I'm a lesbian trapped in a mans body...does that count?

Thanks, vStyler.  

Zubaz wants proff   

Lady Godiva?

Proof





I couldnt care less male or female...a killer skin is a killer skin no mater what the authors gender

Zubaz wants a proffesor   

A proffessional proffesor ?

Ooops.. Professor [pruh-fes-er]  

In summary WC nor stardock has ever been or shall ever be gender biased..A lack of #'s of female skinner's is the largest contributor to the low #'s of Female Master skinners on WC...But as a community Skinning knows no racial,religious,geographical,gender, boundaries. Every desktop screams for Customization no matter who's it is or where it's at...

It could be that skinning has been predominately male Because typically males are more likely to be out spoken and easily blabber on in places like forums etc.. where majority of females are more reserved when it comes to opening up on the net.. Once they feel comfortable, they open up and they are a welcome and much needed Part of any community, as they often see things their male counter parts do not...


my $.o2

::Sniff:: I can take a hint...    (hmm...they even labeled their crying icon 'sniff'...  )

Anyway, I created a page last night, and today I'll apply some skins and take some screenshots and then I'll have done my little bit...and not post on this thread again   

This thread is actually one of the GOOD ones...as it's all about skinners and what makes them so.

I'm still finding people I thought/assumed were one sex are actually the other [not from their work....but from their interaction on the site].  I'm sure there's some gender reassignments going on deliberately to confuse me....

We, as an online community use nicks which are seldom gender-specific, but as time goes on people will not just get to know their real names...but other info as well....just an example of a community growing together.

Over the years I've met people from all walks of life here...all colours, shapes and sizes.  Skinning [and Wincustomize.com] is truly cosmopolitan and is only limited in that way by the [obvious] predominance of English as the 'official' language, but hey, Formula One's official language is the same...and THEY are based in France...

The reason we're adamant about anti-discrimination here is if you were to think of ANY social 'group' and ostracized it in some way you'd be driving off a section of the skinning community/skinners as well.

Wincustomize.com is not a site for WASPs...and were it to start to become one I'd be grabbing some commercial strength Baygon.....

Po and Skinhit had me confused ages ago.  

Great post Jafo

I knew she was female - but, not for a long time.



With a user name like " Fairyy~ " I still get referred to as he, him and the oh so special " Thanks Dude " So user names pretty much won't help that gender thingie.

I'm betting Jafo knows my real name..

i knew she was a woman
Quentin94 always check personal page before answering to someone
unless you change your gender in your personal page

What we have here at Wincustomize is the closest you will ever get to "One World". If we can't get passed physical differences here in an imaginary world, there is simply no hope. Might as well build the walls bigger and with alot more voltage.

But we do support different flavours (notice I didn't say flavors)

A few days back I was going to suggest maybe someone should do an article on giving your computer's gui a "Makeover" but, I figured the typical person that if might attract would annoy all skinners regardless of sex.



Yes, people of all colours and creeds.

PS. Zubaz starts and ends with a "Zed"!

winmodify.net did some great interviews recently on kittymalone & jazzymjr, a couple of great female skinners. I thought it was a great idea, a way to learn more about skinners. If you haven't already, you should definitely check it out. It would be a great feature to have here as well. I'd love to learn more about some of the pro's (treetog, mike bryant, danillooc, etc.) and alot of the current top skinners on this site.

Now how die I get dragged back into this thread?    

I really think what started out as kitty feeling she was being held back because she was female ( which she had a right to express ) has really taken a turn more towards why the lack of female skinners. I came here years ago with no interest what so ever in even skinning my PC never mind learning anything. I was dragged here by a male friend...I didn't enjoy looking at the Themes he was showing me and I more or less yawned at it all.

Then he gave me a link to Starone's " Silver & Gold " theme. I thought, I kinda like that...and that was why I stayed.

I think the turning point came when windowblinds 5 came out. Not only women skinners kinda dwindled off but men too. I think it just became to time consuming.

