Now, I'll admit that I'm definitely on the outside looking in of the blogging/web 2.0 community.  While I manage very large sites with a ton of users and reach, I'm still on the periphery.  Why?  Well, I live in Michigan.  Not exactly a state known for it's thriving IT industry.  If you go beyond IT services that support manufacturing companies, you can probably count on one hand the number of companies doing anything significant with online communities or digital media.

Yes, I'm a bit of a victim of geography here, and even though it's all online now, it's all IM, Twitter, email and blogging, proximity is still important.  So when I see events like Gnomedex coming up, I'm interested because it could be one of the few opportunities I have this year to actually network with other people working in my field.  And in this nebulous profession, professional networking is king.

Gnomedex struck me as an interesting conference to attend with its focus on blogging, podcasting and other personal media, the stuff that's really sweeping the 'net at the moment.  The really interesting tech and approach to information distribution that will become pretty standard for regular users in 5 years is what this conference focuses on now.  And there are some pretty impressive names attached too, with folks from CNN, Amazon's AWS initiative, Google and a selection of people to know around the blogging world.

I'd love to go.  It would be a wonderful opportunity to meet people, get some new ideas for JoeUser/WinCustomize/ImpulseDriven.  Plus I think it would be a blast.

But I won't be going.  Why? 

It costs a damn fortune!

The conference, just to get in the door, costs $600 (if you've attended a Gnomedex in the past, you get a $50 discount).  Now, that's a pretty hefty price to begin with, but what if you're from out of town?  Well, then you have to factor in plane tickets and a hotel.  I just did some quick checking via travelocity, and looked over the hotel list close enough to the conference so I wouldn't have to rent a car...

Leave August 21st, return August 23rd:

• Plane Ticket: $373
• Hotel: $389 (before tax, this was one of the cheap ones)

That brings the base cost of the conference to $1,362.  Funny enough, that's how much I paid in taxes this year.

Unfortunately this doesn't include the incidental costs like dinners, drinks with folks you meet at the conference, or anything you may need to pick up while there.  From what I've been told about Seattle, and about these sorts of conferences, I could probably safely add another $300 or so to the bill.  So now at a conservative estimate I've passed $1,600.

Of course I could do things like find someone to split a hotel room with, and probably just not do the dinner/drinks thing, but after a point the cost cutting gets in the way of what these conferences are about: meeting folks in the field.

I could probably swallow the travel costs if the conference pass didn't virtually double the cost.  It almost seems like the pricing is setup to keep out people who aren't either on that side of the country already, or who don't have a corporate card to cover the costs.

Maybe someday there will be a tech conference here in the midwest....

Yeah, right.

We're back again with another set of questions asked by you, and answered by members of the WinCustomize moderation team.  Today we hear from WOM, Koasati, Zubaz, Elvee, Erk, Jafo, Starone, Quentin94 and Fuzzy Logic.

Remember to check back again next Friday for Part 3!

---

Question 1 -

What is the best thing about being a moderator?  The worst?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Being able to contribute to WC.  I spend hours a day modding and watching the general forum.  The worst thing is listening to all the crying and verbal attack from people that do not get their way.
Super Wizop Koasati
	The best thing; Giving something back to the community. The worst; Cuts into my skinning time.
Wizop starone
	The best thing about being a mod is being able to contribute.  The worst, hmmmm, I'm thinking...well, just haven't experienced a worst yet.
Sir Zubaz
	Why is it that when I reread my question as Zoomba formatted it, it looked to me that I was the worst thing about being a mod?  The best thing for me is knowing that Stardock had enough faith in me to trust part of what they'd created to me.  I'd done a lot of growing up on these forums over the years with the help of more senior mods.  That's great too. The worst thing for me is seeing some people piss in my house (figuratively) and not be able to beat them down like I sometimes want to.  My job is to "moderate" . . sometimes I really don't want to.
Wizop Quentin94
	To be able to help users and others skinners and to contribute to wincustomize.com The worst? ... Hum... Didn't found it for now
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	The best thing about being a mod is being in a position to have a positive impact on the site and the community. The hardest thing...um... keeping my mouth shut! I like to say what I think and sometimes say without thinking...!
Moderator elvee
	The best would be to having the privilege of being a Representative of WinCustomize, helping others to the best of my ability. I haven't had a worst yet.
Admin Jafo
	Having the opportunity to look out for everyone within the community. The worst....wondering how often you are getting it wrong.
Wizop Erk.
	The best thing about being a moderator is being able to help out wherever possible, to keep things flowing as smoothly as I can. The worst thing? ...Spammers, and cleaning up after them. But even that's not much of a chore...

