State of the WinCustomize Community

WinCustomize for the remaining year

Wednesday, August 20, 2008 by Island Dog | Discussion: OS Customization

I thought now would be as good as ever to write a "State of the Community" post.  Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed a lot of negativity coming back to our forums, which have been a positive place for a while now.  Negative and discouraging comments on skins have been increasing, and when a post was made to address it, it turns into another argument and battle.  This really needs to stop and it will one way or another.

I do want to take a moment and give a big hats off to Zoomba.  Just over two years ago he took over WinCustomize and associated Stardock sites, and since then we have seen many, many improvements.  Not all are visible to everyone, but believe me a lot of work is done behind the scenes to make the experience at WinCustomize better.  If you don't listen to the WinCustomize SkinCast (which I don't know why you wouldn't), you might have missed that Zoomba has moved on from WinCustomize.  He's now doing some great work on Impulse, but thankfully he still has a part in WinCustomize, although not so much public now. 

Community

The thing I have always had pride in at WinCustomize was the community.  When I first started skinning people would jump at the opportunity to help, and not say that isn't happening now, but the tone has definitely changed over the years.  Obviously, skinning has changed over the years as well.  Commercial skinning now has a definite market and some don't seem to take too kindly to that.  Regardless of how skinning has evolved it shouldn't have an impact on how the community treats each other or behaves.

The insulting comments and bullying of other members will not be tolerated at all, regardless of their rank or status on the site.  We want WinCustomize to be a place where anyone can come and upload their skins and be part of this community, without having to be subject to ridiculous comments that only drive people away.  For newer skinners out there, you will get criticism on your works, but don't take it personally.  Listening to experienced skinners will only help you get better.  On that note, giving constructive criticism is fine, but blatant attacks and insults do not help, and will be dealt with. 

Here at WinCustomize we have a class system:

  • Citizen
  • Apprentice
  • Master Apprentice
  • Journeyman
  • Master
  • Wizop/Moderators

You can view specifics of each class here.  Basically, you start out at citizen and if you contribute skins and to the community, you will be promoted through each of the classes.  Promotion is done by recommendation and votes from the site moderators (wizops) and admins on a monthly basis.  The Journeyman level allows users to bypass moderation, so your skins go directly to the gallery.  The highest class most can achieve is Master, but this is not an easy road.  One of the advantages of becoming a Master skinner is the ability to sell your skins on WinCustomize.  There are just a handful of them currently, and we are always keeping our eye out for the next one.

This is a system that has been around for a long time, but lately I have been pondering if changes are needed, especially when it comes to the Master class.  One of the descriptions of Master is, "not only must the user be a significant contributor to the community, but instrumental to the day to day life of WinCustomize." We have Master skinners that contribute quite a bit to the galleries, both free and paid skins, but are not necessarily active in say the forums for instance.  Not everyone is into the forum scene, so how much leeway should be given for that?  Should it matter?  Those are all questions I have been asking myself lately, and one of my projects is to re-write the member descriptions and define member classes going forward. 

Ideally, I would love to see all Master skinners take a more active and positive role in the community, be true leaders to help guide the next-generation of skinners.  They are the "best of the best" in terms of what they do, but maybe just contributing skins isn't enough.  Is more community involvement needed?  I would definitely love your feedback on this.  I will also be looking for skin moderators soon, so anybody in the community that has been established for a while can feel free to contact me.

Skinning

This summer has been fantastic.  Usually during this time of year skin submissions drop to almost nothing, but not this summer.  I haven't looked at the numbers but I think submissions have actually increased.  I am also seeing a lot of new skinners make their way over here, which is even more exciting.  Skinners who have been missing for a while have also made some returns, so I am very excited on the skinning front.  Not to mention the GUI Champs 2008 is due to start very soon, I think the next half of this year is going to be great.

Halloween and the Christmas season are also approaching, and I would really like to get some good sets of skins going, possibly even another community based skin.  I also have a mockup skin that will be the basis of a community project, but not until the GUI Champs is done.  You all have enough on your hands as is.

Although I can't mention specifics, we have also been tossing around ideas for the next version of WinCustomize.  Although nothing is set or guaranteed, I'm really hoping to have a bigger focus on personal pages and sorting of galleries.  I will leave it at that for now. 

Now lets address some issues people have been bringing up lately, and attempt to squash problems going forward.  Gallery moderation has been going pretty smoothly.  Most skins are moderated in good time, and we have been working to make sure a clear set of guidelines are followed.  To make things easier for everyone, I wrote the Tips for Moderation guide which everyone who submits skins should look over. 

Let me now emphasize some things to end some discussions and problems:

  • Resetting skin dates on updates will only be moderated if the skin has a significant change.  Fixing a start menu issue, or altering the color slightly does not constitute that.  Trying to game the system to stay on the front page of downloads will no longer pass.

  • Vista clones are permitted within reason.  Some of the most popular skins across the net are modifications of Vista.  The advantage we have with WindowBlinds is that the skins can be much, much better than the default Aero look.  Now we all have personal opinions on Vista looking skins, and the origins of images, but it's things we have gone through and determined it's not a simple matter to determine who created what. 

