Sounds cool... Need more details as to exactly what type of skinners you want. There are so many applications to skin around here. More in other places. WindowBlinds is popular, so is Winamp and Widows Meda Player.

Icons are cool, and wallpapers are a must (a really designed wallpaper, not some cheap-o stlye wall I usually see on the net that represents a company or artist)

Anyway, good luck on your venture.

I think people getting involved with artistic creative input which results in the aesthetic 'success' of a site should be looking at a fee payment, rather than a speculative 'share' of a company or its proceeds.
If it's a 'business proposal' then appropriate business practise would be in order...

Hey, I am intrested in your offer, how ever, i am not THAT experienced.
look at my winamp, coolplayer, and cursor xp skins, and see for yourself.
(ok, meaby it could be worse.... or not...)
I've got about a half year experience with flash, and a year or some with skinning.

you can contact me at ronmeijer14@hotmail.com

dave wurtz...
When "funding this early on in a web venture is hard to come by" there is absolutely no proof or indication of the venture's potential for success.
Maybe it will make squillions, maybe it will be a dud.
However, a skinner providing his time and effort is in the lap of the gods as to whether he will be reasonably compensated.
'Speculative slave-labour', or 'money for nothing and your chicks for free' may perhaps be a fair indication of this business model.

An Architect does not base his fee on the potential rental tenancy rate of his project.
After being in the commercial designing 'industry' for 30 years, I tend not to see things through rose-coloured glasses...

Jafo,
Your points are good ones. But we all have our ways and I guess this 'way' isn't for you. )

If we decide to do things differently with CollegeChameleon.com, with corporate sponsoring, etc... you'll be the first one informed.

David

eeee. tough break /

There is an offer like this one floated here every month or so, and I have yet to see any produce any reasonable result.

I would suggest waiting until there is substantial information both on the project, the amount of labor, and the rights retained by the artists involved. "customizing window's look and feel to represent college campuses" could mean anything from desktop wallpaper to a full suite of themed skins and a shell replacement.

If they are only now hiring developers, there would be no way to know the time and difficulty involved in creating graphics for their vaporware, and no way to enter into a discussion on fair payment. Also, college mascots, logos, etc., are also trademarked material, so permission would have to be secured for skinners to use them in the first place. Without a license agreement with the University in question, no agreement could be made with the skinner on his or her rights to the work they are creating. Rights are kind of important... and stuff; or so my attorney tells me.

Back in the day I was hired to produce skins for 3 different 'endeavors' that never came to fruition and never bothered to pay for weeks of labor. I like to call this 'fishing for n00bs'. Let the skinner beware.

Geeez. Tough crowd. I guess its good.

Bakerstreet: No offence, but none of the other ventures concern me and their success of failure does not effect collegechameleon at all. Lets leave them out of it. As for licensing agreements, we've already gained great interest in MIT, and were most likely about to gain a licensing agreement as well. I've alrady arranged to meet with their IT dept to make the skin. Not bad for a company thats "only now hiring developers"

joetheblow: as I mentioned above, MIT seemed very interested. I agree that some may be hesitant. But we don't need all colleges to be successful at this. Additionally, I was approached by StarDock. It seems CollegeChameleon.com is filling a niche and filling it well.

IPlural: That has not yet been worked out. But I thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Regards to All! Again, no offense to anyone; just staking my ground.

David

cool. if everything works out, this school site could actually be fun to be apart of.




Oh and something like this usually gets a better reception as a news story. It might have gone smoother then the message board. I am not sure why it comes off wrong on the message board, but it does. Even well known businesses seem a little strange posting here.

just my 2 cents...

Joe: I agree. There seems to be some kind of harsh community outlook to everything posted on any message board. It becomes a battle of the wits, and a competition for board 'status'. ;o) One gets used to it.

Jafo: I'm not doubting any of this skinning community's capabilities. I'm very impressed with the skins from this page. And I never realized what a market it was, until taking on this venture. I do appreciate all your comments, because it enables me to think deeply about the workings of the project.

Dave