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How Stardock failed the skinning community in 2006

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How Stardock failed the skinning community in 2006

A look back at what we didn't do and what we need to do

from WinCustomize Forums

WinCustomize.com is a website owned by Stardock. It was founded back in 2001 when the dot-com collapse took out most of the skin sites.  Stardock wanted to ensure that there was a stable home for people who wanted to create cool stuff to enhanced their Windows experience.

While 2006 was Stardock's best year from a traditional success point of view (doubled in size, more than doubled in revenue, helped produce stuff for Microsoft on Windows Vista, building partnerships with OEMs, and the game's division made one of the top PC games of last year), I believe Stardock failed the skinning community. It failed it utterly.

This is going to be long but I will try to identify the areas where Stardock blew it and what I think it needs to "make good".

The Failures

  • Awful documentation
  • Lack of support for skinners
  • Lack of community support
  • Lack of leadership

Awful Documentation

As bad as the documentation for making cool stuff for Stardock's apps appears, it's actually far far worse. And if you think it's really really bad, trust me, it's even worse than that.  It's not that we don't try. The problem is usually the only people who are good enough to make the documentation are the actual development teams who tend not to be very good at writing documentation. Ever looked at the actual text inside a WindowBlinds .UIS file?

Part of the problem stems from what Stardock really is as compared to "normal" companies.  We're a bunch of software developers.  Historically, almost pure coders.  Until 2002, Stardock had one artist in the entire company and he was assigned to do our games. In 2003, we brought in a second artist (also to work on games). That's insane.  But it didn't seem so.  Not to us anyway.

We've always been a tech company. We created technology for the sake of creating technology.  The fancy term for that these days are "thought leaders". That is, we think of stuff before other and try to crank it out. Those familiar with the misadventures of "TextBanners.net" may recall that we came up with text ads first. Yay. Neat technology but of course, Google owns that.  We came up with full GUI skinning. First on OS/2 back in the early 90s and then on Windows. And we even had user-created mini applications created via JavaScript back in 2000 (DesktopX).  But so what?

Without good documentation, tutorials, step by step guides, what is the point?  With WindowBlinds, we got lucky. So compelling was that program that users were willing to figure out the arcane format.  How arcane? This is from a WindowBlinds skin:

[Personality]
TextShiftNoIcon=-2
TextRightClipNoIcon=84
UsesTran=1
BUTTONCOUNT=26
TextAlignment=0
TextShift=-2
TextShiftVert=-3
TextRightClip=89
TextOnBottom=0
Menubar=YellowTab\YellowTabMainMenuBarImage.bmp
Top=YellowTab\YellowTabWindowFrameTopUis2.bmp
Left=YellowTab\YellowTabWindowFrameLeftUis2.bmp
Right=YellowTab\YellowTabWindowFrameRightUis2.bmp
Bottom=YellowTab\YellowTabWindowFrameBottomUis2.bmp
TopTopHeight=23
TopBotHeight=48
LeftTopHeight=37
LeftBotHeight=9
RightTopHeight=26
RightBotHeight=9
BottomTopHeight=2
BottomBotHeight=2

This isn't a joke. That's what the WindowBlinds "language" looks like underneath SkinStudio. My favorite is the BottomTopHeight line. But like I said, it was compelling enough that people were willing to reverse-engineer it to make cool stuff.

Our documentation elsewhere has been much more lacking. We put out documentation but it's pretty awful. Probably the best documentation we have is for DesktopX. And it's not anything I'd consider competitive in quality to Yahoo Widgets's 308 page developer manual.  In fact, compare the DesktopX page to the Yahoo Widgets page. 

The problem at Stardock is myopia. I'm not a politically correct type of guy as many of you know but I say without ego being involved that DesktopX is far far superior to Yahoo Widgets or any of the other platforms from a technological point of view. In capability (on Windows) is a complete superset and then some.  As technologists, we simply assumed that was enough. Build a better mousetrap, etc.  But people won't use the "Better" mousetrap if it requires a PhD. to manufacture.

Let me ask you this -- Where is a modern WindowBlinds tutorial? Let's say I want to create a WindowBlinds 5 skin. How do I do it? Where's the nice friendly example that walks me through it?  Heck, the user guide that's on WindowBlinds.net is awful and the only reason it's not worse is that I went and edited what was originally put up there (complete with Times Roman font and MS Word artifacts).

In the beginning, when Stardock was smaller and the community smaller, much of these problems could be masked because me or one of the other developers at Stardock could personally answer questions on a forum.  But as Stardock has grown and we've gotten a lot busier, these glaring holes in our documentation became critical.  The WindowBlinds skinning guide that is on the page is from 2002. I kid you not. FOUR YEARS AGO!  The only thing that saves WindowBlinds skinning remotely is that SkinStudio, while not an easy to use application, is pretty decent. But it's not enough and the learning curve has only gotten worse.

Lack of Support for Skinners

You'd think the terrible documentation situation would be enough to cover the lack of support for skinners. But no, it's worse than that. Even setting aside the documentation, lack of organized tutorials, lack of step-by-step guides, etc. there's the fact that Stardock should have someone who is dedicated to doing nothing else but helping people become skinners.

Think about it. Stardock benefits from people making skins and themes right? Shouldn't it have a dedicated [email protected] type email address? It doesn't. Why not? We should. Heck, we wouldn't even need a full-time person. Just someone to help point people to tutorials (that presumably would exist), answer questions, give advice, etc. 

Instead, we leave people to the tender mercies of the forums (which I'll get to next).

Stardock doesn't even put out hardly any good example content any more (that it doesn't charge for! ) for people to learn from.  Stardock released one ObjectBar theme into the ObjectBar 2 gallery.  When was the last time Stardock released some new DesktopX gadgets, themes, etc?  How about some new ObjectDock samples?  ObjectDock 1.5 supports .dockzips. Do you see any in the gallery? I don't. We released nothing that uses it.