  • Multiple colors of the same skin must be included in a pack, or sub-styles.  SkinStudio has a remarkable re-coloring feature which makes making separate colored sub-styles very easy so this is what I would recommend.

Conclusion

Overall, I have been very happy with the state of WinCustomize this year.  Although there are some minor bumps in the road lately, those are ending today and I expect a great time for the rest of this year.  Your comments and feedback are welcomed.

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ZubaZ
Reply #41 Thursday, August 21, 2008 8:32 AM
Look my whole point is I guess I'm hoping sincerely to maintain higher standards for the community, seems ironic to me that the community tolerates it to the point that I feel like I'm being the bad guy for trying.
So do your best to nudge skinners.  If your nudge fails . . stop.    Walk away from that skinner that doesn't want your help.  If they have serious problems the "market" (or community) will take care of it.  Just be moderate.

It's your "job" as a master to help others . .it's the Moderators job to handle problems.

I played Everquest a few years ago.  I wasn't into it like the guys I hung out with.  Towards the end they gave me some really great advice, "Know your job.  Kill bats."  It's all I was good for and doing that improved everyone's experience. 
Lantec
Reply #42 Thursday, August 21, 2008 8:32 AM
Multiple colors of the same skin must be included in a pack, or sub-styles. SkinStudio has a remarkable re-coloring feature which makes making separate colored sub-styles very easy so this is what I would recommend.


I agree.....this should be a requirement. Given the ability of Windowblinds to alter the color of any skin I can't think of a single good reason to have more than one "version" of a skin in the library.


I believe the Master Program works well. I can't think of a single Master that I feel isn't qualified to be one. I do think that downloads should NOT be the driving force for selection and I would give the Masters a "vote" in who joins their circle. Who would better recognize another Master.

As far as the ongoing row, while I tend to agree with some of "Masters" points I also believe that everyone (especially the site staff & moderators) is aware of their concerns and further verbal jousting is a waste of time unless they have something new to bring to the table. Required Site conduct should apply to all equally in any case.


Separate and apart from the ongoing skinner clash, there is also the plethora of Impulse bashing threads which has helped set a negative tone here at WC. A vast majority of the whiners are gamers but since that's one of the "cross-posting" areas the skinning community is constantly drawn into the battles as well. I don't think we can do much but grin and bear it until Stardock has Impulse working for the whining minority.
eieio
Reply #43 Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:01 PM
certainly if you're an admin you bloody-well better..


I think we can accept that as a given
Pixeleo
Reply #44 Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:27 PM
This was a really nice [and awfully long] read....great work, ID

Also, a question: People who don't skin, or can't skin, or won't skin, yet they're really active in the forums and all, are they eligible for promotion too?
ZubaZ
Reply #45 Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:32 PM
Also, a question: People who don't skin, or can't skin, or won't skin, yet they're really active in the forums and all, are they eligible for promotion too?
very much so
zakai1369
Reply #46 Thursday, August 21, 2008 2:54 PM
Also, a question: People who don't skin, or can't skin, or won't skin, yet they're really active in the forums and all, are they eligible for promotion too?


Have you met Zubaz?
HG_Eliminator
Reply #47 Thursday, August 21, 2008 3:16 PM
This seems contradictory to me. If the single skinner does not have the resources, than how would he/she be more likely to make sure his rights are not infringed?


let me clarify.

A single skinner typically is less willing to allow unauthorized ports of their images than most "non graphics sales" based companies. Private skinners expect permissions to be asked before you port. They do not have the resources available to watch every site and upload so it falls on the community to help them spot and be aware of unauthorized ports etc and let them deal with them. ( WC rejects those without permissions until permission is obtained.)

Many companies silently allow porting to go on as long as they are not detracting from the original. Tho they have the right to request them to be removed usually they choose not to. This has been in effect as long as I can remember. Note most of these companies are not in Graphics sales or solely make their living off selling the images being ported. Jafos Icon example was right on.


Skinning companies etc are very adamant about their rights and we realize they do not typically allow unauthorized ports, so we watch for those trying to help them out.

Basically, as long as no one finds out, cares, says anything, its ok to cheat.

How chivalrous... sounds like one very convenient excuse to rip. I seriously pity anyone who uses this as justifiation to pick and choose who's work their going to steal.



Believe me if they wanted all the ports removed.. they would go after them in a heart beat. In fact they targeted one specifically not to long ago. It all but disappeared off the net. There were quite a few ports of the same item at the time. It was their choice to go after one and let the others slide.
kenwas
Reply #48 Thursday, August 21, 2008 4:27 PM
let me clarify.


Good clarification. Thanks!
Bebi Bulma
Reply #49 Thursday, August 21, 2008 7:26 PM
Also, a question: People who don't skin, or can't skin, or won't skin, yet they're really active in the forums and all, are they eligible for promotion too?

I'm certainly not a skinner, but along with Aaron, I share the Wizop badge too. Skinning isn't the only way to help the community, we need skinners to make skins...and people to help others figure out how to use them.

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