WC Skin Portal

from WinCustomize Forums
Before I actually type out the content of this post, I want to let everyone know that this is _not_ meant, in any way, to be inflmatory towards anyone. I am simply asking for personal opinions, given in a civilized manner, on a subject which has crossed the minds of many since skinz.org shut down, and WC opened up.


When Skinz went down, all of us regulars from over there were worried that we may not all find a way to keep in touch. We wanted to find some way to keep the skinning community from that site intact. Brad, and the rest of the StarDock crew, came up with the idea of a skin portal. From what I recall about the messages on the old skinz message board, and the buzz around the community, this site was basically going to host a small handful of the more "well known apps" and act as a way to bring the rest of the skin sites together for everything else. It was all done in the name of the "community".


As time went on, it became less and less of what the original concept was.

What happenned?
I am simply wondering, did the admins plan it to be different than the original concept that was pitched to the community in the beginning, or did it just seem to take on a life of it's own, and slowly turn into what it is now? If it was a planned change from the idea that was brought up to the community, when was that decsion made? Before the site opened up, or after it had been running a little while?



I know a lot of people want to know why I am bringing this up in such a way. And, I guess, since this will probably end up being a slightly sensitive topic, I should come right out and say it.

I can't speak for all of the skin artists who came here from skinz.org, but I do know of several who feel the same way that I do. We came to this site exclusively, basically ignoring deskmod and DA, because this was where the people we grew with as artists came, and we wanted to be able to continue to share with those people. It was who we were comfortable with. Not that we minded new people.... the more new people the better, but they were sort of our "base of support". But as things progressed, it seemed as though it was not truly being done for the community, but to further StarDock's name. Which, believe, is completely understandable. It is a site owned by Stardock, and Stardock is a company out to make money... that's just bussiness. But it was done in the community's name.

Because of this, it seems now more like the community is slowly, irreversibly, falling apart. And a lot of us skin artists who came here for the reasons mentioned above, feel as though we have been taken advantage of.
I, along with the other artists, would more than likely have come and supported the site anyway. But I don;t believe we would have ignored the other sites for as long as we did.

And, perhaps, if the rest of the community had had more realistic expectations of what the site would actually be, we may not be ready to jump at each other's throats now that things aren't what we were led to believe they would be.


Also, out of curiosity, it was origianlly planned that lOc and Shoggot would admin the site. What ever happenned to those plans? Many of us came here specifically out of support for them.

I know a lot of people here... specifically those who came from sites other than skinz.org, or those who came around after skinz.org went down, may not understand what I am talking about. So this may seem to them like I am just trying to start another childish flame war. Please understand, however, that that is not the case. I'm simply curious as to how others view this situation. Nothing more, nothing less.
3,275 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Donna most of the skinz.org crowd all was informed that Shoggot and loc were going to admin Wincusto, (Shog told me directly himself he was even excited about this actually)
however after most of the msg board junkies and skinners moved in it shortly became apparent "something" went in a different direction...
(it took some of us alittle longer to notice then others)

This did not turn out to be what it was suppose to be originally, when loc & Frogboy both told us Wincustomize was to be some sort of skin portal and were even working together at that time...

For whatever reasons the facts of why it changed from the cast of admins to the design of being a skin portal were never explained clearly but at any rate, this site has now taken shape into Wincustomize.com and we all need to just accept that "period"
Brad has provided a site for us that remains standing through thick and thin and it's his site so I guess he can do whatever he wants w/ it, even I have learned what site this is! and "I" personally am slow on some stuff and I got it...

(though I get tired and even sometimes caught up in the garbage around and get mad at myself for it)
bottom line is when I feel like cancelling my ISP I can't, cuz I've grown attached to some of the regulars already
so I ain't going anywhere. hehe

Brad just has this stardock thing on his back following him around in the crowd,

This is "his business" and "his passion" and we are on "his site" and we should accept that and when we can't or when it bothers us we can simply take a break or try to ignore it by visiting other sites on occasions whatever...
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
and I'm not sticking up for any software company nor even any person here, this is just how I see it "now"

Donna I'm sure someone will either flame me now, or come explain how "they" see it now

so me is going now
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't see any flammable material here.

Donna, to put it in a nutshell, this isn't a new subject. I'm just sorry you didn't see the previous threads - they would have explained things much better than I or Doreen could. But if it makes you feel any better, you aren't the only one that felt somewhat confused over the course of events that have evolved from what was originally intended, or at least what we perceived was the original intent of WC. Needless to say that while quite a few people have been disappointed with what some thought would be the "successor" to Skinz, I'd have to say that no site can truly replace Skinz. You might say that for me it was the last of the Golden Age of skinning. But we have to move on, and make the best use of the resources that we do have. And there are other options. I tend to make use of ALL of them, though I tend to favor some sites over the others. But it's a matter of personal choice. Hopefully you'll find somewhere, if not here, where you can get comfortable. But unfortunately, if you're looking for Skinz - it's gone, dammit. May it Rest in Peace...
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Brad's discussed this several times at length in his own long winded way.

Putting it quickly, what Brad wanted to see was Stardock put up the bandwidth and machines and let selected members of the community run the site. But Shoggot got too busy and l0c had, let's just say his own vision on what a skin site should be like not having an ICQPlus section, and quit. This left Stardock kind of holding the bag....

Since all the coding of the site was thrown into Stardock's lap, the portal design got dumped since it was deemed complicated to come up with the system Brad had envisioned.

And when Deskmod went down, any remaining doubt went away on what had to be done. The community needed more dedicated general high bandwidth skin sites.

So here we are.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes, the idea was that WinCustomize would serve as a portal. Why didn't that happen? Well, there is no specific reason but as you mentioned above, WinCustomize kinda shaped itself.

We had hopes that the community would run and build the site. To start we tried to put some of the basics in place to replace skinz.org; ie, the Libraries, message boards, accounts, etc. The idea was that my involvement was just going to be temporary to provide some of the back end programming to talk to the database. l0c was going to do the majoring of the coding. Alexandrie would design the site. Shoggot would admin it. Unfortunately not everyone came together. I'm not sure why Shoggot never showed up. l0c backed out due to time constraints and a few administrative differences.

So because of that the site was pretty much left in mine and Alexandrie's hands. Though I have been with Stardock for some time I did not have any community ties and did not really have a grasp on the whole portal idea.

So in between trying to perform my regular duties at Stardock I helped piece together WinCustomize. The order of how things on the site were built were mainly out of necessity and demand. So that is really how WinCustomize managed to grow into what it is now.

Anyway, that is my perspective on WinCustomize.com. Will WinCustomize ever be a Portal site...doubtfully.

However, in some of my spare time I have been trying to piece together a Document Type Definition (DTD) spec for XML documents where a skin and its pertanent information could be shared in a common format. This information could then be used by any site to display skins from another site whether it be WinCust, Customize, Deviant Art, etc or whether it be a personal site.

I have several projects going at the moment so I haven't been able to revisit the DTD. But hopefully I will complete it soon and pass it around to others and get their opinion on it. Once that is completed it would be up to the community on how they wished to use that information.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And there you have it. My only point is that I am getting fragmented with all these skinz sites nowadays. I'd better watch out that I don't develop alter ego's. It's all so scattered.

Ofcourse, I could restrict myself to just one site, but then I'd miss out on lots of events.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm new to the skin community. I've used WindowBlinds for a long time but only learned about this site recently via my "home" on kuro5hin. You're not missing anything. The powerful are always attacked by the petty.