The changing world of skinning communities

How does the community continue to thrive in a mainstream world?

Monday, February 11, 2008 by Draginol | Discussion: OS Customization

Skinning first started getting popular around 1999. Back then, it was mostly about skinning Winamp and WindowBlinds.  Today, people expect to be able to customize virtually every aspect of their PC experience. From the moment someone boots to the time they shut down, everything a user sees they now anticipate the ability to personalize somehow if they choose to.

In the beginning, the content came from the community. The software itself was developed within the community as well. A given program would go through many beta iterations and technically savvy users would report problems they had, post their system info, and work with the developers to fix the problems. 

Because the community was essentially a partner in the production of the software, the software was relatively cheap. $10 to $20 was the typical price for any customization program. After all, if the user base was actively part of the development process and they were the ones providing the bulk of the content, how could anyone justify charging more than that?  And, as a practical matter, community participation drastically lowered the cost to develop skinning software which in turn opened the door to lots of freeware and shareware developers, working out of their houses, to create cool stuff.

When Windows XP came along in 2001, things began to change. Skinning became much more mainstream. The ratio between consumers of software/content to producers of software/content changed dramatically.  Once skinning went mainstream, users expectations began to change.  The number of people willing to create content dramatically decreased as a % of the user base.

In addition, the community that once would provide in-depth reports on bugs evolved into a community that increasingly would provide reports like "This is broke, it don't work on my computer. How could you release this buggy mess????" The same community that produced incredibly talented skinners increasingly became a community of consumers waiting for someone else to make things for them.

As the skinning community became more consumer-centric, the costs of providing software and content for that community increased. In many respects, the "community" of year year is long. Now it's a "market". Increasingly, unconsciously, even internally the word "market" has begun replacing the term "community".  The "skinning market" differs from the "skinning community" in that the former expects the software developers to do it all while the latter sees themselves as part of a team with the developers.

The net result is that most users simply want to buy a product and get really high quality content and not mess around with "community" content. Which, naturally, means that fewer people, as a % are willing to use the various editors and tools to create community content.

Similarly, today's users often become irate at the notion of running into bugs in software marked as betas. Very few users are willing to even try out betas and give feedback. Moreover, some people who do try out betas and do post expect that every issue they consider important will be quickly addressed and will stop contributing feedback if their particular issues aren't responded to in a timely way.

So what does this mean?

I predict we'll see the following trends:

  1. Content will begin to be provided as an additional optional service. For example, a user might buy WindowBlinds for $20 OR have the option to buy WindowBlinds Plus for $40 which includes a 1-year subscription to WinCustomize.com.
  2. WinCustomize.com subscriptions will continue to evolve to where content becomes increasingly the value-add users get.  Discounts on "Master Skins" and free content from Stardock Design will become the norm.
  3. Users who contribute help in testing betas, giving feedback, generating content, helping in the community will get free subscriptions.

That's the 3 thigns I think will happen in the future as the skinning world adapts to becoming mainstream. In my mind, that's the best way for skinning to grow while saving its own soul.

Hopefully, people aren't taking what I'm writing as "complaining".  What I am doing is making observations about how the skinning world is evolving over time. The mainstreaming of it is altering the perceived relationship between the people who make stuff and the people who use stuff. The unspoken social contract between the two was traditionally that we developers make our stuff cheap and in return the users make the content and help us track down problems in an open and symbiotic way.  But that relationship has changed to being more akin to a traditional producer/consumer relationship. Which is fine if that's what the...market has chosen.

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2of3
Reply #61 Sunday, February 17, 2008 7:34 PM
Im the biggest idiot on the planet and I figured it out all by my lonesome.


at least the second biggest

I've read exactly zero tutorials on photoshop. And I somehow figured out some of it

zakai1369
Reply #62 Monday, February 18, 2008 10:08 AM
"
I never have understood why people assume that there have to be tutorials available to learn something. Open PS, Open SKS... start clicking.. sooner or later.. IF u stick to it.. you will learn..I swear.
In fact most the time tutorials can confuse more than inform, they tend to take simple things and make them look harder than they are. Trial and error is what its all about....going back to square one..over and over...at least to gain basic knowledge..
" Very Very True! For any program. I used to use only PSP9 and not very much. I went to find a tutorial just to make a ball with all those neat little effects to make it look realistic. Found a tutorial and spent a few hours one day going back and forth through it making a bunch of the same one in the same color. Boy was i kicking myself when first i discovered on my own a way to give these balls just as realistic a look in about 2 steps(compared to 15 in the tutorial). Kicked myself even harder when i realized how much easier it is to change the colors using the hue/saturation settings rather than making the same thing over in different colors from scratch Just a few days ago I decided to try my hand (yet again) at Photoshop CS2, which Ive had for awhile but never use because I was just to stubborn to get used to the differences between it and PSP9. And again I foolishly went hunting for tutorials on certain things. Tried one and completely didnt come out right. Spent an hour messing with things in Photoshop and figured out how to do exactly what I wanted. Trial and error sometimes takes alot less time than searching the net to learn from someone else. And as vStyler said :
When you have ripped the little hair you have left out.. try posting here, someone will help.
When I first came here a few months ago, there were a couple things I had questions about and had no problems finding people here who knew what they were doing and were more than willing to help out.
zakai1369
Reply #63 Monday, February 18, 2008 11:25 AM
Okay. You can thank the forum changes for the bad format of my previous post.   
Alternate Setting
Reply #64 Monday, February 18, 2008 11:29 AM
Isn't the point to enjoy what you're doing while learning, and to be able to communicate that in your work and the way you talk about your art?
navigatsio
Reply #65 Monday, February 18, 2008 6:56 PM
Trial and error is what its all about....going back to square one..over and over


I agree...make it, break it, crash it, trash it, create and eliminate then start all over again. If you poke around some programs enough, you may find alot of things they're capable of that's not even covered in a tutorial.