---

Question 2 -

Were you surprised when you were asked to become one?  What were your thoughts?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Yes I was suprised , shocked and happy.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Yes, very surprised. My thoughts were no doubt very similar to the ones I'm having right now....
Wizop starone
	Yes, I was definitely surprised about being asked to be a mod.  My thoughts were those of disbelief until reality hit.
Sir Zubaz
	I was flabbergasted when I was invited to join the ranks.  I really didn't think I was worthy/ready.  Jafo spent lots of time in IRC and PM helping me get settled.
Wizop Quentin94
	Truly honored and surprized that they gave me my chance to help more this wonderful site.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Yes, a little. At the time I joined the team the site was in a state of change: the messageboard was an unpleasant place to be, a lot of the longer serving mods had moved on to other projects. Behind the scenes I'd exchanged quite a few e-mails about what could be done to turn things around, so I knew someone was listening, but I never expected the invitation. My first thought was at last I could help in a meaningful way. Hopefully I have.
Moderator elvee
	Very much surprised.   I was totally speechless, thrilled and honored all at the same time.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  There were lots of people I could think of at the site's beginning who had been around as long as I...and would have been suited.
Wizop Erk.
	I was very surprised at being asked. My biggest goal at the time was to make it to Journeyman, so it kind of exceeded my own expectations. Like Starone, I also couldn't believe I'd been chosen ...but I'm very grateful that I was.

---

Question 3 -

Is it anything like you expected?  (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Yes, its what I expected, having been at the site  from almost the begining and seeing what goes on.
Super Wizop Koasati
	I had previously been a mod/admin at lotsofskins.com, and skinbase.org, so I had a general idea of what to expect.
Wizop starone
	Was definitely nervous about the responsibility but do enjoy doing it.
Sir Zubaz
	Looking back it seemed a pretty natural extension of what I was doing as "one of the guys".  the biggest surprise for me was the way I started editing my responses.  I found myself thinking "How best to say this as a representative of Stardock and Wincustomize?"  "What response is best for the community?"  Sometimes I think that's part of Zoomba's master plan to shut me up. (Ed: It didn't seem to work...)
Wizop Quentin94
	Yes and more. Anyway thanks to the "older" mods for the help given to find my way.
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Hmmm, I'm not sure I knew what to expect...
Moderator elvee
	Mixed on that. I knew some of the things to expect. Other things I didn't know, so I was a little nervous at first.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  I think I knew the SD crew long/well enough to know what it'd be like to be caught up in it all.
Wizop Erk.
	It was pretty much as I'd expected it to be. I'd had a little insight into it by paying attention to what the current moderators were doing. I was a little worried that I'd goof it up at first, but I got some great tips from Zoomba & Jafo [and others (thanks) ] and it all just went from there.

---

Question 4 -

What's the hardest thing you've had to do as a mod? (Zubaz)

