John Hamp

Join Date 10/2001

Why I love WinCustomize

It's not just any old place..

On IRC Brad (aka Frogboy) was talking about how frustrating he gets when he sees people treat WinCustomize as if it were some company service of Stardock rather than as a community. So I decided to write this up. I love WinCustomize. I've been a user for a few years now. And in that time I've also become a fan of Stardock. I play their games, I use their apps, it's a company that really is about doing good things.

WinCustomize is a place I can go to and not just download a great wallpaper or a totally cool skin. It is also a place I can talk to people from all over the world. Nice people....Good people...People who are my friends.

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I agree. When I first got on the net, I just fumbled around. Then I found Wincustomize. I bought Object Desktop, and now, Wincustomize is the first place I go when I get on the net. I get news on upcoming Windows and other stuff. Plus, if I have a problem with any Stardock app, I recieve an answer in a very short time. Great support is what I'm trying to say. This is, IMHO, the most friendly place on the net. I told Lightstar a while back, there are only a few places I trust on the internet. My ISP, Wincustomize, and Lightstar. I also love Wincustomize.

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Well, 90% of what people use the site for is obtaining things to go along with stardock products they purchased - in many cases expressly because of the large amount of goodies they saw here.
So wincustomize is a great marketing engine for object desktop first, community second IMHO.

Having said all that, I've been a user and fan of Stardock's products since as long as they've been around. I was one of I believe 3 people (Brad included) in a compuserve chat room to discuss the Shipyards expansion to GalCiv (the OS/2 version). How times have changed!
In any case, I'll gladly support companies, er, communities that cater to things in which I have interest. My 20 bucks is en route.

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Frogboy

Join Date 03/2001

+2419

For the cost of WinCustomize, Stardock could purchase prime time TV spots for commercials.

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I have to agree. Like Hippie, Wincustomize is the first place I go when I get online. I love this site and, for the most part, it's VERY friendly with a lot of great people that are a lot of fun to chat and interact with. Keep up the good stuff, Brad & gang.

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Yes! I have WC on my desktop as an icon, system tray, start panel, etc! It's the FIRST place I go when I'm online! I don't care - my subscription isn't due till next Sept, 17th of '06, but I'm renewing right now! As of 10/03 there's only 106 recorded for the subscription drive!! WC has a long way to go if it's going to meet that target #!!!!

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Murex

Join Date 08/2002

+137

I have been buying both ObjectDesktop and a subscription for 4 years. I can't say that I love Wincustomize and it is not the first place that i go to when i am on line. For the most part I have not found it to be a friendly place. But I do like the program and I like to skin. I think that Wincustomize serves the community of skinners and skin users as no other site does. I do enjoy seeing the work of other skinners and downloading and using skins. So I will continue to update both Objectdesktop and my subscription.

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For the cost of WinCustomize, Stardock could purchase prime time TV spots for commercials

Television? What's that? Oh yeah, my parents used to use it to get the news, and watch movies on, before the Internet allowed us to verify news stories, and subscription based movie rental places allowed us to watch as many movies as we want, when we want to watch them.

Seriously though, television advertising does target a different audience. How many WC visitors are from outside the U.S., or don't watch channels that might carry a Stardock ad? You might be isolating current users/developers as well as gaining a different type of audience. I don't think there are many people who come to WC on an even semi-regular basis that don't share it with friends. Word of mouth advertising has always proved more effective than any other medium.

It is very true though, that it is hard to justify an expenditure that can't sustain or pay for itself. But have you gotten any marketing 'experts' that are directing you to switch AWAY from an Internet based advertising structure ( and wincustomize can be seen as an advertising expense for Stardock ) TO a television based structure? If so, I would recommend getting a second opinion. Even those tech companies that do advertise on TV, still advertise on the Internet. Talk to some good tax attourneys who can help write some / all of the expenses from WC off as advertising expenses!

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