bucben bucben

Hard to swallow!

Hard to swallow!

Its with great pain that I must say good-bye. My troubles all started about a week ago when I summited a theme called "XP-X".I received an e_mail from jafo telling me it was rejected because it was a copy of boxxi"s gridscape. Knowing it was not-I resimitted and received the same e-mail.. I then resummited with a editors note that everything in said theme was made from scratch to the best of my knowledge and it was summited. Since that time my download numbers have steadaly declined. Its hard to beleive a theme goes from 100+ downloads a day to less than 5.I really feel like I"m being blackballed for whatever reason? Kinda weird when you consider I"m not makeing a dime off of any of my work. I"ve been coming to this site almost since day one and I"m just realizing that the politics here are borderline insane.I will miss some of you for sure but under these conditions there is no way I will continue to support this site!!!
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Reply #51 Top
bucben, you can only download your skin once, and have it count, not once a day, just once. I downloaded your skin to make sure the counter was working for you, and it did indeed work. Did your brother download the correct skin? I don't know. Does this very busy, and complex site get the hichups at times? You bet it does. Will we restore your works, if you ask, and put this all behind us? Yep! 



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Reply #52 Top
Come on. Give up,admit that you were making hast decisions, and we'll happily accept you back as one of us and forget this ever happened. What could be better?
Reply #53 Top
doesn't *have* to *admit* to a damn thing...

hell with forget, no one will have noticed
Reply #56 Top
oh my wife looked at the subject of the thread

she said just tip your head back a little and swallow hard, no problem

I think she is trying to get my attention?
Reply #59 Top
I promise this is the last comment by myself-just want to clarify a few thinks.First and formost-I only downloaded my own theme once-not once aday-and it did not register. Second-yes a site such as this does have "hiccups"-but to the same person on a regular basis?Third-themes that are downloaded on a regular basis do not dry up over night unless they were downloaded only several times the day before!I truely appreciate the fact that several people are sincere in their efforts to help me "understand".There is nothing to understand in my opinion-this site is in my opinion ran by several people in the know-what happened to the greats of several years ago-where did they go!!Seem to me every couple of days someone is ranting in the forums-I"m the latest. Sure wincustomize won"t miss me in the least-for now-but remember-what comes around,goes around.Thats not a threat-but this is no way to run a business in my opinion. No hard feelings-I go my way-wincustomize goes its own way.However given the oppurtunity-I will publicly say that a chosen few shouldn"t be allowed to pass judgement on skins(unless those skins are still available for download). Just my take!
Reply #60 Top
Second-yes a site such as this does have "hiccups"-but to the same person on a regular basis?


mmm, has this account the same information as any older accounts that are still in the database of accounts? Reason I ask is that could very well cause some serious issues data wise... just a thought...

Reply #61 Top
#56 by IPlural - 7/20/2003 2:54:11 PM oh my wife looked at the subject of the thread she said just tip your head back a little and swallow hard, no problem I think she is trying to get my attention?




Seriously bucben...The counters are far frome perfect
Right now for example: My BP-XPB icons had more downloads than the Empire icons...But look up at the top downloads

2 weeks ago...My Walls should have put me in about the top 10 Wallpaper Authors section...I wasn't even listed at all. Same thing happened when I released my BP-XPG WB skin...I had more downloads...but was placed below another

It seems that the bugs are not just after you...There are definitely glitches but I think that is something the Admins are constantly working on...I hope

Suck it up soldier...Put your library back...and forget about things that are beyond our control... There is no conspiracy...Nobody is just after you...we are all being picked on
Reply #62 Top
Buchen: And people are out to "get" you, why? What makes you so singularly interesting that anyone would bother? There's not enough work for the mods to do on their own free time with getting stuff on the site and patroling the messageboards to see if people are trolling for warez or posting against the rules, that they take the time out to pick on someone most people never heard of?