 

Lack of Community Support

Being good in the community was something we used to be great at. Sure, there were always the perpetual "free beer" people who objected to our existence (i.e. people who didn't like the idea of paying for software but themselves didn't write any software or make skins or anything) but overall, we were much more interactive.

Now, on the plus side, the # of "Frogboy is evil" posts we get in various places has declined. But I think, as a community, we were better off with some of that when Stardock people were more interactive. And, more importantly, setting an example.

The WinCustomize forums largely disgust me. Sorry but it needs to be said. WinCustomize's forums wreak of elitism and intolerance. Why are the forums not as busy as a site that gets millions of visitor should be? Because people come on, ask a question, make a mild criticism and then get creamed by old guard people who wish "newbies" would go away. One of the reasons why we really got behind WinCustomize.com in a big way after it was launched was because we were so pissed off at some of the elitism we saw elsewhere (I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about).  But while many of us old guys have been busy coding new stuff, the forums have become an increasingly hostile place.

And when they're not hostile, they're sterile and impersonal. I'd as much hang out on the WC forums as I'd hang out on the forums for my TV manufacturer.  Only because of the wondrous loyalty of many good-hearted folks are our forums even remotely capable of being rehabilitated.

Moreover, Stardock should have a community manager. Could even be the same guy who's helping skinners. Someone who's helping out on other sites. WinCustomize isn't the only skin site. What about SkinBase? They deserve more support from Stardock than they get.  Or tons of newer customization community sites too that I'm not even hanging out on.

Again, in the old days, Stardock's lack of infrastructure was masked.  I would get an email from someone ([email protected]) and quickly answer it.  But now, I get thousands of email a day. Hundreds of which request a response. As a result, I don't even see much of the email I get.  Realistically, I should ask someone to look through my email every day and flag anything that needs urgent attention.

 

Lack of leadership

We should be better at setting an example for how things should be done.  Stardock people should be in the forums. Stardock people should be making skins and releasing them. Should be making tutorials. Should be writing documentation. Should be answering questions. Should be commenting on skins. Should be hosting IRC chats. Should be making video demos. And so on and so on.  But we're not.

And so things tend to go to whomever is the loudest or has the deepest pockets.  I mean do skinners really envision a gadget future in which they're mucking with DHTML and Javascript to create a fixed size gadget for the Windows Vista Sidebar? Does that sound cool?  But what's the alternative? Making a PNG file that's tied up with some Javascript for a different multi-billion dollar company?

I've seen people on-line refer to us as "Those wizards at Stardock will think of something cool..."  Which is a very high complement. But if we want to be the thought leaders then we better bloody get back to leading on stuff.

Because I don't know about you guys but if my "skinning" options are either making another glass skin for the OS, making a weather gadget/widget for whatever or sitting it out, then forget it.

What needs to be done

It's easy for me to sit here and rip Stardock a new one. It's my company after all. Talk is cheap. What is Stardock going to actually do about this? And by do I mean realistically. Because if you read through my litany of complaints, the "solution" seems obvious -- in a perfect world. But it's not a perfect world.  We live in a world where I can't even hire a decent QA (Quality Assurance) person. We get people in for interviews who haven't even been to our webpage (first rule of thumb when interviewing for a job -- know something about the product or service that you are interested in being involved with).

Here are the things I think Stardock must do in 2007:

  • Make is easier to create stuff for our software
  • Organize support for skinners
  • Get more involved in the community
  • Lead by example

Make it easier...

Updating documentation is an obvious thing that needs to be done.  But it needs to go beyond that.  Stardock needs to develop visually easy to understand tutorials that walk a user through how to create something.

It also needs to update its software (particularly SkinStudio) in such a way to make it easier to create skins.  More specifically, there should be beginner, intermediate, and advanced ways to create stuff both from a tools point of view and a tutorial/documentation point of view.

It should be consistent across the board. Everywhere on all Stardock's products there should be guides focused on beginners, intermediate, and advanced users.

Organize Support for Skinners

Stardock should create an off-shoot of the next WinCustomize.com (like skinners.wincustomize.com) that is dedicated purely to learning the art of skinning. Everything should show up there and it should be reasonably well organized.

Moreover, Stardock should have a person who is officially responsible for helping people get into this. Have a question on how to create an alpha blended title bar for WindowBlinds?  Need help creating an animated wallpaper (well, not yet but soon...), How do I make a new boot screen for Windows Vista? How do I make a docklet for ObjectDock? And so on.

Part of this also comes in the form of trying to support other people's standards.  For example, DesktopX 3.5 will export content to the Windows Sidebar. So people who don't think it particularly joyful to muck around with DHTML and Javascript can instead use a proven environment with updated documentation and tutorials to create new stuff.

But more to the point, someone at Stardock should always be on-hand to help out on this. It should be someone specific too. Not a "skinner support department" but literally someone who is part of the community that works at Stardock that you know and feel you can talk to individually.

Get more involved in the community

This is like the above example but it has more to do with non-skinners.  Stardock needs to be more involved on a day to day basis in the community. That means hanging out on forums.  I recognize that the days of me participating in some lengthy discussion on Neowin.net or deviantART or Customize.org are long gone. There's just not the time anymore.  But someone needs to be doing it. 

We're working on that already.  IslandDog is working on this already and I imagine you'll be seeing him in a lot of other areas as we develop this new strategy.

But there's going to be some pain on WinCustomize 2007.  We're going to bring down the hammer on elitism. Any user who comes across as a bully or "anti-newbie" won't be welcome.  WinCustomize.com's forums should be thought of as a lounge to hang out with friends. The forums will be modified to support a more "community" like atmosphere.

