for abusive reviews and stolen content. And I will continue to fulfill my duties as icon moderator."

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