Well, I'm pretty vocal about my feelings on it, as you know.
I think the quality of skins is poor compared to the 'old days', as it were.

Although when it comes right down to it, if I want a skin made the way I'd like, I would do it myself.
Most people make for themselves, then upload. So there's always going to be someone who moans. (Usually me...)

As Hippy has said, the skinners make the skins for themselves so a lot of people will be upset because it's not the way they want it. From what I see, there are a couple hand fulls of skinners that produce quality skins even if people don't like them for some reason. Then you have a ton of new people getting into skinning that need the time to develope so their skins might not be as high of quality as the rest.But in time they will be ,if they stick to it, producing quality skins.

Oh, ditto Mr WOM and mr Hippy cha dudes!

I think there are probably as many, if not a bit more high quality skins as there used to be; except that there are A LOT more poorer quality skins. Skinning used to be somewhat of a niche; it still is, but to a lot lesser degree. Now, a lot more people want to be 1337 and try their hand at making a wacky skin.

I remember that skin! What a difference a day makes!

Lol. I remember old WB days. If someone looks around, he or she will evenally find my very old skin in here, pre-Wincustomize even! I wouldn't recommand it since it's real ugly.

Nowdays I just can't do it due to complexity of it all, even with skin editor.

This is a very intersting thread for someone like me who is relatively new to the world of skinning. I have often dwelved back and looked at some skins that are now three years old and thought - WOW thats a great looking skin. The software used to make a Windowblind has obviously come on leaps and bounds over the years and by this i mean not just programmes like Skin Studio but also Photoshop etc. More and more people are looking at the bland Luna interface and saying to themselves "now lets make this look good". Just like mobile phones to a certain degree - most people want to personalize their ring tones and screen and soon grow tired of the factory provided components.

With this ever increasing popularity and some of the programmes being more 'user friendly' there are bound to be a lot more people wanting to have a go at building something themselves. This is bound to increase the amount of mediocrity floating around but there are some who like the cream will rise to the top and go on to even better and greater things. Likewise there will be great skinners who move onto other interests in life and give up skinning. Its an ever changing world but i suppose one of the greatest advances is the fact that with Skin Studio and a few other bits you can now make your own skin with relative ease. This puts a lot of pressure on Admins who must have to sift through a lot of work some of which is bound to be mediocre to say the least.

If you are looking for ideas to increase the general standard of submissions then why not set up something called "The Workshop" on WC where people can submit their skins for review and suggestions from top authors and admins. This area could get flooded but if, say a few skins are selected each week then it would not be too labour intensive and those who are really interested in learning this "trade" could follow the "work in progress" and gain valuable experience and in turn improve their skills.
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Leo: the creation of the WC skinning messageboard was intended to allow that sort of feedback and assistance among/between users. Whether it's getting used enough for such purposes, I don't know. Naturally it's all voluntary and not particularly structured but the admins and mods have enough specific duties which they take on voluntarily. That some of them also take time to assist folks on these boards on skinning other matters is a tribute to them.

But I recall the major reason messageboard was set aside for skinning issues was for just the the sort of thing you described. (MadIce had a rather long thread here about the subject some months back.) Additionally, come folks hang out on WC chat and find assistance and a collegial atmosphere there also. So there presently are avenues for skinning assistance and feedback. Whether or not skinners and would be skinners avail themselves of such venues is another matter.

I would also add that i watched IR and Bones going hammer and tongs on the message board at a skin a month or so ago which was Bone's idea which he asked for help with. It was great watching the two interact albeit i could only see half of what was going on because some of the work and ideas were being exchanged via private mail etc. It was nice to see someone of IR's experience giving his time and experience to help Bones and the end result was a terrific skin which we were all invited to add our own personal logo's too. This was great team effort from the two persons concerned and a superb touch with the logo's. This is what makes this site such a great site in that we are a 'community' and we try to help each other. I just thought i would float my idea of 'The Workshop' to the rest of the community to see if this was something that was worth considering and to see if anyone had any other ideas.

I also participated in something similar a while ago on Neowin on Chaninja's RC5 which was a lot of fun and more importantly i learnt a lot from a very talented author and listened to some excellent imput from many others that took part.
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