I don't agree taht Paxx is complaining though others are. I don't think people are targeting you Paxx specifically but rather "the dissenters" in general.

I read Emily's post (now that's my kind of post! LONNG ) and generally agree with her.

You guys know that all these problems really come down to one thing:

Avoiding seeing everything in black and white. If a thing isn't 100% the way a person desires it to be, that doesn't mean it's the exact opposite.

WinCustomize isn't a "company site". Believe me, if it was, there would be no doubt. There would be serious branding on this site and Stardock would be pushing its applications hard here. I don't think the casual user has any idea how much restraint Stardock has had.

Think about it: This month 430,000 UNIQUE users are going to come to this site. That's 430,000 opportunities to get them to purchase something. Everytime you download that Litestep theme, a company site would have a banner that says "Have you tried DesktopX?" with a link. A company site would have PURCHASE links to its software. So when you download a WindowBlinds skin, there would be a way right there to purchase it.

That's just a few tiny little things that a company site would have on it. And that's just a few ommissions that make me passionate about arguing that this site isn't a "company site". I think visitors to skinz.org have forgotten the significant eFront presence that was there for nearly all of its eFront existence.

The final proof should be common sense. The argument that WinCustomize can be justified as a "marketing" expense doesn't fly. If having a big high volume skin site was a good marketing idea, then every skin author that could afford it would do so. And they don't. WinAmp doesn't have a non-WinAmp skin site, Winstep doesn't, Hoverdesk doesn't, etc. That's because the costs exceed the benefit. But that's okay, because like other skin sites, we have WinCustomize because we want to. Or as Lockergnome puts it, "because we love you".

As someone already said, I'll never convince those that see capitalism as evil. But regardless, believe it or not, companies do altruistic things sometimes. And something doesn't have to be purely altruistic to be good still.

(Draginol == Frogboy's non-Admin account for the confused).

Ok, you asked for it, here it is!

The all new 100% Pure Stardock Corporate Skinning Community Website!

http://scripts.wincustomize.com/concept.htm

*snort*
T-Man, you got too much time on your hands

! That's funny!

Now you're talking!

I figured that I would give everyone what they wanted. Some people want us to stay that WinCustomize is purely a Corporate WebSite.

And then the other people want us to have sections for every single skinning app known to mankind.

So, thats about how the site would look. (http://scripts.wincustomize.com/concept.htm).
In my opinion it looks like CRAP.

I think its safe to say that it looks much much better in its present form and should stay that way!

They're trying to force you to buy Object Desktop.

Okay, catching up, no pasta in crae land!

Tourism? I'm going to close the border and practise isolationism.

My thumb bar is getting very small in this thread.

'low alcohol tax'.....gee I didn't know tax had any alcohol in it at all....

Froggy - seems strange to me you can come up with a way to please Microsoft and their allies/enemies for desktop space yet you find it so difficult with this site.

I've changed my mind, I was completely opposed to subscription etc but why not. Free 2 meg downloads per month or something for any user. Pay by credit card or whatever any amount you like then each section has a price per skin corresponding to bandwidth usage so Desktop X themes would be say 50c each while Winamp or Coolplayer skins would be 10c each. Credit lasts indefinitely so you could pay $20 and spread it out over the year as you want skins etc...... or if you use it up you can just top it up and carry on...... FIGURES ARE EXAMPLES ONLY

I'd also like to know how/why Froggy thinks that if a user is downloading 50meg of skins that they must be using a pirated version.... Although I have to say that 50meg is a HELL of a lot of skins.....

The other way IS to make it officially Stardock site, and have SUBTLE advertising, unlike T-Man's mock up, to help pay for the site...... It already is a Stardock site. It could be argued that the site is guilty of the same charges Microsoft are, regarding competitive practice, as it doesn't allow for competition with rivals such as Hoverdesk etc .... Especially when Litestep could be considered comparable to Desktop X and NextSTART is equivalent to ObjectBAR .....

Also showing people this is a Stardock site might stop all the idiots asking for warez or passwords etc......

I don't think you can use the registered software method a) because as has been bought up, not all the software you have skins for are yours people aren't gonna be happy with it as Windows WPA shows, and if people accept it here but oppose WPA then they're hypocrits.... It's the same sorta deal as the whole .NET thing. If you make it so that people have to be using registered version of Stardock apps then essentially that in itself turns it into a Stardock company site.... Think about it !!!!

Well, that's enough....

is there any easy way for some of us message board active people to find out how much bandwidth we have consumed downloading skinz?

what i am interested in is some perspective on the suggested 50meg "action point"? how easy in reality is it to get close?

as a number, i find that it lacks context. also, how heavy in bandwidth is much talking in the message board? i would have thought very little, but dont actually know.