If you have questions about the site mechanics and who can do what and how, why not email T-man? He's the guy behind the curtain who deals with the mechanics of the site and actually knows how things do or don't work. Or, is he just part of the "conspiracy" too?

Seems that some people like to rant on the messageboard after they've jumped to assumptions rather than check with the sitemaster who might actually be able to provide facts. Doesn't make their assumptions right, just that they like to have a public rant after they've decided on their own that there is a conspiracy against them, that's all it means. And how many more skinners don't post rants on the messageboard and just do their thing? Which number is greater?



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Reply #63 Top
Swallow your pride now, Bucben. I'm sure you enjoy skinning or you wouldn't be here trying to get consoling for your feelings. Let your work speak for itself and continue to build on your talent and artistry. There will always be jealous people in the world who want to stop you. If you let them, then they have succeeded in destroying you and the happiness that skinning brings to you. Don't let them win. Yes, its all called "Politics". But, it is so silly. Learn to ignore the silly stuff. Come back.

Here's a small example about how cruel the rating system can be. But, I figured it was just a angry and maybe somewhat jealous people that did it. I had a US sysmetrix skin with US Patriotic animations and it had a 8 rating and climbing downloads. Suddenly, and I attribute it to the growing US anti-sentiment over the IRAQ war, the skin dropped to a 2 rating. Clearly, some anti-US people attacked my skin. But, I didn't let it bother me. It was hard because one does spend a lot of "free" time making these skins.

Therefore quote "Politics" does play an important part in this community. But, again, it is the same all over the world. And if you let politics effect your art work you and those who like your work are going to lose. Imagine what the world would have lost if Michaelangelo decided to stop creating because of politics and jeolousy. I know he had a lot of it because he was so great. I know it is harder to digest when you feel it is admins that are doing this to you. It is harder still when you are slammed by fellow artists for showing your feelings. But, I've learned alot from other artists here. These artists completely ignore this board and the negative comments, and continue to let their work speak for itself. I rarely see Don or pincehel(sp) (fellow sysmetrix artists) react to anything negative or make any comments on this board. They let their work speak for itself and they keep getting better because of it. Adam Solley is an amazing DesktopX artist and I have been amazed at his kindness when he is slammed from obvious jealousy. And, as a result his work just keeps getting better. Look at Adam Solley's download counts as an example. And, the jealous people lose in their battle to cause injury. Right now, you are giving these cruel people much happiness. Some, as you can see here, are laughing at you. They seem to get a great feeling out of making others unhappy. Take away their power by ignoring these people and resubmit your work. Show them that they can't scare you away with their jealousy and politics. It takes a lot of strength, I know. Especially, since you aren't getting paid for it. I wish I was that strong. I wish I had someone to really respond in kindness the way that I am trying to respond for you. Come back, my friend, Come back....(DON'T LET THEM WIN!!!!)
Reply #65 Top
Its good to be back ,

@ IP+.

bucben, am I missing something or dont you have any skins in your account?

what did you do to them? (this thread was about skins right?... confusing)
Reply #66 Top

Thanks sig... this thread is really strange and I appreciate your comments, they're more to the point than a lot of the other arguments.

Buchen, I never even noticed your name until this thread.  The thought that anyone would work at harming your downloads is so ludricous it's beyond belief that you would base your leaving on it. Trust me, it never happened to you or anyone else.

The admins do not have access to any programming, only T-Man and his crew of elves can do that. I just discovered though that I could go look at your DX themes in the pending delete section so I had a look. I see no evidence of anything you said. Your ratings are all only admin ratings (done when the piece is posted) except two themes. One of those had one rating from an active member, it was one point lower than what the admins gave you but didn't change the overall rating, and the other was a theme that had four member ratings all of which were aproximately what the admin rating was, that one being your most popular piece.  Since it was rated a 9, I assume that's not the one you got miffed about. All your other work was ignored as far as ratings go (not uncommon).