Wizop WOM
	Vote on someone being demoted.  Its easy to recomend someone for promotion but to then take it away.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Learning to bite my tounge. I tend to say what I mean, and can be to the point (blunt). I can also be a bit of a smart***...... In text format this can easily be construed as arrogance. I'm trying to do better.
Wizop starone
	Humm, the hardest thing about being a mod....not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings.
Sir Zubaz
	I have to agree with Fuzzy . . there are times when I am not able to really go off on topics that I'd like to jump in.  I've thought about creating a pseudonym but think I'd be too transparent and everyone would know it was me.  {In truth they'd just have to count the typos}
Wizop Quentin94
	I think the hardest thing should be to don't make mistakes/errors
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	The hardest thing is probably having to distance myself from some of the most emotive topics. Sometimes I would really like to say what I think...
Moderator elvee
	Ha ha!   Hoping not to mess up.
Admin Jafo
	I had a 'wee drama' on the Forums.....a 'clever' individual was being an arse and it was actually impossible to sort it or him 'easily'.....so I shut down the forums totally - pulled the plug.  I wasn't even sure at the time I was supposed to be able to...but I'd found this nice neat 'off' button....so I used it.  Probably ten/twenty minutes later....caught up with Frogboy...and between the two of us we cleaned up the mess.
Wizop Erk.
	The hardest thing? ... Diplomacy. Sometimes, in certain situations, you feel like you could 'tear someone [read: spam posters] a new one' ...but commonsense prevails mostly. I always re-read everything before I post it ~in the hopes that I'm conveying the message correctly. It's a rare thing that you have to come down on anyone anyway, these days.

---

Question 5 -

Is the job rewarding to you?  (HG_Eliminator)

Wizop WOM
	Yes it is rewarding, being able to directly help the site I love and the people.  Interacting with people that I've known for years and to meet some new one.
Super Wizop Koasati
	Yes, I enjoy helping, and WC is where most of my cyber-family hangs out.
Wizop starone
	Yes, it is rewarding.
Sir Zubaz
	I get so much out of being a part of this commnity that if I had to step down as a mod it'd be fine.  But the truth is that I'd like to think I help make WC a better place.  This place holds my closest friends, keeping it on an even keel with the rest of the mods is a thrill I wouldn't likely trade.
Wizop Quentin94
	Yes, really rewarding. Definitively loving it
Overseer Fuzzy Logic
	Absolutely. I wouldn't swap the job for anything. Making a contibution to something so worthwhile is the biggest reward anyone could have.
Moderator elvee
	Very rewarding! Wouldn't trade it for anything.
Admin Jafo
	Yes.  Though with me being 14 to 16 hours out of whack with the US ...I have a quite odd daily timetable - very odd sleeping hours....no sexlife ...  Even my cat complains....she's doing it right now....1.00 am, Sunday morning as I type this .... having spent 10 hours today house-building - not the cat, - me...
Wizop Erk.
	I definitely enjoy it ...I get to see the newest stuff before most others do, and as I've said many times ...we have an awesome community here now. It makes it fun to do, and that's rewarding enough in itself.

---

Hi all!

Those of you who have a MySpace account, post here if you'd like and maybe we can add some friends to our networks.

My account is www.myspace.com/draginol

What's yours?

In our ongoing efforts to improve WinCustomize and make participating and contributing more fun and fulfilling for our skinners, we're looking at changing around how certain systems related to user reward work.  The first one is the Medals system.

Currently automatically award Medals to users for hitting any number of milestones here on WinCustomize.  We track who's the top skinner across the entire site, who is the best in any particular gallery, how many downloads are achieved etc.  This information is mostly displayed on your personal page.  It's a lot of data to sift through, and it's something we need to do a better job of presenting and highlighting. 

To that end, we're looking for feedback on the current user medal system.

• What do you like about the current system?
• What do you dislike about the current system?
• What are your favorite awards?
• What are your least favorite awards?
• What awards do you think we should add?
• How do you think we could improve presentation and meaning of the awards?

Any feedback you have on this system is more than welcome.  We'll be taking it into account when revising things, though we can't promise every suggestion will be implemented.  This is the first step in a chain that we hope will lead to greater focus being placed on individual users, as well as a more equitable distribution of recognition. 

To kick off our recently revived "Featured Skinner" series, we've sat down with well-known member of the skinning community, vStyler, to ask him a few quick questions about his thoughts on skinning, how he got started, and a little bit about his skinning studio, MaxStyles, which has recruited community members such as I.R. Brainiac, messiah1, J. Aroche and others.

I'd like to thank vStyler for taking the time to answer these questions in such depth and for providing a great preview shot of his next skin, Sexy WB, for us to use in this article.

If you have a skinner you'd like to see featured in this, now quarterly, series drop me a line at mikec [AT] stardock [DOT] com with the subject "Featured Skinner Suggestion"

Without any further adieu, on to the interview!

