A comment caught my eye. . . .and a proposal for the benefit of the community

hegramet

Join Date 03/2001

A comment caught my eye. . . .and a proposal for the benefit of the community

I thought this should be in it's own thread. . . In the post http://scripts.wincustomize.com/msgboardid.asp?id=17381 TomCruise says that Stardock won't place the skins for competitor's products on this site. While this is understandable from a purely market perspective, it makes me wonder about the commitment of Stardock to the skinning community. Please don't misunderstand me, I love stardock's products and am a registered OD member, and I know they put out great software. However, the site's mission statement is "The goal of this site is to act as a general skin site to the community." A general skin site would allow the community to be the judge as to what the site should host, or host enough variety to satisfy the whole community. Furthermore, the existence of competition is beneficial to the community, though not to stardock, as it is a driving force for both better products, better service, and better prices. If this site is devoted to the general community, and not stardock, then it would promote competition. I propose that either the mission statement be changed (to remove the pretense of community) or the site be ammended to include the skins of competitor's products.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Cygnus - the helicopters are on the way.

heg - Not agreeing with you is not the same as being dishonest. Please feel free to set up your own skin site and teach us souless, dishonest demons how it should be done.

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sigh... hegramet: i copied and pasted the following from the much maligned little 'about' page, with surrounding text for context

..to an Apprentice. To become an apprentice one needs to be contributing to the skinning community in some way. WinCustomize is not the skinning community, helping other websites in the skinning community counts as well. An apprentice can..

it has read this way for the history of the site.

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oh, and brad - in my interpretation of the constitution, i think it was unconstitutional for the south to secede.

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Istari

Join Date 05/2001

+20

"I'm not saying that he has no right to make it a company site, but he should be honest that though there is a community of people who use company's software here, this is not the skinning community itself." -hegramet

[[Translation]]
WindowBlinds skinners are not part of the skinning community. Uhh right.

So....who appointed hegramet supreme overlord over what IS and ISN'T part of the skinning community?? What skins have you made hegramet? What sites have you run? Whatever bizarro community you belong to, I'm glad to not be in it. So why don't you return to your happy bizarro community and leave us alone???

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..to an Apprentice. To become an apprentice one needs to be contributing to the skinning community in some way. WinCustomize is not the skinning community, helping other websites in the skinning community counts as well. An apprentice can..
Smartass. . . what, you didn't think I read the whole thing? No, this site isn't the skinning community, but it is part of it. Though making any argument one way or the other from this poorly written passage is useless. . . feel free to try.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

I'm glad you at least concede that this site is part of the skinning community.

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Frogboy, if you enjoy debates so much, why did you delete about 40 posts in another thread a few minutes ago? You were setting it back on topic??? Just about every thread here on this site goes off topic. I don't see you deleting them (well, maybe you have).

Nothing was said in that thread that couldn't be considered normal conversation. There were no flames, no warez requests, nothing out of the ordinary. In fact everybody was calm, with the exception of yourself.

Here's something I found quite funny in this thread:

"BTW, my role here is primarily to be a punching bag. Elected for my typing speed. T-man and Alexandrie actually run WinCustomize on a day to day basis."

by Admin Frogboy - 8/19/2001 12:12:33 AM

Did Alexandrie or T-man delete the posts in the other thread? Nope, it was you. So how can you claim to be sitting on the sidelines with no means of "running" this site and then pull a move like that? Just curious. Although, I got a feeling this post will be deleted as well. God knows you love debates. All it takes for you to win one is to hit the "delete" key.

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excuse me? it certainly wasn't my intention to seem flippant. heg, throughout this thread your stated goal has been consistent, that the about page be changed to reflect the fact that wincustomize does not solely comprise the skinning community. i sought to point out that this already appeared in the document, albeit not in the 'mission statement' proper.

also, i must say frankly that your comment toward craeonics was not only abusive and uncalled for, but indeed repulsive. please refrain from personal attacks of that nature in the future.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

Tommyboy, there were maybe 8 posts (2 of which were mine) in that thread. You can read Doreen's topic if you would like to read more on it.

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Istari

Join Date 05/2001

+20

I vote that anyone who makes a nasty response that has never posted before be exiled like Tommy Boy. Last thing this place needs are a bunch of jerk spoofers.

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Well Tandis, just sitting here watching the present events unfold on this messageboard is something I found kind of disturbing. I thought I would try to talk some commmon sense into your fearless leader. But since you appear to be joined at the hip with him, go ahead and exile me. I won't back anyway.

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Oh, real cute. You guys did that on purpose, didn't you?

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seing an ingrate lie hegramet on one side and frogboy on the other really brings clarity to the discussion.

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hegremet - please repost your last one, minus the profanity

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Sure. . .
Tandis, you should not put me down before you actually read what I say:
"I'm not saying that he has no right to make it a company site, but he should be honest that though there is a community of people who use company's software here, this is not the skinning community itself." -hegramet

[[Translation]]
WindowBlinds skinners are not part of the skinning community. Uhh right.