People email me and I just don't see the emails -- literally. One user on a blog said that "Stardock's success has gone to Brad's head".  My egomania aside, the reason I don't answer emails isn't that I don't care about folks anymore but rather a simple matter of logistics. Heck, I missed Microsoft's invitation to go to CES (luckily I found out via other channels).  I just don't see the emails. Most of my time is spent doing other things. I'm actually better known in the game industry these days than in the skinning world.

But it is still the company's responsibility to replace my presence with someone else's. Otherwise, Stardock might as well just be yet another Internet business out there to squeeze money from people. People who know us know that we're in this because it's fun to do.  But to a newcomer, if we don't behave any differently than any other "business" why should we expect to be seen as any different?

So we absolutely have to rectify that in a big way.

Lead by example

Picture this: The year is 2001. DesktopX objects are starting to become popular. WindowBlinds vs. msstyles have heated up. And the sky seems unlimited in terms of new cool stuff from not just Stardock but shareware and freeware people from around the world. Great eh?

But then the ghost of Christmas future shows up and tells you that by the end of 2006 that widgets have become various ways to skin clocks, weather readers and RSS feeds (there's nothing wrong with that but then a specialized app could/should have been made for those 3 things that is MUCH easier to create skins for and that skins could be shared). And Hoverdesk and Litestep were either dead or on life support and that the ObjectBar 2 gallery had one theme in it.  Who would have believed it?

Without leadership, you have inertia.

I wrote recently how the most damaging thing to skinning has been the length of time it took Microsoft to do Windows Vista.  This is true. That is, one can legitimately argue that the skinning community shouldn't expect Stardock to come up with all the new stuff. But on the other hand, if Stardock wants to be perceived as a "leader" in this growing trend, it needs to do stuff.

That means:

  1. Create state of the art content to give away to show what is possible.
  2. Show, in as many ways and places as possible, how that state of the art stuff was created
  3. Find new and cool things for people to do on their computers
  4. Create programs and tools (and make as many of them free as possible) to do those cool things.
  5. Present what you do with respect to others. Skinning should be fun. Skinning is fun.
  6. Interact with skinners and help them proactively.

To do these things, we are trying to build up the manpower to do this.  It has been slow going though.  The problems described in this article are things we've seen and been aware of. But solving them means bringing on talented people to help us. And that has been a real challenge. We want to hire people. But the # of people who can really do the job is amazingly small.

Conclusions

So there you have it. How Stardock failed the skinning community in 2006. I hope I do not have to write something similar next year.  The pieces are starting to come together now. But we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves. 

It mostly boils down to too much work for too few people. We've got projects going on with major PC OEMs, Microsoft, Take 2, and beyond which, for a company of around 50 people total is just immense. Especially when the ones who have traditionally "done" the stuff that made Stardock what it is today are now stretched between so many things.  But that's our problem and it is something we have to resolve.

I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, criticism you have to offer. There's a LOT to look forward to next year. And this year has been a great year. But it was definitely not a shining beacon for Stardock's support of the skinning community.  We'll do better.

69,461 views 157 replies
Reply #126 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm afraid I am at a loss as to a way to actually separate the actual use of a skin from the download number.


Me too.

Maybe we need a "I don't like/can't use this so I'm sending it back (with required detailed input)" button.

I also think that anything past a number of downloads (and a number of accolades) can pretty much be called popular.

Nav...I'm in total agreement...I, too, need lots of pictures. Please correct me if I am wrong, but many beginners don't have a background in programming and /or graphic design. I know I sure didn't! Had never even opened up photoshop before I got the bug to make my own skins


I too agree with that. I've had PSP 8 for a couple of years and the only thing I've been able to from scratch is my hat.

Maybe a dual instruction? Normal for those that understand attributes and elements and such and maybe right under that in another color a simple layman's terms. Or maybe a glossary and terms for dummies to go with the instruction manual? (Not trying to be insulting here, I personally could use a "Skinning Guide for Technical Morons" myself.)

Reply #127 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For a moment i thought that if SD included "spyware" in their apps that reported back the skin in user that you could really indicate a true popularity.

But then I thought of all the Theme/Skins I use that are hacked-up versions. For example my Icon Theme contains icons from at least 4 IPThemes.
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #128 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Same here, Betty...
What I've learned has come from trial and error, examining popular skins in SkinStudio, what information I could pick up on the forums and considerable sweat equity. I guess sometimes I forget just how overwhelming (and frustrating) it is when you first open up SkinStudio and be faced with all the different sections, subsections, settings, elements, graphics, etc., etc., etc. without a complete, detailed tutorial as a guide.
Reply #129 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i learned how to make icon packs thru trial and error without a single tutorial....but i open skinstudio, tinker around for a second and then close it due to frustration and feeling lost...i could definitely use a guide...merry christmas everyone
Reply #130 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Nav...I'm in total agreement...I, too, need lots of pictures. Please correct me if I am wrong, but many beginners don't have a background in programming and /or graphic design. I know I sure didn't! Had never even opened up photoshop before I got the bug to make my own skins and the limits of my programming skills was way, way, way back ...DOS...I made a box dance across my pretty green screen! LOL!


Sir Bichur I tried all the things (except the qoute thing) already but nothing happens either way. I had to enter the "qoute" words to get this to work. I'm a visual person also (that's what they call us) I read and looked over most SS tutorials and stuff but it wasn't till I actually started messing with it that I started to figure things. There is still more I don't know or understand yet which for me is the fun part (most times ). I get alot of info from other skins. The new WC suite that was realeased by Stardock helped me to figure out a problem I was having just today.