How did you get your start in Windows UI customization?

A long time ago, in an operating system far far away, a (noticeably younger) young man decided to click the Classic Color Schemes dropdown button... this thrust him into a parallel universe… that he has yet to return from. Yes, I, like so many other artists had my first ‘skinning" experience back in about 95 \ 98 when I discovered I could actually change the basic colors of my OS. For the next few days (while I was supposed to be making sales calls) I perfected the perfect classic color scheme... for my own use of course. This led to downloading "themes"… A wallpaper, some desktop icons, color scheme, cursors and sounds... I was in customizing heaven… or so I thought. While searching for themes I stumbled across a nifty program called NextStart, and although I never actually skinned it, I had lots of fun customizing with it. I then went onto the very early versions of Windowblinds and Style XP and started uploading screenshots to DeviantArt. I first tried my hand at "real" skinning after installing Style XP and thinking "this doesn’t look so hard". My first official theme (I’ll admit) was an unauthorized modded version of one of Kol’s earlier visual styles (Lumineux VS). Looking back at it now I realize what a terrible job I did of making it look like 100% original work. I have since admitted my horrible crime to Kol and have received forgiveness. Of course, eventually as most of you know I now skin Windowblinds exclusively, why I switched to WB is revealed later on.

Is skinning a professional endeavor or more of a hobby?

This one is easy, once I decided that skinning windows was something I could be good at, I firmly put into place a plan to be as good as I could possibly be in the hopes that one day I could actually make a living doing it. I would have to say this last 6 years or was more like a self-taught home based college course than a hobby in the hopes that someday it would pay off. That’s not saying I don’t enjoy it, it has also been a hobby of mine, when a nice skin is finally completed I do enjoy the feedback from users and I have always been comforted and motivated knowing that my work is being used and appreciated by fellow customizers.

A preview of vStyler's upcoming skin, "Sexy"

Explain how MaxStyles came about?

I think right around 2001 I had gotten the idea, (after making a Jacksonville Jaguars NFL theme for my neighbors PC), to try and make NFL themes and sell them to the NFL. I made a Denver Bronco’s theme as an example and then decided I was going to need a website. It was at this time I approached Tom Reichert (LightStar) of LightStar1.com with my idea. Well, needless to say, not having the 3 million dollar licensing fee required by the NFL my little plan sort of fell through. However, not long after meeting Tom we both started selling Premium Visual Style’s on his site. A short time after he suggested my opening my own site that he would help me setup and maintain... and Maxstyles.com was born.

What is your goal with MaxStyles?

For about three years I released visual styles, both free and premium on MaxStyles. At the end of last summer I decided to participate in the GUI Championships on Wincustomize.com. My Visual Style ports aside, this was my first real in depth foray into SkinStudio. I was fortunate enough to place 3rd overall with my first full WB skin "Vectra". That was enough to motivate me not only to convert full time to Windowblinds, but also to switch my site over completely to Windowblinds based themes and say goodbye to visual styles forever. A few months back I approached what I thought were some of the most talented skinners on the Windowblinds side of things and asked them if they wanted to join me on Maxstyles and be part of a team. The idea was to produce free and premium skins of unsurpassed quality by maximizing each team member’s potential and expertise in a team atmosphere. The "new" Maxstyles.com is now in place. We intend to continue producing high quality themes for the general public as long as possible. It is my intention at a future date to also involve Maxstyles in the arena of branded skins for corporate clients. The MaxStyles team currently consists of me, I.R Brainiac, Aroche, Messiah1, Basj and Gef.

Do you think Windows Vista will help or hurt skinning?

Well...that’s a tough one. I must say that after my initial investigation of the OS and early attempts at skinning it I am thoroughly un-impressed with Vista from a skinning standpoint. I am frustrated with it as I see many areas where (1) skinning options have been taken away and (2) Some areas of Vista now add even more areas that inherit the properties and attributes of other areas of the OS leading to even more "damned if you do , damned if you don’t" scenarios. On the flip side… because there is technically less to skin and because of some of its limitations it’s actually easier to skin. Bottom line, Vista is probably easier but perhaps not better… in my opinion.

