Frogboy

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

ARRGH. Guys, we are not going to delete people's posts, we were just suggesting various ways we could do that and even in that one suggested route, it was only if it was really obvious someone was spamming. The point was to show the kind of double standard. You don't see any long painful threads over on LOS about a point system in which there are different ranks based on point accumulation. If we did that here, I suspect you'd see huge outcry but I visit LOS (which I really like btw,

Reply to A new feature in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

My only gripe is that the spacing between sections and such seems to have gone away. Each icon is now bunched up against one another.

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

-- Quote -- Try approaching the problem as "Brad, member of the group", instead of "Brad, The big cheese at WC". -- End Quote -- I would argue that the very fact that we're discussing this issue months in advance and trying to gauge user views on a wide variety of issues on this topic would indicate that we're not trying to force something. As was pointed out, LOS already has a system very similar to what I just outlined. And it seems to be working pretty well for them

Reply to Skinning's Golden Age in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I think skinning's golden age is still to come. But I also miss the early days when it was all still very new. Very new in not knowing what was possible to do and not knowing what was going to happen next. But as a skin author and skin software developer, the tools available now and the programs available to skin with are reaching their height right as the number of new users entering per month is probably close to reaching its zenith. But like iMike, I worry about

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

The *ideal* solution of course is more skin sites. If Customize.org could go back up and skinz.org could somehow return, then the bandwidth would be more distributed between the sites. Ess-vid's point is a valid one in terms of wanting the message board to stay intelligent even if it's at the expense of # of posts. But something that encourages people to comment on skins would be nice for starters.

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Not at all DaWebMassa, in fact, your posts were amongst the best ones. Nothing's settled on any point system (including whether to even have one). We're just talking right now about various ways to gauge contribution.

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

This website gives me a migraine sometimes. Guys, we're just brainstorming. We have no code written, we haven't made any decision, we're just talking here. Some of you act like we have some firm idea what we want to do. Clearly if any "logical" conclusion can be reached it is that while like Migellito says, it's good that people give their opinions, it's also discouraging to see people get so upset or uptight about something that wouldn't even be implemented for many mnoths and not un

Reply to Napster and sour grapes in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Who are you to say he was unethical? Anyone who knows the difference between right and wrong can say he was unethical. When I was 19, I ran BBSes and didn't care warez on it because I knew it was wrong. Are you saying that a 19 year old doesn't know the difference between right and wrong? The sour grapes part of my post is how it often sucks to have to do the right thing. In our case, doing the right thing was not creating Object Recommendation. Unlike s

Reply to Stardock Magazine in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Actually, it's been around for 5 years now.

Reply to WinAmp 3 boycotted? in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

From what I've heard, the problem is, WinAmp 3 is too big to use and too complicated to skin. I must confess I use WinAmp 2 still. When I want to listen to MP3's, I want to use something tiny. If I'm going to use something big I'djust stick with Media Player.

Hidden Treasure in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

The USS Clueless is a great site full of philosophical writings on virtually any topic. Highly recommended.

Reply to Napster and sour grapes in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

BTW Flummox, are you sure you really think it's good that people DO things without thinking of the ethical consequences of those actions? I like to think of myself as a "do-er" but before I "do" something, I try to think of the consequences of those actions. Some crazies thought about bombing federal buildings I'm sure. Timothy McVeigh was a do-er too. He went ahead and did it and become very famous and a hero to some too. Do you look up to him too? Do I sound like a child

Reply to Napster and sour grapes in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

I am a developer and I can tell you that writing Napster is a trivial thing. From my standpoint, it's a matter of walking by a bunch of store windows and thinking "Well, sure, I could just throw a rock through and break that window and steal the stuff inside but that would be wrong." Indeed, while the rest of us looked at that store window, we walked by. But not Shawn, he picked up that rock and threw it through the window and yelled "Hey guys, free stuff!" and some called him

Napster and sour grapes in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/13/technology/ebusiness/13MUSI.html?todaysheadlines http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/12/technology/ebusiness/12NAPS.html?todaysheadlines Contains links to what is essentially looking like the end of Napster. Napster's success/failure and the fame of its developer, Shawn Fanning, is a touchy subject around at Stardock. That's because a year before Napster came out, one of the early components for Object Desktop (earlier users of ODNT may

Why our kids are monsters... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/7/14/85942/3961 I happen to really agree with this post. The problem with so many Americans these days is that they are consumed with the concept of acquiring material things. They want to acquire "Stuff" even if its at the expense of their children. How many times have you heard someone complain how in the "good old days" only 1 parent "needed" to work to make "ends meet" yet today both are required. Often times, both parents go to work pu

Reply to Test.... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Neato.

Reply to Test.... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

[email protected] http://people.mw.mediaone.net Testing.

The article on content and backlash in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Over at www.kuro5hin.com there was that article on "getting paid for content". K5 just introduced a "subscription" plan that sim;ply lets people donate to the site and in exchange that user doesn't see banner ads. Immediately a bunch of users stated they were leaving and would not be back. This is a rather frightening reaction since in their case, they were providing a NEW feature -- i.e. the site always had ads before, now they were giving users the option to have the site wi

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Hehe, of course, if we listed the top 20 downloaders here, you wouldn't recognize any of the names because they've never posted or anything.

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

There seems to be a consensus on that. If the people who such a system would benefit don't want it, no point in having it. Though that will still leave us with the problem of how to measure non-finanical contribution to the site when/if it proves necessary to try to discourage people from downloading a quarter gig of stuff without doing anything constructive in return.

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Hehe, I agree with Paxx, we couldn't get into deleting posts so I think such a system would be doomed. Doreen, yes, the site has had to expand a lot since it first started. Stardock provides a block grant to the site for its expenses. That grant is enough to pay for a "skinz.org" level site in terms of traffic. But in June when Deskmod went down, the site's bandwidth use skyrocketed so the site had to get more bandwidht. Remember how the site was unbelievably slow for a wee

Compressed Audio Shoot Out in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

The Washington Post brings in a team of experts to test out the various compressed audio formats (MP3, MP3pro, WMA, etc.). The results are very intersting.

Reply to Design your own T-shirts in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Hey now, Christmas is coming and I'm sure my wife will be delighted with the mugs I get her! Though it did take an hour for the doctors to extract the Stardock sweat shirt from my..well it's not important where, but it did make a good Christmas gift.

Reply to Test.... in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

Neat! How do you do that?

Reply to We need to give people more accolades in WinCustomize Talk WinCustomize Forums

You're right that you woudln't want comments deleted arbitrarily. Hmmm. I'm starting to come around to seeing how difficult it would be to stop a "point monger". Indeed, I think that 99% of users would play by the rules but it only takes 3 or 4 people to ruin it. Look at skin submissions that get resubmitted and that's just for download count and submitting a skin is much more time consuming than writing a response. We would really like to have a system in which we