From the little I 've been able to figure out in Photoshop, putting togther tuts/instructions for it will be a big challenge with all the different levels to work with. Good Luck I suck writing and recieving written instructions (photoshop) so something on a live chat forum maybe
Reply #131 from WinCustomize Forums Top
(Not trying to be insulting here, I personally could use a "Skinning Guide for Technical Morons" myself.)


I'm with ya on that Bichur! People might think that because of all the docks I've done that I could make a WB skin...but making docks is more like putting a puzzle together...cut & paste the pieces with little tweaks here and there. Really, anyone could do it...but now I guess I'm sounding like the WB wizards that do the skins...for me it was something that just came naturally. And I'd be more than willing to teach anyone how to do docks if they wanted to learn.
Reply #132 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kudos to you for facing facts and (hopefully) start resolving the problems, especially the documentation ones. I picked up Object Desktop after I had gotten Windowblinds and CursorXP because I wanted to try my hand at skinning. But I'm a total newbie to that and my computer knowledge is self-taught, so I've been finding the task daunting and time-consuming instead of fun.
Reply #133 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This is my first post here. I have been lurking (as a subscriber)because I believe in Stardock's promise--enough to stick around for a little while more. This is a long post. The issues are neither easy nor simple. All those who are looking for a quick answer should just skip this post.

(I would have sent a personal email but I heard it wouldn't even get read!)

I'm neither a tech writer nor a programmer. Just to provide some content, I hold a PhD in Organizational Communication, with foci in semiotics/anthropological linguistics and philosophy and communication. I am intensely interested in what exactly happens when a user interacts with the complex symbols and information-maps of thousands of pages that regularly zip by the eyes in a day.

I have some time to play around with computer customization due to a health disability. That is why I have time to write long responses on some web site!

I am pleased to see you were willing to make this post public. As many have noted, this is an increasingly uncommon act. Yet I fear you are regretting many of the wrong things.

That is, you could fix most of what you mentioned and still see huge problems for next year's rehash. The problems at Stardock are systemic, not episodic. The problems lie not with people who failed to produce, but with the structures (or lack of effective structures) working within the company, within the users' communities, and among everyone involved.

Not sure you agree? Well then answer this: For all of the people in your company, which things should they *stop* doing now so they will have the huge amounts of time needed to start up these new endeavors? Work harder? Fewer weekends off? Less collaboration with one another? I suspect not. New people won't fix the problem any more than the last hires you made fixed the problems you were facing then.

Look to Iraq for inspiration. If your efforts don't make sense in the environment, in the community in which you will be working adding more people won't help outside a very short window of immediate system shock. Even if you change things at the top there is no guarantee that things will get better. If you clash with the landscape there will never be enough of you to rest.

Here are a few alternative issues to consider:

(1) It seems that Stardock's efforts are divided in a rather haphazzard way. You say that the company is mostly coders, and so this makes a little sense: When everyone does the same thing, there is no reason to make job boundaries sensible. But consider this: Instead of either duplicating the structure of other neo-tech companies or of rejecting structure as necessarily limiting, perhaps it would be useful to have certain people assigned to certain products, with one person (or small group of people) ultimately accountable for that product. If those people had the authority to alter company priorities for resource allocation (instead of just coming to whine again to the "big decision maker") it would be much easier to see where the problems lie.

Each product will not look alike. In fact, some of the strength of the Stardock approach (with later caveats) of offering multiple products designed to work together comes from the opportunity to allow each to emerge, organically. Some products should be guided by different sensibilities than those of other products. Some will be "run" by programmers, some by visual artists, others by business-on-the-net people.

But if no one's future/performance/self esteem is linked directly to a product, it can be derailed any number of ways. Result: A mess in which each product has its own way of being nonfunctional.

(2) Schedule a vacation. Seriously. Right now it feels as though Stardock is a giant extension of one person's identity. Could this organization run without you? It should. Who feels free to make company-influencing decisions? Anyone? Who is allowed to rock the boat without fear of disfavor?

It is perhaps paradox but most of the neo-tech businesses--the businesses so allergic to the stuffy and bland ways other businesses function--are the worst at devolving real decision-making authority.

Think of it like this: If everyone knows the game plan, then players can act within that structure without worrying about messing up something they didn't know existed. Yet if there isn't a game plan--just a series of gut feelings and critical experiences of top management--then no smart person will do any sort of freestyling. Result: moribund, boring and only occasionally smart results from people who should be able to produce genre-changing products.

It feels like Stardock has no overall plan that someone in accounting, for example, could articulate.

And when key decisions need to be made, everything has to wait for the answer from above. Opportunities pass by and resources are wasted. Key people--the ones who ought to care the most about the success of their projects--come to understand that if they allow themselves to care too much, they will just end up eaten up with frustration. So folks do mostly good work where they are told to work, distancing themselves from the end product.

If everyone knows that the top people will be gone for the month of September, for example, they will need to start thinking about what authority/responsibility they will have when no one answers the emails "to the boss." It will also make it potentially possible (not much hope, really, but sometimes it works) for the one or two or three people at the top to start worrying about who is going to make the "lease or buy" decision for the copy machine that breaks down four days after the boss leaves.

If an organization is truly ready to make the transition from an "enhanced garage" to a going concern, the ability to make key decisions cannot be concentrated in a few hands. Lots of styles can get the job done, and sometimes a new style provides some surprising results (can you see this, at least, from the skinning experience?)

From the little I can see, Stardock "looks" like the sort of organization in which "the boss's taste" is the law of the land. Diversity is a good thing, even in political perspectives and visions for the industry future.

(3) Figure out exactly what "skinning" is for, and who should care to invest the time and effort. The tie to online gaming is not a surprise: Currently the skinning community is based on hobbyists--mostly novices at both computer programming and visual design. It is a game.

