In support of the skinning community...

from WinCustomize Forums
I know that this may not be a very popular notion, but I would gladly pay a monthly fee to be a member of this site if some premium services were offered to paying members. I pay $4.95 a month for a site that plans and keeps track of my workouts, and I've payed monthly membership fee's to several other sites in the past, but this is one community that I'd have no problem supporting via a monthly fee. I dunno, cap the download limit to 10 MB for non-premium members and give us access to some beta goodies, or something like that. I'm not saying to start charging, but what I am saying is that I for one would be first in line if you did AND it was a resonable fee, like the $4.95 that I pay elsewhere... Flame me if you will, but I don't want to see another great skinning site go by the way of the dodo because of funding issues...

... on a side note, I'm moving and am no longer able to keep this email address, but I can't find out how to change it in my profile... any clues?

just my 2 cents, let's see if we can make a dollar...
10,492 views 25 replies
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hoverboy no need to worry, they've got this site covered, and everyone will have the options of supporting this site in numerous ways.
I don't see this site going anywhere for a long long time
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I might as well as long as they had a section for "all" of the skinnable apps out there.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yep, agree with Third Eye. I wouldn't pay for this site unless they had sections for every skinnable app made (including HoverDesk).
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Somehow I agree, by instead of a monthly fee, make it a yearly fee, that way some upfront cash can be made available.

How about $20?

Sorry I just started an other tread on this matter.

Regards,

Kees Mulder
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Guys, that's what the CD-Rom sales are for. It's a far better funding solution than a subscription. If you want to encourage this site, buy the CD.

But in any way, this site was created in the first place because Stardock was seeing its sales decrease drastically after the downfall of skinz.org. There is no danger of seeing this site go anywhere because Stardock needs it.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh, and if you want to support this site, buy Object Desktop, if you haven't already.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Pax: ditto what FOF said...


It's a pity that the fall of Skinz and Deskmod have caused so much panic in the skinning world. Now it seems that everytime there's a flicker of difficulty at any skin site, the cry goes out that the sky is falling. Of course, the exact same thing happened when the original Customize.org went face down. People just can't seem to see that with the Web constantly evolving, SH-T happens. (I don't like it either, but you learn to live with it...)

"When in danger or in doubt,
Run in circles, scream and shout!"

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I understand that the web is constantly evolving, and from what I've seen of this evolution, the days of the free ride on the web are coming to an end. Not for every single site out there, but for bandwidth hungry sites that don't have big corporate sponsorship I see some fundamental decisions ahead. I think that the CD is a great idea, and of course I'll buy it, and I've also been an Object Desktop member for well over a year now. What I was saying at the beginning of this thread is that I for one, am ok with a subscription based model if it comes to that later on down the line, as long as it's a reasonable fee for the services rendered. I was hoping that people would throw in ideas as to what kind of services/features they'd be willing to pay for so the powers that be could start taking notes ... you know, just in case. I totally agree that if they were to move to some subscription based services that they would have to host more skin selections than what they currently do.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, I don't think this site will ever go down unless Stardock goes down too.
But to answer your question: nothing. I will never pay to have access to any site, no matter what service/feature is offered. I pay for my Internet access, and that's enough spent. Smae for TV: I have cable and I watch the channels that come with cable, but I will never pay for a specialized pay channel.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks for your kind words Hoverboy and all. You don't have to worry about the site going away, it's not. As long as there's a Stardock, there will be a WinCustomize.com and as others have pointed out, the skinning community is growing which means more users to buy software and such.

The worst that would ever happen is if WinCustomize CDs, T-shirts and other things weren't able to pay for additional bandwidth we'd just begin removing non-Stardock sections which would be the worst case scenario. But we're not anywhere near that sort of thing. If we can sell 500 CDs or T-shirts (any combo) per month, then WinCustomize can get more bandwidth that will take care of speed and such. And with hundreds of thousands of people visiting each month, that's a pretty small total.

The loss of Deskmod came as a shock and we're all just having to get used to the increased useage and at the same time the need to add sections to support more apps sooner than expected.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me still waits expectantly for a CD and a Tee...
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me is waiting for the cofee cups, T's and Ballcaps....
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Purrrr... RoboBabe, Get your butt back here!
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Robo...what are you on about?...
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In the spirit of ressurecting old threads :

Thanks for your kind words Hoverboy and all. You don't have to worry about the site going away, it's not. As long as there's a Stardock, there will be a WinCustomize.com and as others have pointed out, the skinning community is growing which means more users to buy software and such.

The worst that would ever happen is if WinCustomize CDs, T-shirts and other things weren't able to pay for additional bandwidth we'd just begin removing non-Stardock sections which would be the worst case scenario. But we're not anywhere near that sort of thing. If we can sell 500 CDs or T-shirts (any combo) per month, then WinCustomize can get more bandwidth that will take care of speed and such. And with hundreds of thousands of people visiting each month, that's a pretty small total.

The loss of Deskmod came as a shock and we're all just having to get used to the increased useage and at the same time the need to add sections to support more apps sooner than expected.


In "web years" WC has been around for what seems like forever. It's good to see that even if the model has changed, the site is still here.

/me looks forward to the future of WC; the past has been a blast



I may need to look into a t-shirt to support the site. That way you'd only need 499 more to pay for this months usage
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Geez...there's some old blood here....
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
*SK slaps Zubaz for bringing back a 5 year old thread

--notice who got the last word in back then even--
hehe
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
*SK slaps Zubaz for bringing back a 5 year old thread


Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
*SK slaps Zubaz for bringing back a 5 year old thread


Jeeeze - no wonder I'm confused.



--notice who got the last word in back then even--