Samurize category on wincustomize.com?

Hi NeM from samurize

I sure do hope so.

Yeap.

Be nice to see a Trillian section sooner or later.
[Message Edited]

Samurize would make a great addition to the site, me thinks...

Me too.. one more place to add/download Samurize configs, plugins, scripts, graphics..

I Said the same thing.
Samurize is really cool!
I think it's better than the SysMetrix thing...

I hope that admin will accept!

NeM you have my full suport!

Cool, nice to see we've got plenty of support What's the next step? Do we have to wait for an admin to see this post?

A samurize section would be great.

4th poster here is an 'admin'...

Oddly enough, so is 9th....

Not to mention #10, so what's keeping that section?

Hey, don't ask us, we just work here.

I've put poll questions up in the past asking if people wanteda Samurize section and there is usually not that much interest compared to the other items we put up there.

I'm on record as being a Samurize fan / booster. But I think Samurize needs to increase its popularity a bit further.

In our last poll on widgets we came out with:

What do you use for widgets?

1) DesktopX 339

2) Samurize 34

3) Waiting for Konfabulator for Win 38

4) AveDesk 26

Sections here on WC are supposed to support apps that are already very popular. Not promote up and coming programs.

The entire model of WinCustomize is based on the idea thatthe popular app will help drive users to WinCustomize to get content for that app.

As much as I like Samurize, I think it needs to build up its popularity further.

BTW, Rainlendar went through the same thing. A year before we created a section there were vocal users demanding a section for it.  Only when it definitively won out in various polls did we do it and even then only after Rainlendar's home site agreed to promote WC.

I think Samurize is on its way up, I just don't think it's quite ready for a section here yet. And that's speaking as someone who is biased in favor of Samurize.  It's a lot further along than Avedesk or Kapsules is though.

I wouldn't have said Rainlendar won "definitively" on the poll vs. Samurize, sure it won but it wasn't by a landslide

And Samurize isn't really "up-and-coming" either - it's two years old already!

And of course we're more than happy to promote WinCustomize on samurize.com (I mean you guys already host us!)

A section on wincustomize.com could be just the exposure Samurize needs to break it into a more "mainstream" desktop modding scene. (Or maybe I should get writing that biased article you suggested in the "Widget Wars" thread on Aqua-soft heh)

Just my $0.02

Regarding the article: Yes, you should definitely write up an article touting WHY you should use Samurize. What are its benefits.  Why would you use Samurize vs. say AveDesk? Make sure it's accurate even if it is biased.

The more telling poll, however was the one I posted above.  While msot of the respondants didn't use widgets at all, only 34 people used Samurize.  We need that number to get closer to 150 before we coudl add a section for it.

One way to help get Samurize more popular would be to write that article I mentioend as I will promote that.

I think a poll on this site with DesktopX as one of the options is very biased, just as a poll on samurize.com would be very biased towards Samurize...

Nem2k2: I totally agree.  It is VERY biased.

I think we're talking past each other.  Let me put it a different way:

Since the founding of WinCustomize.com the sections chosen on the site have been based on ones that are already popular in their own right.  We have intentionally gone out of our way not to put up apps that are "up and coming" but rather ones that are already very popular.

The idea being that the software developers would then send WC a lot of traffic in which case some % of that traffic would end up buying subscriptions or purchasing SD software and such.

Rainlendar, for instance, had a hard time getting a section here because it wasn't popular enough independently. And because it was freewrae, a higher percentage of its users are likely to be in the "free beer" category of user (i.e. think that buying software is not "l33t").

The general rule of thumb is that a section on WinCustomize should not noticeably increase the popularity of an app.  Sections on WC should reflect the established popularity of an app, not create it.

WC includes sections for apps that compete with Stardock apps for users. But the cold hearted calculus used on that is that while some users may decide to pick Litestep instead of ObjectBar or SysMetrix instead of DesktopX, the popularity of those programs will bring enough new users in to offset that risk.  Right now, and I could be wrong, I think Samurize would eat up more DesktopX users than bring in new users who might buy WindowBlinds or Object Desktop or whatever.

I think Samurize is on the right path, and obviously we want it to succeed.  I just think it needs to become more independently popular. 

As a Stardockian, I want to help Samurize become independently popular because it will draw more users into the customization market and therefore potentially become an Object Desktop user (not to mention you guys are just great guys). 

But as a WinCustomize admin whose conscious of the costs of this site, we can only let apps that are independently very popular on.  If Samurize goes on, then why not AveDesk? If AveDesk, why not Kapsules?  Then pretty soon we're the primary marketing and bandwidth hub for programs that take sales away from DesktopX potentially but don't bring in very many new users who might purchase stuff (look at some of hte people on Aqua-Soft.org.  They think pay software is "the devil").

Sorry for be so long winded.  Normally my role as Stardock guy and WinCustomize guy don't come into conflict. This is one of those times they do.