[I say "skinning" because this name-label grates on my sensibilities, it invokes all sort of unpleasant histories based on "just appearance" or "appearance is everything", both of which are non-starters in the 21st century. Appearance is not meaningfully separated from function. Whether you end up with the skin or the meat, the cow is dead.]

Thus we really need to figure out just what skinning is *for*. If it is seen in the same light as blue neon accent lights on the case and fuzzy eyes-and-tails for the desktop mice it really needs to get easier, quicker, and entirely intuitive.

If on the other hand it fundamentally changes the way people (themselves, complex beings) work, learn and play on the computer then we really need a much stronger emphasis on *WHY* something should be this way or that. The "I thought this would be cool so I whipped it out" comment speaks eloquently about the triviality of what most of the skinning communities have been producing.

Through all of the scant material I can find, the entire "how does this fundamentally change how I communicate" discussion is markedly missing.

If it is fun decoration, don't bother with complex programs: Most people won't give up, say, 100 hours of Galactic Civilizations play in order to make their screens look more cool. Most people who work online won't even see the stuff. Do you remember the "should color be important in word processing" debate? It was only when people could see a functional improvement--a clear advantage to their work--that first paint programs and color printers became accepted as belonging to serious users. Only after the paint programs and printers improved that the managers and planners began to ask for color for spreadsheets and sales went from the commercially produced VHS tape to full-color presentation software.

If this stuff is going to make a difference instead of spinning in place as does, say, Verio, another Microsoft accoutremont from Win 3.0 days, the effects of customizeable workspaces needs to find its way to the screen. Sure, Vista 1.0 will support this stuff, but Vista 2.0 will drop it if users don't see some remarkable advantages to their computing world beyond nicer colors and a few shapes.

At some point people are going to be asked to pay for this functionality, or for the computer to run it. If it is just another pretty face, it will be banned from corporate screens within a year as a drain on company productivity. We will soon see "boss buttons" on customized desktops so that when the boss comes around, the user can quickly make the computer screen look stock. Otherwise it will be assumed that this employee is spending more time crafting a cursor that blinks morse code than doing what they were hired to do. Anyone want to bet on how soon the first utility programs to disable Vista customization options will appear? Which version of "Vista for the corporate world" will be the first to allow IT officials in a company to disable customize features to stop the resource draw?

(4) We really need to do more than hire a few visual artists. Effective windows customization will require "thinking differently" not just about different things. Like it or not, most techies are not visual artists. Art is not decoration. Something can look nice and not be art. Art is not random.

If this world is going to go places, we need to move way beyond the "newbies vs. elite" pseudo-debates. There are still people wandering around muttering about how misunderstood the Sinclair computer was. Have you heard them? Didn't think so. No one cares.

Visual artists don't simply draw nice, they think different. Art programs, like computer science courses and business schools do as much to orient newcomers into the "business" as they do to teach new arcania. A visual artist who thinks the same way a budget manager thinks will be soon out of work. Workplaces that are heavenly for programmers are likely to be miserable places for visual artists. So what makes us think that we can have one set of fora for customization?

Take a bit and seek out and attend to some "real art" online communities. I don't mean sites that encourage everyone to develop their creative juices, I mean sites where accomplished artists talk to one another. Compare with sites frequented by machine-language programmers and with sites for online security professionals. Hint: they don't look anything alike.

It is important to quickly produce people who are facile at visual design on computer systems. If these folks aren't available in sufficient numbers by the time Vista 3 or 4 comes out, the word on the street will be "fun for gamers, not for business." There is nothing wrong with "fun for gamers"--online games are big business. But the myth that great game players can get jobs designing games is for children. It doesn't happen that way.

So Stardock really needs to work on developing several simultaneous communities. There will be interaction and cross-pollination (insert your favorite metaphor here) but to really establish a foothold on users' desktops there will need to be--somewhere--sites that deal indepth with some fairly specialized needs and interests.
**We need a place that is run by and is sensitive to professional visual artists. By this I am *not* referring to someone who has sold a website or two to a local business. A visual artist lives, eats, breathes, thinks visually. All of the time. Who can't entirely fathom those of us who say "I like blue themes." The sort of person who would go nuts over the inability to call out a panatone number, or over the many ways in which functionally color-blind programmers can render a color chart entirely useless. These are important discussions, and the insight generated could be the difference for a company wanting to make a case for desktop customization as productivity--not hobby--software.
**There needs to be a site for typographers (what's with "Size: 2 (10pt)"? Why not just say 10 pt? What is happening with type standards on the web? Is it really going to be the case that there are 3049 versions of Helvetica and 54999 Times Roman clones? What happened to the idea that there would be some standards about the way type is scaled? Does anyone even care that the majority of faces out there are unreadable? And why is there no sensible way to handle leading?).

**We do need a forum for programmers who have already begun to test Aero limits. Exactly what will be "off-limits" for third-party applications? Since Stardock has already been identified as a company consisting primarily of programmers, I am certain you can fill out this list.
**Someone will eventually figure out that customizing software is about *people*, not about software. Once you get this it makes sense to develop "looks" that will follow a user from computer to computing device, to entertainment center, to gaming station, to cell phone, to pda. Now *that's* a radical idea. The computing community hasn't completely come to grips with the possibility that computing isn't always about a cpu, monitor, keyboard and mouse. You can read a lot of industry material and never figure out that often the most expensive computer people own is their car.

**In an entirely *real* sense, computer customization is about signs and symbols. Semiotics is all about what stands for other things and why and how. At what point does our "computer map" become our "computer territory"? What makes a good icon is so much deeper than "cute."
**And yes, there really has to be a great and supportive forum for novices, people who are dabbling or who might have an interest down the road. It takes a special sort of patience to manage these sites. We all tend to think "I just answered that question! Why can't they look it up?" But the person "built" to work with novices wouldn't even recognize the sensibility behind that position. (I'm not the person to work that site, no sireee). Such a site might hold regular low-level competitions designed to encourage people to take a step or two down the road, as well as special threads for special interest folks (if the geneology people catch on to the benefits of customized windows, widgets, etc. the product will truly take off).