(Vstyler) Jan. 9th here...
Jafo
Reply #66 Monday, February 18, 2008 8:46 PM

I agree...make it, break it, crash it, trash it, create and eliminate then start all over again.

Yep, that's how it's done...

angus1949
Reply #67 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 3:41 PM
I'M A NEWBIE! I'm not sure I should even be posting here among a lot of the communities heavy weights, but I've read things here that I think are issues that many of the experienced and long time users have forgetten. Beginners aren't IDIOTS although we may be ignorant. Yes the market is changing, and with that change are more and more raw beginners wanting these products, and they are where the money will come from. I consider myself to be a moderately experienced computer USER. I'm not a programmer, nor do I or have I used a computer during my work life. I am just a retired guy who would like to enhance the visual look of my system and just possibly, someday learn how to do some of the wonderful work that a lot of you are doing. Here is part of my beginning experience with Stardock and WC. I first bought WindowBlinds after learning to hate a similar product. I didn't even know about Object Desktop or the other Stardock products. Just a couple of days later I found out about all of the products available and bought OD, then CursorXP Plus, then ObjectDock, then subscribed to WC. When I bought CursorXP I got a free version of CursorFX Plus...great deal. I had no idea through all of this that I should have installed Stardock Central and installed everything else from there. Now I have had many problems with updating. What I'm trying to say with all of this is that new potential buyers should at least be informed on the product pages as to how they should be installed. New buyers don't usually know to go look at the Wiki or dig for articles just to install a new software. "Knowledge is power" and without more initial information to new users, they are going to get frustrated and possibly quit using the products. I am really learning to love most of these programs and wish Stardock all the best as well as this great community. By the way, sorry if I spell like Zubaz. Ed
ZubaZ
Reply #68 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 3:57 PM
By the way, sorry if I spell like Zubaz.
Hey!!!!  


Wait . . he's right.    
kaligrafr
Reply #69 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 4:09 PM
I think that there have always been more skins users than skinners. I'm one of the skins users. Since WB 1.0.

I enjoy the ability to change the look/feel of Windows on the screen. I enjoy using good
skins from competent skinners to match my mood, the season, or to bring something about a particular app to the fore (color contrast, shape of frame or buttons).

But I seem not to be a very good skinner. I've tried, but lack the talent or the skill to get a skin that holds up against the ones from really good skinners.

I'm happy to support the skinning world as I can, but I hope that skinning apps and skins don't get too expensive to acquire.

angus1949
Reply #70 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 4:52 PM
Sorry Zubaz, just kidding.  
PoSmedley
Reply #71 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 5:33 PM
I'm not sure I should even be posting here among a lot of the communities heavy weights,


You and other newbies are the ones who really need to chime in. Especially when it is intelligent and thought out, like your post, and not just griping.

Welcome to the community, angus.
Jafo
Reply #72 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:00 PM

'M A NEWBIE! I'm not sure I should even be posting here among a lot of the communities heavy weights,

There are no 'heavyweights' [just old, fat people]...

Actually, everyone's input is valued and particularly that of the 'newbie' in a subject/thread such as this one....

angus1949
Reply #73 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:07 PM
Thanks a lot Po', that means a lot. And Jafo, I R one of those old fat people.
HG_Eliminator
Reply #74 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:15 PM
I agree...make it, break it, crash it, trash it, create and eliminate then start all over again.


This is how I and and many others got started.



I'm not sure I should even be posting here among a lot of the communities heavy weights,


The Beginners Input is as valuable as the old hands. For Skinning to perpetuate and keep on, we need the new skinners as well as the elders to work together. "We" are a community and any good valid point is more than welcome
vStyler
Reply #75 Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:40 PM
I R one of those old fat people.


Oh, Brainiac is gonna love that   Well, if the shoe fits   
Alternate Setting
Reply #76 Wednesday, February 20, 2008 9:12 AM

Actually, everyone's input is valued and particularly that of the 'newbie' in a subject/thread such as this one....


I'm a tad unsure as to what this thread has become about. I note the OP has been edited quite a long way into this discussion, removing key phrases and adding others.

The use of the term 'skinning community' appears to get switched towards the end from something that is deteriorating as it's absorbed into the market and failing to provide, into something that remains separate from the market,and may be protected from some changes as part of the nature of the relationship. Those definitions are quite important to following any arguments.

Stardock is accepted here, as an innovative and directing force. It's predictions of trends aren't some abstract notion of soothsaying, so I'd have thought there be more direct response to some of the possible outcomes.

Personally, while I don't focus on price, that's Stardock's prerogative - as a supporter of Stardock & Wincustomize, I am interested in how the relationship between the two develops, it's certainly not static.

Looking at the OP, particularly since the predictions were introduced I'd have expected more focussed replies.

Are you happy with the predictions? Not happy, don't give a toss? Do they fit in with what you expected to happen? - That sort of thing.








Disturbedcomputer
Reply #77 Thursday, February 21, 2008 7:22 AM

I'M A NEWBIE!


well I'm not
angus1949
Reply #78 Thursday, February 21, 2008 4:45 PM
well I'm not


Just a comment or a slam?

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