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.