It makes no sense whatever to try and co-locate all of these under one forum umbrella. These folks usually can't talk sensibly to one another in the company lunchroom, let alone online!

I suspect that many of these fora will be developed in other areas. The type community, for example, already has discussions about the worst abuses of online typography. The history of the way these innovations occur suggests that the application technology itself will not be the focus for long. (Remember "Windows" Magazine?)

So this is my suggestion for looking ahead at Stardock. It is a long response, but the issues are complex, and another dozen "yeah, what he said" comments probably aren't particularly helpful. I have the satisfaction of knowing that this advice is at least worth what you paid for!

I do hope the Stardock company and community thrive. Most of us could greatly improve our quality of life by attending to the stuff we look at much of the day. ("you are what you see?")
Reply #134 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For me Stardock became somewhat irrelevant when you dropped Win2k support. None of the new products work with it, and the increasing number of WB5 skins don't work well with WB4 (e.g. close/max/min buttons that are alpha-blended .TGA files show up with awful black borders). I've been using TClock3 on my taskbar instead of ObjectBar and I'm having to convert .TGA buttons with problems to magic pink, but it's a pain to have to do that for every WB5 skin I want to try. Just because MS comes out with a new OS doesn't mean that many of us with functioning PC's are in a rush to buy a new OS, install it, and reinstall all of our software...
Reply #135 from WinCustomize Forums Top
replace the "Rating" system with a favorite system (as Deviantart do.., they dont rate people worke with stars or numbers, they just allow users to fav. skinners work).
Reply #136 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Vagabundus' comment/post (though as he even states, is long) is very intuitive forward thinking and worth reading. He has some very good points and as a visual artist I concur with much of what he said about 'we' think in a different 'format' than most. I couldn't carry on a very useful conversation with most coders though because I have an extensive educational background in what I do I would understand some of what a coder or typographer would be talking about. Much like many of them would understand parts of what I had to say with neither of us being able to 'contribute' much to the other in detail. This 'philosophy' would play out in other areas of a workplace as well (i.e. office management, accounting, documenters, web masters, ect. ect.). Someone who may be great at one 'job' usually means they are lacking in performing another, which is why many places have various 'departments'. You don't see to many warehouse workers running into the research and development offices to pull double duty or accounting executives making advertising layouts. They may have input to one another but the overall task is left to those who know it and do it the best.
Reply #137 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Bravo Vagaundus! You put in words the concepts that many were trying to get across!
Reply #138 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Vagabundus makes one point that I agree with so much I have to second it. Skinners, including the windowblind and visual stylers, the iconists, the wallpaperists, the object dock specialists, the widget and gadget makers, the media player skinners and everyone, they all do it because it is fun and very much like a game.

Tackling a skinning job requires some degree of strategy, a goal, and requires exploration and incremental rewards along the way, as one learns and achieves things they are proud of. A great game also does these things. It gives the player plenty of tools, enough to do original things with.

But a good game balances this power. It doesn't even allow game breaking strategies or broken capabilities. It has an AI that is formidable and with personality, but not invincible. Stardock has demonstrated they can find the balance between capability and ease of use with GCII.

It would be great to apply this discretion to the skinning and customization suite. In my opinion the flagship products of ObjectDesktop have all become so powerful that the ease of use has lost nearly any consideration. DesktopX's list view of objects, for example, clearly isn't meant to handle the dozens of objects a complex theme or gadget requires, but is overkill for someone who just wants to make a clock or calendar.

Skin Studio is similarly out of balance. Is it meant for newcomers to use to make their first windowblind, logon, or bootskin? Or is it a comprehensive tool for users of DirectSkin?

ObjectBar overlaps so much functionality of other applications that, lacking more examples, its purpose is unclear, and it is still too hard to use. ObjectBar skins are going to be particularly customized to the machine and user. They aren't all that suited for shared themes, and focus should be on easy creation from scratch by anyone.

But playing with any of these should be fun, and should have a learning curve much closer to a jump right in game than a 380 page manual. Yahoo Widgets and XION Media Player can make skins from photoshop files. The hardest part in the process is the graphics application itself. Great documentation is one thing, but most people just want to play the game.

Frogboy mentions in another article the lack of new skinning approaches and applications recently. I feel Stardock has a chance here to do just that. Make applications that make skinning easy and satisfying. If a central language was used, such as XAML, nearly any properly formed vector based image, including Photoshop psd and Fireworks png, could be a clock or a weather gadget. Images could be almost directly parsed into entire themes, theoretically. A single graphic could become a style that others use for a host of other gadgets or their own. Stardock could make basic skinning almost easier than using a graphics app.

Take the new Windows Sidebar for Vista. I feel it would be a mistake to simply add some capabilities to DesktopX and call the problem solved. Windows Sidebar is going to introduce a new demographic of only mildly curious gadget seekers. If they have to learn DesktopX scripting to make a clock out of a picture of their cat, forget it. But if Stardock makes that as easy as dragging the photo onto a clock, you might have a new customer. Too many times DesktopX has been defended, "We could do that with DesktopX two years ago, but no one wanted to take the time."

As a participant in these forums, I'll presume a "present company excluded" for some of Frogboy's comments on the community here, but one thing that leads to elitism is esoterica. Because these skinning applications are so arcane, only a elite few really do hold the knowledge that neophytes might seek. Even Bootskin is so complex it keeps a steady stream of repeated issues in the forum. By creating applications with balance between tools provided and ease of use, Stardock could do itself and the community a favor with a new streamlined approach.