There was evidence that a couple of your earlier pieces needed permission from BoXXi and that may have slowed down the posting of those pieces. Overall, I see no evidence of anything being amiss so I must assume it was a drop in download counts. Which brings us back to the posts by myself, PJPowell and some others above... download counts suddenly drop without warning. It happens to everybody.

no offense but you should listen to what the people above are trying to tell you. Not only do we not ever rate, post or moderate anyone's work in a political or favoritist way, it wouldn't be possible. We are a group of very diverse individuals, with different tastes and experince. We are all friends because we do this art thing and we're all part of this community. The most interaction we have is in a private message board that's viewed by every Wincustomize employee or volunteer. There's no secret meeting place. Our interaction is very spotty because we're all in different time zones, all over the world.  The thought that we could come together on a mission to harm a guy that's posted a couple DX themes is insane.

Reply #67 Top

Chas - or anybody - if you feel a rating is undeserved or unfair you can write to an admin to have it reviewed.

We have done this many times and corrected some ratings that were obviously vindictive or just plain unreasonable (a 1 rating on a skin with 3 8's or 9's for example).

The only way we'll know if this happens to you is if you tell us...

Reply #68 Top
I say stick around and see what happens.I racked up 15'000 dl's(1 1\2 months) on a skin that now has a 4 rating so someone is playing dirty.But I like it here and i'm going to keep skinning and submitting.This is my artistic home now and no one is going to run me off.I doubt seriously if the admins or moderators have anything to do with this but I bet some of your fellow skinners might have.Take it as a backhanded compliment that some felt threatened by your work and maybe things will get straightened out.They might change the ratings influencing availability policy.
Reply #69 Top

Just a couple comments (trying to add some general reason in here...but I'm on drugs so it might not help )

1) the site sometimes has "refresh" issues.  The download is not "lost" in the count, it just takes awhile for it to show up.

2) It is not unusual at all for a DesktopX skin to be highly downloaded one day and not hardly downloaded at all the next.  There are not that many people who download full themes, so the ones that do typically download them all within the first days of release.  DesktopX is *not* like the other libraries in that respect, since most DesktopX users download objects not themes.

3) Download numbers do not mean that the skin will be rated well.  I have seen some real crap that has been downloaded a lot.(not saying that yours is since I can't see it because you removed it)  Typically the people who rate DesktopX themes are pretty hard core, so the ratings are usually *after* download and use (see how downloads would not = high ratings now?)

4) I forgot what 4 was....but I think this is a silly mess and you should just ask one of the admins (not me because I'm not really around) to put back your work and forget this whole thing.

Reply #70 Top
KarmaGirl!!!!!!! You're alive. Glad to hear from you and hope all went well



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Reply #71 Top
IR, according to DavidK who found and reviewed the skins (they've been deleted from view but not completely from the site) ratings evidently were not an issue. So no rating "bombing" happened to impact downloads.

KG: good to see you!


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Reply #72 Top
YEAH KarmaGirl better and better feel you do, humm?

seriously, hoping your well and over with the pain and twinges as soon as possible!
Reply #73 Top
Hiya Angie!! it's soo good to see you back among us!  I hope all is well and your recovery is being swift and as pleasant as possible.
Reply #74 Top

bucben.....conspiracies make entertaining plot fiction for movies but are rarely true.

A perfect example for you.....I'm a site Admin, and for two days one of my Winamp skins had the highest daily downloads yet never showed on the Top DL list....another skin did...until the third day...then it was on the Top List....yet at that time wasn't actually getting the most downloads.....conspiracy?, no, just the way the data refreshes....cos it's reasonably unlikely that such 'odd behaviour' is down to a conspiracy against one of those assumed to be conspiring....

I haven't looked at your individual ratings, as DavidK has done so already and says there is no anomaly with them....and therefore no 'public' conspiracy, either.

Put it all down to confusion, or lack of sleep, or crappy brand of coffee, and just request your works are restored....and get back to the fun bit...the skinning...

Reply #75 Top
Another dramatic exit, yawn...


I ain't leaving...

but I sorry to hear you are. Come back soon!