If someone ports, you BETTER say yes.

from WinCustomize Forums
This has been bugging me.
Someone (I won't name names) emailed me yesterday and asked if they could upload a port of one of my skins. I had to decline. (Reason being, it didn't look like my skin. Had square buttons, mine had round. Color was a pea green, mine was a blue and they added a bunch of things that just didn't belong.) I tried to explain to them that it was a nice jesture, but they should change the name of the skin and call it thier own and then upload it. They replied back and was a little hurt but they understood.
About a week ago, I got an email from a well known skinner. They do a lot of XPStyle skins. They wanted to use one of my skins for a package they were putting together. They had made everything but my skin, but needed my skin to complete the package. And they were going to call the package something else. I had to decline once again. I told them that it was already part of a suite and I didn't want my skin to be called something else and that I appreciated them emailing me and of thinking of my skin.
Let me tell you. They didn't want to hear that. I got a reply that wasn't G,PG or even PG13, it was rated R! They chewed me up one side and down the other. Needless to say, they are definitly off my Christmas list. (For anything.) I take it as a compliment when someone asks to port, but it should not be a given IF you port.
Sure I have ported a few things that were turned down, but I always understood when they declined for whatever reason.
I feel, even though these are free skins, there should always be professionalism in skinning, because sometime It can be a pretty bad sting.
10,524 views 22 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
you learn just who a person is in the most peculiar ways... sorry about that happening X71
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If the consent is NOT forthcoming when requested that 'should' be the end of it.

If either the response is inappropriate, or the requestor ignores the wishes of the skin's owner and uses it without consent, just contact the site's admins [whichever site it is] and the issue will be resolved appropriately.

No consent means exactly that, and objectionable replies to a refusal can also contravene the Telecommunications act...

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
DANG, doesn't ANYONE understand the word RESPECT anymore? I'm really sorry to hear that Z71, yes it's an honor to be asked that, when they are being truly honorable. These people were being nice in a manipulative sense.
Thinking they are being respectful turns out to be a set up! Sheesh. Hang in there, you're truly one of the best.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks all. Just got my goat for a few seconds. It rolled off me like water on a duck. It was just very disappointing to hear such language and no respect from a (professional) skinner.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
About porting : What's going on if skinners don't reply at all on request ?? asking ??
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

neophil78....if you get no response it means you got a 'no'....

Simple as that....

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Jafo, as Z71 is justifiabily shocked by some reactions, i think even to say NO, skinners should at least send a response ... (just by politeness ...)
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I know first-hand the disappointment and frustration of not receiving a response of any sort...to a cordial and polite approach.....but that's life, and we take the good with the bad.

It'd be nice to receive a simple 'no'....but in truth no-one is obliged in any way to respond to requests of themselves or their work/approval.

Should they choose to ignore then so be it...

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
That's also a way to have a good idea of who are "great" persons and who are not ...
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Not necessarily....the person who didn't respond to me [this time] had done so in the past....but who is to know his/her personal and private situation to expect/demand a reply?

His works are quite well known, world-wide, but his person is to be respected more so than his work....

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well, maybe ...
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And not to mention that people always make the assumption that the person they mailed DID actually receive the mail. The interwebnet thingy doesn't always work the way people want it to...
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In the distant past when I was asked I found it odd that the people had already devoted the time to port the item BEFORE they heard back from me. In a case of 'Hey, I made this for myself and I wanna upload it' I guess that makes sense, but from a 'pro' point of view it is silly. If they get steamed because they wasted their time they only have themselves to blame.

Wish you could share the name of the ass. As it stands people might make the wrong assumption as to who it was.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
/me would love to know who this 'profession' skinner is..............



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Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well it can't be me... I'm not a professional in any sense of the word.

Sorry to hear about your rough treatment Z71. You're not alone in being frustrated by the attitudes of others when it comes to ports.

In response to whoever it was that said a skinner should always reply to a request, I agree that it would be nice in a ideal world. Unfortunately, as Z71 has pointed out, some people simply don't like to or want to take no for an answer. I have actually stopped sending responses to people when I don't agree to their particular port because I too have been subject to some pretty choice words over the past couple of years. I now only respond when I like what someone's done and want to give permission. It's a shame that I have to ignore the majority because of the actions of the few, but it makes life so much easier.
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Z71: Ah well, look at the bright side. Looks like you have some fans, my man. Them being disappointed and all doesn't matter, they wanted to port you, so they're fans.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wow. There's always some that expect everyone to say 'yes' to whatever they ask and get angry when reality clashes with thier view.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's very disappointing to hear of someone being treated with this kind of disrespect. I hope the person responsible feels suitably guilty.

An apology to Z71 would go a long way to making amends.


[Message Edited]
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Koasati would love to know who this 'profession' skinner is..............


neophil would also love to know who this 'professional' skinner is .............



P.S: how to u type in colour ???
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I thought porting a skin meant you only made it "work" in another app.LIke Style XP to WB or the other way around..If so why would someone redo the "graphics" on a porting job...Woldnt that be sort of like cheating????Just courius..
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Porting isn't what it used to be, and people have a lot of silly ideas about 'ownership'.

I have seen people scream RIP for things that were just the same color and material/texture as something else. If two guys accidentally make a green, aqua style skin with round buttons, it need not be a 'rip'. At the same time, others with no skill or imagination tend to take the images from a previous skin and Frankenstein them into something that looks nothing like it and call it a 'port'.

The point is that you either originally come up with the skin on your own, or you copy someone else's. If our community lacks ingenuity at any point it is during conception. I still think the vast majority of folks still go browsing the skin sections to decide what their next skin will look like.

Ideas should come from your head, from what you are, with maybe a bit of inspiration for the conveyance of that individuality. If you look to the same kind of art you make, then you are doomed to rip people off, consciously or not.

If people turned their head away from the monitor for a few hours they'd find all the inspiration they need, without having to ask to port things.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Like I said, this skinner (if you want to call them that) does a lot of MSStyles skins. So, as far as I know, it's not any one here at Wincustomize.
After I made this thread, I thought to my self, That I shouldn't have. I sound like I'm a little weasel that got my tail stepped on.
I just thought that even though the quality of skins has fallen, that the quality of respect should always stay high.