Microsoft was widely criticized for the delays in releasing Windows Vista. MS even said themselves they would never again wait so long between versions of the entire OS. Stardock is a pioneer and ground breaker, and I feel, poised to take skinning to an entire new audience, but it may mean new products, not new capabilities on older products. Applications that make skinning fun, useful, and rewarding from the start.
Reply #139 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ya know...I think we should all just get a dog.
Reply #140 from WinCustomize Forums Top
time for my 2 cents worth , even though it shows i joined up in '2002 my computer messed up and i think i blamed it on your program and never returned until a couple of months ago . Now with a better computer, artistic skills in hand and creativity ready but lacking in some of the computer skills to do some real skins - I need help to understand how to use these skinning programs . I've got tons of hits and downloads on my SS and Wallpapers ( which reminds me - some of my walls you say aren't good enough here are getting tons of downloads at other sites , bad decision on your part ) anyway SS and wallpapers are kid stuff , I want to do the good stuff - other skins , so any and all help very welcome and since i work full time at another job, time to do this is a bit of an issue . But i see the interest is out there by me and many others - so an easier way to do this ( skin ) is what we need ... and as far as Object Dock plus - a little help too - i paid for it and download stuff but have no idea where it is and how to easily use it , so help there too ... I like this site and want to stick around but i'm boring with screenshots and wallpapers - I want to do the good stuff !!!!! Please , make it easier .
Reply #141 from WinCustomize Forums Top
For me I never got the sense of having ObjectBar AND DesktopX. Those two could easily bound together with 'just' adding some bar functionality to DesktopX IMHO (with the development GUI of DX of course, as I never got into the one of OB).
Reply #142 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Azdude...I check the ObjectDock support forum and the others just about everyday...if you have any question post them there and you will get answers either from myself or others that check the forums.
Reply #143 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think the skinning community is stuck in the "Vista" rut. When the OS screenshots started popping up online last year, boom there was skin after skin and there still is to this day. Now granted I've used some of them and heck even the new Wincustomize Select Suite is loosely based off "Vista." Personally I'd like to see take-off's of a design, not a full blown ripoff.

People mention the forums are a mess, yes I agree. I use to visit them daily and read posts but in this past year they've been filled with rude comments, sloppy explanations and above all else personal attacks toward the software that Stardock releases. Not everything works perfectly, yet people want it to. How can Stardock make better programs with comments like "This Program Sucks!" There's no real information there except someone having a bad time using a program.

A lot of past skinners have gone away for unknown reasons as well. Now I don't need to know why someone left the community, we all have lives outside the "Internet." (At least some do, ha!) But I think it's time to bring back some people, Pixtudio released some insane skins just a few years back. I know they still release material under their own personal accounts, but how about spicing things up. Have a competition, do something exciting. Make a poll or take write-in's, have a list of 12 or 24 skinners from all over. Have the community vote on who they'd like to see work together on a skin. Then stick the 2 people together and have them make something insane for everyone. It would not only garner attention from the fans here at Wincustomize but fans on other computer/technology websites around the net.

I think the "fun" was lost in translation in 2006. Everything started to come together toward the end where they listened to fans and more suite's were being released. Keep doing that but start sticking some "fun fun fun" back into the mix. Release some free items like suites made by some of the best skinners, help push the market. Also I've noticed people still complaining about "I have an Object Desktop subscription and I still have to pay 7.95/8.95 for a premium suite, what a ripoff!" I really don't have that big of an issue with that myself but I do hear what you people are saying. But what about the people who dished out for the Wincustomize subscription as well, they don't see a discount unless they have Object Desktop. My feeling on that is they are the one's who should receive a bigger discount after all they are going above and beyond to keep this site going. Object Desktop owners receive a dollar off an item usually, but if you have both subscriptions then how about receiving more of a discount? Maybe 1.50 off (total combined), sure it isn't much more of a discount but it is just one more thing that makes having both subscriptions worth while.

Maybe it's just me, but I want to see more skins. But skins for any program, whatever someone makes just get it out here. If you see a skin made by someone who only works with the Microsoft Theme's side, see if they will let you help them port their material to Windowblinds. Seriously, an email sometimes is all it takes for someone to stop what they are doing and truly think "Wow! Someone likes my work." I receive thousands of emails daily from fans of my music website. Why? Because they enjoy what I do and in return that drives me to continue to push forward. There's always bad eggs but the good always out weigh all.

I for one will be releasing a few graphic designs soon just because I feel it is time to get back into the swing of things. I am still confused on how to make a Windowblinds skin so I'll be focusing more on the login, bootscreens & cursors aspect. I've been designing my own graphics for years so I don't mind sharing when I have time.

Hopefully others will follow suit, but I certainly do not blame Stardock for the letdown in '06. I put blame on the community, we can all make things better by giving feedback. Besides my own personal skins I'll be active in the forums as well. I've loved these programs since the first time I've used them and I'll continue to use them.

To end my little article here, I'd like to close with what I'd like to see as far as skins go. When I look at a skin I want something easy on the eyes. Something that looks professional and can be used daily. Some skins I've seen this year are just not practical. Sure they nail down the "Fun" factor as I always look for, but they miss the overall daily use enjoyment. Not to mention I think the whole "Square" window thing is over and done with. More people need to move onto the rounded edges or at least soften the window's edge. Think new, come up with a neat idea and get in touch with a one of the better skinners. Don't do it for "I want money, I want recognition" do it because you want to make this community better. This is suppose to be fun to do, don't let the "Fun" go down the drain.

I don't have all the answers, nor does the next person in line but as a group I think we can hash out some pretty great ideas. Here's to 2007!

