No, not that Matrix; this one: an open, federated, cross-platform, encryptable, and self-hostable chat protocol!

TL;DR: Visit the Newgrounds Matrix adVancement Server!!

In essence, it can be thought of as an independently-run Discord server--and on an actual server, no less. It runs on the Matrix protocol, which is highly extensible and allows for a lot of fun goodies. A fuller explanation of Matrix & its benefits are explained in the user agreement / guide I wrote for my server.

Some important things to note:

• There's no account creation necessary: simply sign in via Newgrounds Passport! But at least for the time being, membership is limited to Newgrounds Supporters only, mostly as a way to prevent spam or overloading the server.
• It has comment pages for movie/game portal submissions! Simply visit #portal_view_<submissionID>:ngmvs.one to get a chat room for any submission. No account is needed to view these pages, but only Newgrounds Supporters can write in them. The idea is to provide a means for open discussion on submissions beyond what Newgrounds' review system provides (one message per viewer, optional reply from author(s)), but to keep it outside of Newgrounds itself, to keep the quality of review comments on Newgrounds high (i.e. well thought-out feedback addressed to authors goes in reviews on Newgrounds itself, while general discussion about a submission addressed to no one in particular goes in the Matrix chat).

So, why did I make this, especially since Newgrounds has plenty of thriving Discord servers already?

Overall, as nice as Discord is, it's a closed & centralized platform, which ultimately means that no one other than Discord itself has much of a say in how it works, who's allowed to use it, what can be hosted on it, etc. The past few years have shown that the interests of those running centralized platforms don't always align with the interests of their users, leading to these platforms changing in ways that users hate, yet have no control over. Some good examples are YouTube's increasingly aggressive ad policies; Twitter & Facebook's incessant fiddling with your timeline (to put it lightly); and, of course, the Tumblr exodus. Discord hasn't reached that level yet (at least I don't think it has?), but the possibility undeniably exists. If some disruptive change to Discord were to happen, there would most likely be nothing people could do about it.

As a result, I'm betting on decentralized, open platforms being the future of online communication. Of all the attempts at that which have come and/or gone over the years, Matrix is definitely one of the most promising ones, as it tries to strike a good balance between usability, openness, and practicality. Case in point: one of its core design tenets is for it to be able to extend, not replace existing platforms--in other words, Matrix isn't trying to "usurp" all online communication platforms (which would never work, anyways), but to live alongside them. For example, Matrix can bridge to Discord, as well as a slew of other platforms.

With all that said, my Matrix server is in NO WAY intended to detract from Newgrounds' Discord servers, but to compliment & extend them. My hope is for it to eventually bridge with the Discord servers, as long as the powers that be are okay with that :D

So, please give it a try!! Simply visit app.ngmvs.one from a web browser, or use one of the many Matrix clients with SSO support. Keep in mind that only the former is run by me; the rest are general-purpose Matrix clients made by other (very talented) people that I have no affiliation with.

~XJ

PS: Yes, the wee morning hours past Labour Day isn't exactly the best time to be making an announcement like this...but it's taken me long enough to set this up & I just want to get the word out already!! (I worked my butt off in an attempt to get this ready in time for the Block Party, but BOY did I underestimate the work involved...)