recent poll

Nightprowler:
I believe that this would be "premium" Skins IE ones made by either stardock or one of the For profit skinning outfits. NOT to download skins from Wincusto.

Although if stardock releases 200+ individual pieces I wonder how that would effect the "for free" skinners? Would more of them turn to for profit and contract with stardock?

To maintain the community there has to be more free than pay skins. I hate to see the community turn to all for profit.

Again I'll suggest raising the price of all or part of the OD stuff slightly to compensate for stardock hiring some skinners to produce premium suites that would be distributed for free(in a sense). I can spend the money in renewal easier than another seperate charge.

I tend to prefer to buy a skin (or suite) one at at time or in a small 'skin pack' type of distribution, rather than buying a mass set. I prefer to have the option to buy what I like. Even so, I'll tend to spend about what's in the poll choices in a year, anyway, so even if I didn't like half of what was offered, it would still probably be a pretty good deal.

As for raising the price of OD or WC, I don't have a fundamental problem with that, but I think I'd rather see the option to buy or not by a skin (or suite, or pack) separately so as not to alienate the subscribers who may not want to buy a premium skin.

Thank god other people feel as me i am not averse to purchasing premium suites if i like them and i believe i already show my support i just feel people should be given the choice.the only skin i've really used a lot of the various pieces is Tiggz GT2 and even then only windowblinds,cursor xp,wallpaper and iconpack. hope my point of view helps .... Oh Merry Christmas to all and a very groggy new year!

nightprowler - don't count your chickens before then hatch. The poll is not over yet.

In my opinion, the 200+ package wouldn't be a bad deal as long as it wasn't really high. Plus it would only be the best of the best and probably be open to those that are in best quality. It would bring some extra profit back to the company from all this bull crap that is going on and it would give back to the community.

Although if stardock releases 200+ individual pieces I wonder how that would effect the "for free" skinners? Would more of them turn to for profit and contract with stardock?

The fact about this is, the people that I know that would make on the list for the "package" would still make skins and stuff for free. The reason being is, they love doing this. If they go to full profit then they were only out for money in the long run. I seriously don't see the problem getting paid a little for the hard work they put into the skins.

This would also could be a incentive for those that would like to get in the package to try harder to get better. It's like the wallpaper section (ok, used to be the wallpaper section), for many if it didn't get accepted then you tried harder and longer to come up with a much better wallpaper. After a while of getting rejected, you got accepted and then you feel better because you created something really amazing compared to your first entry.

/me thinks this is enough for now.

pointless...

I'm all for it. I chose $49.95 I'll pay that. For the time and effort these skinners put into their work it's well worth it.

We are considering putting together a system in which skin authors who had released enough FREE skins oover time could submit skins to the site that would only be available to those who had subscriptions. Skin authors would then get a piece of the subscription revenue.

Most skins would remain free, but this would allow skin authors to start getting something back and a way for the site to pay for itself.

Hum, interesting.

Now that sounds like a real workable plan, it solves many of the issues at hand.

/me is wondering out load.

If there are 100-200 skins and there are 10,000+ subscribers and they download all the skins, what are the skin authors going to get, a penny per download?

If its anything more than that, it would be hard for the site to pay for its self.

But

/me is on the outside looking in.

Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I voted for $29.95, I think it is great that these talented artist could in fact get a little extra for their hard work.

The main limitation would be that the # of skin authors would be limited (i.e. not just any skin author could do this, they would have to become master access or higher first).

Secondly, there would be a limit on the # of premium skins per month. It would be a fairly high limit but enough of one so that people wouldn't just download every skin out there. We want some way so taht the user is choosing particular skins.

The payments to skin authors would be based on a ratio of downloads X a "complexity" rating we would assign (i.e. so we could allow somethign relatively simple but not have it count as much as say a full blown suite or something).

Only Master or higher? Thats a very small pool of people don't you think? There are plenty of excellent Journeymen (And Journeymissus )Out there that are certaintly skilled and make work worthy of Premium stuff, In my opinion Brad, The cutoff should be at Journeyman or above.

Elvee: What we would do is start promoting more people to be Master.

I.e. there would be a reason to promote people to Master (right onw it's just prestige).

based on merit and not just numbers I assume?

I voted same same elvee

hmmm...well based on the talent I see out there, looks like The Master group is going to get quite crowded

Hey IP! How ya doing?



[Message Edited]

alive and kicking so far

After new years the docotr gets to see if he can change that at all

Next year we'd like to see WinCustomize become it's own independent company from Stardock. But for that to happen, it needs to be able to pay for itself.

Next year we'd like to see WinCustomize become it's own independent company from Stardock. But for that to happen, it needs to be able to pay for itself.

probably never happen. To many stardock products represented here.

Time to comment

What Frogboy has said after I made my first post is awesome. I seriously think that the more serious skinners would try harder to get that rank if they aren't already. Since it's for the one's that are good at what they do because of time, skill, and dedication.

At this moment I would need to do alot to try to get up to that level and I'm fine with that. I really think it would push me to try to do better and make whatever I create more professional. It seems like I see alot of stuff that was just thrown together on the fly then posted. I believe the main people that will get in on this are ones that try to make each thing better then the previous project they have done. At least this is one trait of a very successful person. Plus they don't give up. I'm just lacking motivation and dang those games distracting me.

/me 's ramble is done.

I think that only master or higher is fine... (didn't know that it wasn't a title you received when you became a journeyman but still...) Lets face it, if the premium skin section has the same low quality (excuse me if I am insulting people, there are, ofcourse, also great skin in there) as the normal skin library then I don't think its worth the 50$.
On the other hand, if the quality is as good as the work from pixtudio, skin plant etc, then it is well worth the money.
But hey, thats just my oppinion

I voted for the $49.95. I would even work to become the level of master. But first I would have to even create one skin lol. I started paying for the Object Desktop a few years back and like wom the Logon Studio doesn’t work on my computer. I’m wondering if that is the same problem I am having with Skin Studio or if I just don’t get it. I can skin my own .exe that I create so I know I get how the boarders work. I just wish I could find one of you skin masters that would create one with me.

On the other hand, if the quality is as good as the work from pixtudio, skin plant etc, then it is well worth the money.But hey, thats just my oppinion

I am with you on that. I would also add that they would be a full suite with Bootskin, Logon, Iconpackager, Windowblind, Cursor, and maybe a DesktopX theme or a few objects.

Its all about the girls man!