Of course, that is just my take on it...

Keep On Rockin'...
Reply #144 from WinCustomize Forums Top
To not put too fine a point on things, the entire community knows by now that Brad and I don't typically see eye to eye on a vast source of subjects!

However, I do agree with the viewpoints he has stated about not only the community as a whole, but from a business perspective. Having been a quality manager for a very large company, I know first hand the requirements needed to maintain equality, competitiveness and most importantly, costumer satisfaction. The costumer pays the bills, pushes technology forward...and should always be the primary concern by/for any company regardless of the product or how it's produced. However, do keep in mind that the customer "isn't always right"!

I also have quite a bit of experience when it comes to quality standards, most in the biz world would know this as ISO-9000. Very clear, very straight forward and simple documentation of your product, how it's used and what's expected from the final outcome. Not a difficult standard for any company to put to use.

Now - using WindowBlinds as a skinning medium, shouldn't be confused with the "ease of creating skins"...or be told to new comers that they should just do their homework from the skinning community's history. There's a ton of work to do just to get to the point of installing SkinStudio before you even begin the work of compiling the skin. What about using Corel? Adobe? Paint.Net? Bryce? or any of the other easy to use, but vastly complex graphics programs that are not only pricey to begin with, but have features in them have yet to be explored or exploited. Just in the last year alone we have seen just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to designing the graphics that WB can support for skins. This year's GUI Championships have shown that new ideas and more complex themes are on their way out...and I can tell you from some of the newer ideas, that these new themes are intense! The GUI Champs have not only shown skinners and fans what can be done...but has sparked newer creativity just by someone seeing "oh WOW!! I didn't know you could do that!", ushering in the era of pushing WB to the outer envelope.

There is hope on the horizon for the skinning community. I'd be willing to help address any quality issues if necessary, as well as help anyone understand ISO-9000 standards for releasing a quality product.
Reply #145 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks for the feedback.  There are some interesting points made in some of the recent comments.

With regards to some of the things Vagabundus writes, it is never a good idea to make too many assumptions of the internal running of a company you aren't familiar with.  The success of Stardock is not due to any single individual but to a whole team.

The comment that particularly struck me was the one that suggested that Stardock should (but currently can't) function without me personally.  I don't think that is the case (at least for the short-term).  But more to the point, one shouldn't put the entire future of "skinning" into the hands of one company or person. 

Ultimately, what I see Stardock needing to do is foster a sense of community that continues to grow independently of Stardock.  I saw earlier that Jeff from Skins Factory lamented that Stardock Design was "competing" with The Skins Factory.  I don't see that at all.  What our community needs is a dozen Skin Factories and Stardock Designs. It needs not just a Stardock but a dozen such companies doing these kinds of things.    Some of the best days of innovation were when there were competing interests guiding it.  Mian and Toasty and Thematic and Thibaud and so forth.

What we don't want to have happen is for the skinning community to end up as being dependent on any single entity. 

What my post talked about is how Stardock failed in doing its part to help the community last year.  Last year, Stardock focused on being a business and growing as a business. To that end, it succeeded well.  But this next year, it needs to do more to help the skinning community grow. Because if we don't and if others don't as well, then innovation will be stifled.  But at the end of the day, it still depends not just on Stardock doing its part but also on others following through as well.

Reply #146 from WinCustomize Forums Top

What my post talked about is how Stardock failed in doing its part to help the community last year. Last year, Stardock focused on being a business and growing as a business. To that end, it succeeded well.

Again, that's not a 'failing'. Strengthening Stardock's position commercially/financially whilst underwriting Wincustomize's existence cannot be construed as failing the community.  If anything the community takes Stardock too much for granted and fails itself for not taking advantage of what SD provides for it and gives back in positive attitude and enthusiasm.

I keep harping on 'skinning's history' as a valid educational tool....[Frogboy mentions Mian and Toasty - in case anyone is wondering...they were the bods behind the original Skinz.org....out of whose demise Wincustomize was born] as the realization that Stardock does not actually NEED Wincustomize for it to survive demonstrates there's another motive for its expenditure and existence...that of 'community'.

If the community doesn't get off its collective arse and at least aspire to the same standards set by Stardock's professionalism then it is itself which 'fails'.

Sure, documentation for the proggies would be a plus....but so would an environment here of mutual respect and friendliness from/to one and all.

New Year's resolutions are just around the corner.....it's a great time to think about your fellow skinner/skin-user and define new social parameters....

 

Reply #147 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If anything the community takes Stardock too much for granted and fails itself for not taking advantage of what SD provides for it and gives back in positive attitude and enthusiasm.


I second That!!!!!!

Speedy
Reply #148 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I am not sure about that, but perhaps a part of the problem with good skins and suites to use as showcases for what can be done withskinning besides the ones Stardock released for purchase is the hiring for example of Mormegil and other big names. Don't get me wrong, I fully understand the reasons behind that, but since then the releases (and updates) of these fine people decreased (especially Paul's, who did fantastic things with DesktopX at the beginning and besides Gef's creations there are near to no really full themes anymore for DX, which for me still is the most underestimated app Stardock offers and the load of weather objects still doesn't do it justice as well, the only one doing fantastic things with it is RomanDA for Gadgets).

Also there are still so many great old skins here at Wincustomize which could be made available for the newest technologies with some update-work and again would show the full power of what Stardock has to offer. Think of suites like Toon-XP, Carbonix and even older ones like Marinara, they still would be state-of-the-art even today (as Universe Metal and Logica still are). So there is really no need to re-invent the wheel all the time for top skins and suites (of course this has to be seen as a mix of updated classics and new suites).
Reply #149 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sorry for those long sentences, can't edit them anymore as I had problems submitting and double-posted.