What’s your favorite skin ever made?

Wow... that’s tough! If I absolutely have to choose… my favorite all time Windowblind is Sektor by danilloOc. I would have to say that its overall look, its animations and flawless execution were some of the reasons that attracted me to finally start doing WB skins and how I personally go about designing and implementing my skins. If you’re going to do something... then do it right. In a shameless plug I will give a close second to my good friend I.R Brainiac’s Knot Vista skin. ?

Lastly, I am currently working on a new Master Skin, after several people using the same word to describe the screenshots I was sending them... I decided to call it Sexy WB . Here’s the latest preview of it, should be completed sometime in the near future.

In closing I would like to say I am eternally thankful to those who have supported and helped me along the way and that I hope the adventure is just beginning. I hope to be around for a long time.

Thanks, and keep on skinning!!

A little while ago, Brad started talking up the upcoming refresh to WinCustomize.  He mostly talked about features and some cool stuff you could expect from the new site, but so far, all you've had are lines of text, nothing to really sink your teeth into.  Seeing as how we're all about the visual aspects of our computers, I thought it might be nice to give you a little taste of what the site is looking like at the moment.  Overall, better usability, and a slicker look and feel.

This is part one of the article series.  Today we're looking at the front page and the gallery views.  The next article will look at submitting work, and some of the personal page and account views.

Disclaimer:
This article won't even begin to address features or functionality since the site is still being worked on.  Even the visual elements and layout you will see in the screenshots below are considered to be under development still and are NOT FINAL.  Something you see here in a shot may not actually be on the site when it goes live.  These screenshots are based off of our internal test build of the new site and you shouldn't take anything you see here as a promise of functionality or features.

In a few places, I'll put up a side-by-side comparison of the new site with the old site to give you an idea of how drastic the improvements are.  For the most part you'll only be getting slices of the page at a time.  Eventually we'll be posting full screenshots as things become finalized and our web devs sign-off on pages as "done"  But until then, enjoy the little snippits below.

The Front Page

The first thing everyone sees typically when they come to WinCustomize is the main page.  A lot has been changed in how the information is presented.  Some people felt that the left and right navigation menus in addition to the header navigation links was just too much to keep track of.  The new design does a lot to streamline the main page to make it as easy to scan and navigate as possible.

The current WinCustomize header navigation space.  There are a lot of tabs to click through

The new and improved header navigation space.  A lot cleaner, and fewer sections to have to navigate through

 

Current Popular/Featured space on the main page	The new Popular/Featured space.  A lot more information is accessible but it manages to look less cluttered
Current News Listing	New News Listing

Gallery Views

Navigating the galleries on the site has always been a bit overwhelming.  There's a lot of information to scroll through and some times you need to dig through multiple pages to find what you're looking for.  The new gallery pages are designed to make it easier to quickly scan through what's available.

Current WindowBlinds Gallery view.  Notice how much space is taken up to show each skin, and how much information is tossed at you right off the bat	The new WindowBlinds Gallery view.  In less space than the old view, you see several times the number of skin previews.  Much better for quickly browsing a library
Current Detailed view for an item in the library.  A lot of whitespace and a blocky layout.	The new Detailed view.  Cleaner, uses screen space better, makes it easier to spot the rating and the download link.  Also puts comments on the detail view so you don't have to click a second link to view them like on the current site.

 

So there you have it, your first glimpse at the new WinCustomize.  Check back next week for another look at what nifty new things we're putting in. 

Welcome to Brad's tips on how to use the new forums.  The new Stardock forums are custom developed based on the needs and uses of our customers. Over the years, we have experimented with many different layouts with varying degrees of success.

Background

The 2006 Stardock forums have many advantages over previous generations:

• Bandwidth - they use about 1/4th the bandwidth of previous forums we've used which means they load a lost faster.
• They use a lot more AJAX/Javascript based techniques to cut down the number of page views people have to go through.
• They allow for more categories to be displayed.
• They conform more to the style of the more common forum styles out there which reduces the learning curve for new users.
• They display who last commented on a particular post.
• They have much easier navigation between various sub-forums.
• They have more customization options for the user.