By this I mean, and I feel this to be fairly clear, that this site does not soley comprise the skinning community. And don't put me down like that, it's just a waste of space. . . instead you could be proving me wrong or something. JayG - I have all this time advocated an honest commercial venture as opposed to a stupid sham. And go to dictionary.com, seriously, an "ingrate" is what YOU are, for kissing butt without judging the actual merit of the conversation.

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holy moley is this long. The horse is not just dead, it's in bits and pieces. They aint changing the about doc and I don't blame them. Mr. Hegramet you must understand, to a reader such as myself, you are a new user. A new user with no skins or previous posts on this site. Why should they care what you think when they have the support of lots of people, like me, who have been here almost from opening day?

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why do you not blame them? and I won't upload here, I don't like their policies concerning their rights with my work. It's not a matter of them caring because I represent a large or small number of people, they should at least think about it, or tell me why they shouldn't think about it, or tell me why I shouldn't ask that question. They should do this because I am a member of the skinning community, and as a fellow member, they should explain why they act in ways that effect the community adversely. Emily - why does any seniority you may or may not have matter to me, as you have expressed no opinions of your own nor attemted to answer my queries? Oh, and I think I have posted before, though it was a while ago. . .as I said earlier in the thread, I don't frequent this board often, because I don't like Brad for unnamable reasons.

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pjpowell

Join Date 03/2001

hegramet said:
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How could variety and competition be bad for anyone but stardock in this case. . .Are they acting in your best interests by not allowing it? NO! So don't defend them or their decisions; you don't get paid to. . .they do. . .I would like to hear from Brad on this topic.
------------
If they did have every competing softwares skins on this site and thus turned people to those software instead of their own it would harm the company. Any harm to the companies profits would also harm skinners. They are already paying more than was planned for the bandwidth of this site with what is here. Add to that some more bandwidth for downloading skins for competing products and some people moving from SD products to competing products and it is obvious that will affect them detrimentally. What can they do if they continue to lose money? Raise the price of OD and their other software to recover the loss. This would affect ME and other subscribers personally and thus they would not be acting in my best interests.

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BoXXi

Join Date 03/2001

+393

If I was Brad Wardell, and anyone spoke to me the way some of you speak to him, I would pull the plug on this site in a breath! If I owned this site, it would look like the concept page that T-Man made. I think Brad shows great restraint keeping this site as it is.

Hegramet: I don't know who you are, and I don't really care, just don't come around here stinking up MY message board with your petty jealousies. Yes, your jealousy is so evident it's embarrasing. If you don't like it, just don't come here. If you are into desktop customization, this is still the best place to hang out.
Brad, I hope you DON'T pull the plug! some of us are grateful for the site you have provided. You must have the patience of a saint to put up with the whinging, whining idiots who attack you on a regular basis.
Now, grow up, you whiners, this is a website, not a government.
I have truly never heard such bullshit as complaining about a websites mission statement!!
I come to this message board for help when I need it, and to offer help where I can. I don't want to read this political crap that some of you spout. I'll say it again: IT'S A WEBSITE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!, just take some nice skins for your computer and shut the hell up.
Thank you.

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errrm, im confused, i just thought this was a site that u could submit ur skins to!

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Listen to BoXXi

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hegramet - "except that you run it for personal profit behind a veneer of community, instead of having more respect for the community than to see it merely as a pool of customers. "

Though you didn't state it, many people tend to think the 'Community' revolved around Skinz.org. And if my memory is correct, skinz.org was there to make money off of banner ads. Therefore, Skinz.org was a Company Site and not a Community site.

So all of you have been hipnotized as to what you think is 'The Community'.

It seems to me that I live in a 'community' where we have elected officials. The make decisions on issues and such to benefit the community. And even though it may not benefit everyones personal interests it is usually best for 'The Community'.

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Never has so much been made of so little.

Well, at least not since the John Rocker interview.

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i don't think i ever posted on skinz.org in all the months i was there. but i post plenty here. why? because on skinz, the self appointed elitists kept their mouths shut. but here a tiny group of elitsts try to tell the rest of us 'stardock butt kissers' how the site we love should be. who the hell are they to say? the admins on this site have been very flexible. i was one of those leading the charge in objecting to the site asking for mail addresses. i complained bitterly but with respect. and you know what? they changed it. they listened. but i don't give a flying rats ass what some unknown guy i've never seen post and has never submitted a skin here thinks. he's invested nothing. i haven't either but i've spent a lot of time reading and posting on this message board. this website is my personal home page. these stupid elitist flame wars won't ever go away until the elitists leave and don't come back. the admins are so obviously doing the right thing here since this place has exploded in popularity. the elitists should shut the hell up and go start their own skin place and see if they can do half as well.

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