Maybe it can be rekindled..

And this can only be done on WC? If you want to skin for a living then make your own site, promote what you can do, find companies that might have a need for skins, and contact them.

Personally i would like to do this for a living, but that doesn't make it so, and being a "master" isn't a magic button that suddenly makes you rich. Yeah, RIGHT, if that was the case than i wouldn't be working 12+ hrs a day in a job i really dislike, but i make good $ and have a wife, son, and mom to take care of, so i do like MANY others, what is needed to make ends meet.

I wish you the best of luck, your stuff is very good.

The income issue is discussed quite regularly and you probably could have a subforum of discussions on that.

Frankly - being on a disability pension just like Kitty - that was my main reason for purchasing DesktopX Pro with the hope of eventually to at the least augment my income or better yet being able to tell the government where to go.

Unfortunately, that hasn't happened...yet, mostly due to the part that I've let my graphics skills lapse and spend too much time on the scripting side of things.

I do think the future looks bright especially with Stardock Design now in the works.

Sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread or anything but, are any of the masters making what might be considered a good part-time income?

To elaborate on what Dave said being a master isn't a pot of gold, the only reason I can do it fulltime is my wife works and I maintain income off of Maxstyles as well..even with both combined I barely get by and thats by working 14-16 hours a day most days. So EVEN if you make Master , may not be enough to live on regardless. Do what I have been doing if you have faith in yourself and email some gfx design companies and offer up your services.

vStyler,

I have found my most lucrative jobs have been for private companies who want to show off something they end up giving away to customers. The 3 projects i have done that way have outweighed ALL my income from DesktopGadgets.com Wincustomize.com and CommercialGadgets.com combined by about 2-3 times. Two found me by doing a Google search, and looking at things i did on multiple sites, not just WC exclusively, and one found me when they were looking at some old skins i did for Windows Media, so just being on WC will not guarantee you anything.

DX is a HARD product to make $ with, WB is much easier, with DX you have thousands of lines of code (3500+ on the Holiday Countdown Pro) that YOU have to make sure works on all kinds of machines. Where as WB skins are mainly graphics, if WB doesnt skin its Stardock's issue.

Just my 0.02

Individual skinners selling their work isn't new, but it's still not a very widely done thing. If you want to make money from skinning you have several options:

1. Make your own site to sell from.
   There are free/cheap ecommerce systems you can use to handle sales (usually for some cut of the sale). Hosting a website isn't that expensive anymore either. This requires a lot of work and personal initiative to pull off though.
2. Team up with other skinners who have their own sales channels
   MaxStyles sells through their site. There are benefits here in that joining up saves you the setup work as it's already done, plus you get a little bit more early exposure.
3. Become a Master at WinCustomize
   This is the longest path of the three. It can take years (as it has for some) and there's no guarantee you'll get the promotion since it's not something every user is entitled to. It's an honor we reserve to recognize some of the best overall skinners in the community. But the benefit is large since it's guaranteed to be the single largest potential customer audience you'll ever reach.

But ultimately, the success of selling your work rests largely on the skinner's shoulders. You have to go out, spread the word. Advertise your skin wherever you can. People don't realize how hard it is to actually sell something, especially online. You need to build an audience for your work, and continually grow it. This goes for WC Master skinners too. I don't see many of you out there pimping your goods beyond the walls of WC. It doesn't work along the lines of "If you build it, they will come" They have to know it's there!

vStyler and RomanDA are examples of how to maximize your income from skinning. They have multiple sales channels, and RomanDA has even done individual contract work.

The thing is, anyone who can skin can do this. Gender doesn't even enter into it. Alexandrie is a good example of a female skinner who is a go-getter and made it work for her. Remember Pixtudio? She worked with other skinners to build a business that was pretty successful. It can be done, and it can be done by anyone who has the determination. It's not easy, but then again going into business for yourself never is (which is essentially what selling your skinning work is, you're becoming your own one-man business).