Stardock forums have one primary advantage over other forum systems. It's an advantage that is invisible to most users -- it is the world's only distributed network forum system (that we know of anyway).  Visit other companies or communities and they have one giant forum in one place. Visit a site using the Stardock.net forums and the forums displayed are specific to that site.  If two sites overlap, so do the posts.  A post on PC Computing on WinCustomize.com will show up on JoeUser.com but not TotalGaming.net.  A post about strategy games might show up on TotalGaming.net and GalCiv2.com and Joeuser.com but not on WinCustomize.com. This overlap means that users from different communities can interact together without even being on the same site.  It gives more options for users and customers and allows Stardock to interact with the varied communities much more easily.

Another key difference in Stardock forums is that new posts float to the top of the parent forum which in turn floats to the top of its parent.

In a forum system you might have:

Software
    Games
        Strategy
            Turn Based
            Real-Time
    Utilities
        Disk Utilities
        Security
        Anti-Virus
        Desktop Enhancements
    Applications

..and so on.

In a typical forum system, if you wanted to find out the newest post on a real-time strategy game you would have to dig all the way down to the real-time sub-category.  On a Stardock forum, the forums are set up almost like a search result -- The parent forum contains all the posts of its children arranged by the newest first. If the newest post is in the Real-Time area it will be the first post in the Software forum.  In this way, digging down allows users to get more specific if they choose but casual readers can stay more general.

One can imagine a forum like this:

Hardware
    PC
      Graphics Adapters
            nVidia
                7800
                    Overclocking
                        Utilities

In a Stardock.net forum, a user who clicks on the nVidia forum would see the newest posts from all the sub-forums. So if there's some hot new utility that lets users over-clock their 7800, the user who just clikced on the nVidia forum would see it without having to dig all the way down to the Overclocking utilities area.  As a result, it saves a lot of clicks. 

So why are other forum systems set up the way they are? There are lots of reasons, but one likely reason is that when forum software was first being developed, getting more page views was considered the goal.  Stardock's sites are designed to try to reduce the number of clicks and page views since it generates revenue from selling software and subscriptions. So our forums are designed to let users get to as much info as possible.

Tips & Tricks

Tip #1: Quick-Jump

One of the first new tips I'd like to show you is how easy it is to jump to other sub-forums.  If you click on one of the arrow separators between categories (i.e. Home -> General -> etc.) you will get a pop up menu that lets you jump to another sub-category.

Tip #2: View All Recent Posts

Near the bottom of the forums is a small link that we will probably make more prominent over time and that is the "view all recent posts".   By pressing that button, all the recent posts on the forum will be listed and users can go through and see all the actions anywhere. 

Tip #3: Smart Pins

Pinned topics are very important to new users but just get in the way for expert users.  The new Stardock.net forums let users minimize the topics and it will remember that you did so for future viewing.

Tip #4: My posts

At the top of the forum, "My posts" are there.  Click that link and you will get a list of the posts you have made.  Are also working on it so that it will eventually display all the posts you've recently interacted in.  That way, if a post you've been participating in scrolls off, no problem, you can quickly follow it.

Tip #5 Your Watch List

If you want to keep an eye on a post for the long-term, even if you're not participating in it, you can add it to your watch list.  To add a post to your watch list, click on the tools button.

Tip #6: Referrals

Is someone pointing to a post you or someone else made? Stardock.net forum posts automatically link back and let you see who is talking about it (and sends traffic back to the people who link to you).  Your account gets points every time someone goes to something you created from another site via a referral.

These are just some of the tricks that we have already.

The 2006 Stardock.net forums are still in their infancy and we are always looking for suggestions and ideas for them.  But we hope you find the new forum system fast, reliable, and effective.  Have fun!

In my last article, Rewriting DeviantArt history Link I talked about how Scott Jarkoff, the main founder of the art site, DeviantArt, was unceremoniously terminated.

After my article, somebody else posted a link to a leaked email http://probingthetruth.blogspot.com/2005/08/subject-truth-about-deviantart.html that gives rise to some serious questions as to the motivation of why Jarkoff was fired. Scott was asking some tough questions and even though he's a stock holder, he didn't seem to be receiving the company financials. There was also some dispute over the percentages of ownership.

