Hey Drill'n Boss, you are reading too many of Zu's post, a typo in a post to correct a typo.

Ya must admit having a little fun poked at you is better than being chastised by Jafo.

In some sense I suppose I should apologize for hijacking the thread except for the fact that this thread was headed nowhere to begin with, but yeah I definitely consider skins to be frills and although I can see *some* potential use for organizational aids I still suspect that there's nothing they can really do for you. I view these kinds of things like the fancy closet organizer systems you can get at home depot. If you're too lazy to keep your closet neat and clean then a closet organizer probably won't do much but give you more place to pile crap.

Of course, All generalizations are false, including this one. I'm sure there are many people that can benefit from the use of such organizational aids and it's your PC and I'm certainly not going to say what anyone should or should not have on their own PC. It's just for me personally I find these things to be about as much use as tits on a bull. 

As far as the intermix on the SD forums that's something I've spoken about rather vehemently, however I don't totally object to the mixing of the forums, what I object to is the "forced" intermixing of different forums and the "unknowing" intermixing.

The proponents of this mixing say that it generates interaction between people of different interests and that interchange can be a good thing. I actually agree with this premise but I also believe that the objection to "forced" and "unknowing" interaction is valid as well.

For example by "forced" interaction I mean where there is a so much traffic from a foreign source that it begins to overpower the "normal" traffic of that site. This is certainly what has happened with the GalCiv2 site and Impulse. Basically looking at the top 50 most recent post list on the GalCiv2 site you'll see that threads from the Impulse and the Off-Topic categories outnumber the GalCiv2 specific threads on a regular basis. This has been true for months now and continues to be true today.

The other aspect is the "unkowning" part of this mix. These sites mostly grew up by themselves and have an obvious primary interest that attracts people of different ages, interests and temperment. Certainly there is overlap. I'm sure there are many that frequent both Sins and GalCiv2 but there are probably more that don't than do.

Like Mark Twain said "All generalizations are false, including this one". But there *are* elements of truth in them and we do end up sorting ourselves out by shared interests. I have no problem interacting with Win Customize folks as long as I know that's what they are. I can then understand at least a little bit what their interests may be and how their opinions may differ from mine. I also want them to know that my interests are GalCiv2 and that in some sense should geive them a basic understanding of where my interests and opinions lie.

The other part about knowing someone may not share your particular interests is the acceptance that this exists and the willingness to at least attempt to see the other persons point of view.

Basically I dislike the internet and have always disliked the internet. I've found most of the "blogosphere" to be populated with people that spout the same kind of opinions that I hear all too frequently on sports or political talk radio stations. For me there's just too much yelling and shouting. Plus all the right wingers call in on the right wing shows and all pretty much tend to agree and the same with the left wingers. If the someone from the opposite political side stumbles onto the wrong show they are simply ridiculed, ignored or just simply shouted down.

That's what mostly happens on the internet if you're arguing the "wrong" side of a particular arugment. You can write a 10 paragraph argument bringing up multiple points and usually 9 of the 10 points will get ignored and the point responded to will be mis-stated. And that's probably a more reasoned response. Often a 10 paragraph argument will simply be ridiculed by someone posting a flaming.gif or the like. How can you argue with that?

I have no problem with people holding opinions that differ from mine, but I do have a problem with people who consider every opinion I have to be unreasonable to hold while their every opinion is not just opinion but fact. This is no interchange of rational discourse, you're just wasting your breath.

So anyway the GalCiv2 site used to be different from that. It used to be a place where everyone shared an interest in the same game and gave each other advice pertaining to the game. Now the GalCiv2 site is just like the rest of the internet.

So here's another 10 paragraphs that try to rationally explain my position, let's see who can dismiss every point I brought up in the least number of words possible.

GC2aholics unite!

In any case I have no particular intention to denigrate anyone in particular or any of Stardock's products. Also I didn't deny that there are a noticable number of people interested in such things I merely expressed the *opinion* that I couldn't really understand the motivation for that interest.

I am sure that a huge percentage of those see it exactly as that: A way to make their desktop look nicer or have some cool animated wallpaper.

In addition to what Neilo said, I've run into a few threads where a question was posed about a problem in-game having to do with planet colonies and ship battles or some such. If it's stuck in one of the broader gaming categories and the OP is kinda vague you can't tell at first if the question is for GC2 or SoaSE. I've almost replied to a couple with a GC2 answer only to find they were asking about Sins. Luckily this doesn't happen too often.

The powers that be seems to feel it's a good idea to mix like this, which from a marketing standpoint it does give broader product saturation across the enitre user base. The thing is many of us here at GC2 do have some of these other products, we just use them and have no need to discuss them. It's not like there is strategy to be talked about with those types of apps When i have a problem with one I go to it's forum to resolve it, and I try not to drag it to unrelated areas. It's like a culture clash of sorts and as long as these forums are setup like this these kinds of discussions/debates will popup.

and to the OP; I hope we haven't totally hijacked and screwed up your bloggin experience in any way here. Just seemed like this was kind of a test post and I guess a good place to have an open discussion about this.

Arrghhh edit broke...again..

I tried fixing the (sp) errors. I am finding myself making my post replies on ToE.com then CTRL-Ving them over here, at least we still have spellchecker there.

Now theres an argument we could get behind....

I'd like to see two things: (Why am I posting this here?)

1. Each post/reply listing the site it was made from in the upper right corner. (Hey, it might pique somebody's curiosity.)

2. Topic specific recent posts page. Listing all the posts under Impulse forums, but none of the others for example.

This post was made from forums.sinsofasolarempire.com.

In the same vein I would say "games is childish pasttime....for kids".

So what if I have upwards of 90 games installed currently [incl. demos]...and at the same time don't even BOTHER with Microsoft's default shell.

It very definitely is NOT 'vanity'.....not in this little woodchuck's Dictionary interpretation of the word.

It MAY be purely 'cosmetic'....in the same way that a Drysdale is 'purely cosmetic'.

Skinning is an artform....no less legitimate than any other....

It certainly is arguable but the above definition seems to fit to me. I remember when I created my metaverse character and one of the categories of background info was "Favorite Skin Author". I remember thinking "what in God's name is a skin author". A number of risque possibilities came to mind that I won't mention here.

I still think that if you asked the average computer user that question today, there would be far more that wouldn't know what you were talking about than those that would. I think it's vain to assume that if you mention skinning that the ordinary person even has a clue what you're talking about.

I guess if you want to call skinning an artform then I concede that as a legitimate point. After all, art is certainly in the eye of the beholder. All I was really saying was I don't personally understand the motivation. Still don't.

However I'm really not trying to bash someone's favorite artform. It certainly doesn't hurt me in any way, if it gives enjoyment to even only a few then it's a good thing. My initial post was really more of simply wondering what's so great about skinning.