The Star Syndicate is a Newgrounds flash group known for making the popular Dailytoons series, and are also notable for trolling areas of Newgrounds for entertainment value.
History
The group first started in April 2004, but until September they would not submit too much at all. In September, they began making their appearance with holiday themed collabs, and little effort movies which gave them a bad reputation with the Newgrounds community. In October 2004, they submitted their first ever Dailytoon (collabs where one is submitted everyday for 100 days; the last day dedicated to collections of user's toons) which would be the group's most popular series to date.
They also have a day dedicated to Star Syndicate cartoons, called "Star Day" celebrating the birthday of when the Star Syndicate was formed.
Notoriety
They are most popular in Newgrounds for their tendencies to submit large amounts of low-quality submissions, angering users. They are submitted to get uneducated, and poorly written reviews or comments, which can be funny for how poor the review is. They are also submitted because it's fun for the group to make flash, no matter how crappy. However, this does not reflect an SS member's true ability to make movies, as they have also been known for submitting high quality movies, most getting awards such as Weekly User's Choice, Daily Feature, and frontpage on many, many occasions. The best known legitimate members of the group are rtil (and his alt xtil), ZekeySpaceLizard, and BlueHippo.
Illegal and malicious activities
The Star Syndicate is also infamous for formulating plans to damage Newgrounds.
SevenStar and child porn
In October 2005, SevenStar and a few other members posted child porn on the BBS, with SevenStar being the only one deleted.
Abusing and Exploiting Newgrounds
- Main article: Abusing and Exploiting Newgrounds
Goldencat (also famous for rapping in his earlier years on NG) and Chrome- have made many attempts to annoy the userbase. Goldencat made a book telling how to exploit the Newgrounds voting systems. Within a month after the release of the book, the link (hosted on xh4ck) had received over 7000 unique views.
Other
Also, they have made viruses that they trick people into downloading them onto the victim's computer, one being a famous artist with the username of Wonchop. The virus got mixed reviews from SS members; the people who liked it hated Wonchop and thought it was funny his computer got messed up, while other users state that the virus had gone "too far" and it wasn't in the spirit of the SS.
Chrome-, now going under the name cr0m, is still around today even though many have thought he has disappeared. He still continues to create flash, but has also made many malicious scripts such as a SWF exploit that he named "Operation: BSOD". When the user hit the frame which contained the malicious code, he or she would instantly see the Blue Screen of Death if running a Windows OS. He has also hijacked several thousand NG accounts created within 2000-2003.