As an outsider, I know there's two sides to every story. But every indication seems to be that this is a text book case of one group trying to push out another. DeviantArt is a very popular website today. It is worth a lot of money. In the leaked email contained this passage:

During a conversation between you, Angelo and myself in August 2004, I expressed extreme dissatisfaction with my vesting schedule and part-time status. My signature on the founder's agreement was based on a promise between you, Angelo and myself that if I were to work full-time hours then the agreement would be amended as such.

Vesting schedule. This is where we, at outsiders, move into pure speculation. But if Scott Jarkoff (Jark) was on a stock vesting schedule, what happens to that schedule when he was fired? Would his shares suddenly be all vested? Or, more likely, would those shares cease vesting? Looked at in another way, was Scott Jarkoff fired in order to prevent his shares from vesting? If so, then Scott being fired isn't just a matter of principle. It is also a matter of money. A lot of money.

Late last week, Frogboy made an announcement that Angelo Sotira (Spyed) had made some statements that seemed to imply that they were trying to give Jark the respect he had earned http://spyed.deviantart.com/journal/6378620/. But does that mean that this respect translates into anything beyond nice words?

The answer to that seems to come from Jark's new "Save the Alien Campaign". The campaign gives so-called deviants an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is. Users can donate money to Jark's legal defense fund. Since Spyed says that Jark was instrumental to DeviantArt's founding, then he should also share, in an instrumental way, in any financial windfall that DeviantArt receives if it were ever to go public or be purchased by another company. But, if they fired Jark and that just so happens to mean his stock vesting ends and he receives no new shares of stock, that could mean that the guy who actually founded the site could be left out in the cold. I don't know, I am just speculating but if Jark is preparing a legal case, then it is probably safe to assume that there is a lot more than just pride at stake here.

I for one will be very interested and watching to see how much support Jark really gets. The undying devotion that people claim to have towards Jark will now be put to the ultimate test.

I've been a member of the Stardock Community since November of 2002. I'm nowhere near being one of the early members, and in fact I came to Stardock by a route much different from most. I'm not a windows customization junkie. In fact, at the time my only experiences with WindowBlinds has been under Win98 on a woefully underpowered machine and the themes I was able to find weren't all that great to look at, so I was pretty much turned off by the whole customization deal for quite a while. I came to Stardock when a game news site I frequented mentioned that this company I had never heard of was having a beta test for its upcoming 4x space strategy game, Galactic Civilizations. Now, at the time I was hyped up and waiting impatiently for Master of Orion 3, and I needed my conquer-the-galaxy game fix, so I came running. I gladly plopped down a preorder to get beta access and was sucked into the game.

Over time I started to explore the other sites and products from Stardock. I gave Object Desktop another spin and found it vastly improved since I had last visited the product set, and I found that there were other games for me to play. But to play them I needed a Dregnin subscription, so I got a discounted subscription since I was a GalCiv owner and got access to the rest of the Stardock games. While I was diving deep into the other products offered by Stardock, I stumbled on this site called JoeUser, yet another web log site. The difference here was the community focus and the style of articles written. It wasn't like LiveJournal where people whined and complained because their 8th grade boyfriend/girlfriend hadn't called in the past 2 hours and they missed them so much and how their parents just didn't understand how you two are deeply and truely in love and want to get married and have kids and you'll always be together and and and *gasps for air* Here on JU, it was (mostly) adult conversation. People wrote interesting things and debate/discussion often resulted.

From there I started fiddling with Stardock Central a bit more and noticed the IRC client, so I started popping into #Stardock and #GalCiv and would occassionally jump in on some conversation here or there. in #Stardock, mostly the topics revolved around skinning and the ObjectDesktop suite of tools. Sometimes it would wander and just be about silly fluff, but it usually came back to skinning. #GalCiv was pretty dead since a fair bit of time had passed since release of the game and interest had started to drop off. I frequented the channels off and on for about a year. It wasn't until GalCiv 2 was announced and then we started the JoeUser chat room that I became a more permenant fixture on the IRC server.

Why do I write all of this? Why do I recount my path of discovery as it relates to Stardock and its products and services? Well, because for some reason there are a lot of people out there who seem to think that ALL Stardock does is Windows Customization software and services. While I admit it's the lionshare of their business, it is not all they do. I have been chastised in #Stardock for having the audacity to start a conversation on anything that didn't directly relate to skinning. I've gotten put down for talking about GAMES and TECHNOLOGY before because it strayed too far from the sacred topic. People at WC lament regularly that content that may be relevant but originated outside of the sacred WC forums shouldn't be cross-posted as it is now, as if us unwashed masses are going to dirty the pure clean waters of their holy home. I just want to remind everyone that the skinner is not the only type of community member, it's not the only interest catered to by Brad & Co. Here's a quick list of some of the OTHER things Stardock does, for those of you who seem to have forgotten/been unaware of:

1. Game Development Company
Stardock has developed and released several top-notch games ranging from Lightweight Ninja, a Sonic The Hedgehog like sidescroller, to Galacitc Civilizations a turn based space strategy game to The Political Machine, a presidential campaign simulator. Up on the horizon they have Galactic Civilizations 2, a reinvention of the series in a damn good looking 3D engine as well as Society: The Game, a Real Time Strategy Massively Multiplayer Online Game. There are a lot of people out there who buy and play Stardock Games. With the addition of TotalGaming.Net, a new online game distribution channel, gaming is becoming a big pull to Stardock.

2. Online Communities
WinCustomize is probably the site everyone is the most familiar with since Win Customization is their biggest business right now, but they also have JoeUser, a great blog community that they just haven't started charging for yet. All of their sites attempt to foster community centered on the site topic, and they also attempt to share content across them when posted in relevant channels.

3. Office Productivity
Enter ThinkDesk, the latest tool offerings from Stardock. Right now there's only Multiplicity, which allows multiple computers to be managed from one keyboard and one mouse, but they've got other nifty goodies lined up to go. These programs are catering to a COMPLETELY different crowd than their previous offerings.

4. Unrelated but cool ventures...
Poweruser.TV comes to mind as a pretty cool and really different direction for Stardock to be going in. Here they're addressing all sorts of different topics that span everything they do and more. Games, customization, new technology etc. This is going to bring to the larger community, Power Users who might not have taken notice of Stardock in the past.

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Now, gamers may explore and discover that they can also change the appearance and behavior of their computers, or skinners may find a new game they adore, or maybe people from either camp would find some insanely useful ThinkDesk tool that simplifies their real life work. Then maybe they would start posting thought-provoking aritcles on topics that interest them. It's a massive cross-pollination of thoughts and opinions, and it exposes us all here to something new that we might not have considered before. I know I dabble a lot more with ODNT, and plan on buying Multiplicity the second there's a Mac version and will probably poke around with the other tools when they become available. Stardock sucked me in with a single game, but now they have a customer that has bought a wide range of their products from all categories.

I just want you, the elitists amonst the WinCustomize community, to remember all of this next time you turn your nose up at anything that isn't connected to skinning. Remember that there are people out there in the Stardock network that didn't come here to tweak DesktopX, that didn't come here to get the latest ObjectBar skin and aren't interested/capable of making our own themes or whatnot. Remember that we, just like you, are customers of Stardock, we put in the cash just like you and we contribute in our own ways and in our own areas just like you do. We are no better and no worse than you are, so please cut the sneering, jeering and condescending tone you take with us. Stop acting all self-righteous when one of us writes a RELEVANT article in the areas of technology or the Internet and it gets crossposted to your sacred site. We get your stuff too all the time but you don't see us popping in on your threads saying "I don't think this belongs here on JU/GalCiv/Whatever site).

We're all part of a larger community, I hope you can learn to become better neighbors."

OpenID looks interesting. It's a method of identification without explicit registration (except on your home site - one you choose to trust, rather than one you have to trust). It's in the process of being rolled out on LiveJournal and other sites that use its software. I suspect it could come into use elsewhere, if it's simple enough to setup.

I wonder, will I someday sign myself GreenReaper of WinCustomize.com?

PS: My article about WinCustomize search plugins is more useful than this one.