Frogboy Frogboy

Who are you? What do you want?

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Who are you? What do you want?

A little bit about ourselves

from WinCustomize Forums

The skinning community is fairly unique in that it brings together a very wide range of people into something that is pretty specific.

Why change your computer from the default look and feel? The computer is a tool or a source of amusement. The way you get to your tools or games is irrelevant right?

And yet, here we are. Hanging out on a site that brings together millions of people from around the world. So why do we do it?

So tell us, who are you? What do you want? Why do you do it?

For me:

My name is Brad Wardell. I got into skinning because I spend a lot of time in front of the computer doing "work".

I started out as a game developer and foudn that it bugged me that other people should tell me how I would get my work done.  So I endeavored to find ways to change the way my computer worked to suit my own tastes.  Over time, I teamed up with like minded people who were developers.

And so now much of my professional career is creating stuff for like-minded people.  I live in Michigan with my wife and 2 small sons and baby daughter. 

 

9,425 views 32 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hi, my name is Geoff
I live in Chester, Cheshire, England.

I've Got a wife, 2 Kids, Dog, cat, rabbit.

What am I doing here ?

Well to start with, enjoying all the skins at this wonderful place they call WINCUSTOMIZE, and realizeing i'm not alone in calling this place my second home, I dont say much on the forums because I'm still learning the basics myself and there are so many skinners who know a lot more than me. I do read a lot of the forum posts and realize this is one of the friendliest places to be (most of the time).

Long life to Wincustomize and Stardock.
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My name is Karen and I live on the outskirts of Boston. My 2 sons are on their own now so lifes pretty quiet right now. My elderly mother ( 81 ) lives with me because she can't be left alone anymore.

A few years ago I didn't even know what the word ' skinning' meant. I never even turned on a computer until 6 years ago. My kids used to turn it on for me and if something went wrong - I had to wait for them to come home to fix it.

Buzzh58 is a long time friend of mine and he had been coming to WC and was enjoying downloading skins and making screen shots. After about 6 months buzzh58 finally convinced me to upgrade my computer to Windows XP so I could download windowblind. I really only came here to look at his screen shots. Then one day I came here alone and started looking at skins that were more for ' females' Pretty soon I found myself making screen shots and enjoying the site along with my friend. Then we both got Object Desktop and started playing with different software. He actually taught me how to install and use Object Desktop.

I can't imagine not having Object Desktop now.
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My name is John Gordon, 39, married, w \ 3 kids ( all boys ). Im British but currently reside in North Florida.

I have done nothing BUT skin XP for the past 5 years, eventually making premium suites for my own site.. www.maxstyles.com and for TGTsoft.com. I have been doing this as a full time job for about 2 years.

With Vista arriving I have decided to switch to the WB for obvious reasons and have been vigorously learning Skinstudio for several months now.

My goals are to continue supporting my myself and my family and to become THE best skinner of Windowblinds..anywhere. Pretty lofty goal I suppose but certainly not an unattainable one given the belief i have in myself and my desire to produce the best quality skins using all the tools Windowblinds offers the skinner along with acute attention to detail and innovation.

Im glad to be part of the WC community, definately the most friendly customization site online IMO.

You'll be seeing lots more work from me in the near future and look forward to my new site in the works.. www.skinbrandz.com ( under construction )

Thx. and KEEP SKINNING !
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Paul here, 52, married but owned by a cat.

I'm one of those sorry bastards that discovered ASCII codes could 'skin' your DOS prompt...but wasn't much help till I got past the Hercules card and B/W monitor.

Used to hack the coding of XTree [Dos file manager] so the welcome screen [as it loaded] looked more 'personalized'.

Used various GUI/shells for Dos...eg Gorin Desktop...had a crappy 16 colour palette that made icon drawing 'interesting' [read 'difficult']....then there was Win 3.11 and things like Calmira....but I was soon onto Win 95...found that Fli7e [sp] had found a way to skin Winamp....so that was it.....then tripped over Litestep at about b21 [pretty basic] and found myself at Customize.org, and a matter of weeks later found Skinz.org [pre-brown] and lurked there for a while.

At this stage there were a growing bunch of skinnable apps, including WB and 'the other one' eFX.  The former flourished as the latter faded into obscurity.  At that stage it was a case of which one was likely to have fewer bugs...

Skinz.org was 'killed' [ruined] by eFront and most of us bailed immediately....heading off to the then new Deviantart [which was more skin-oriented then than now], and Frogboy had the inspired idea to create Wincustomize.com as a specific skinning/community site, as it wasn't just his 'job', but also his hobby/interest.

Most of the refugees from skinz.org who ended up here did so as 'established' skinners at Apprentice or Journeyman level, having already shown a devotion to the 'craft', and from this bunch came the original Wizops for WC, and I remember being quite proud of being asked to be one. [clearly my being an admin on skinz.org for a week before its demise wasn't seen as something 'bad'].

One day [I think they got sick of seeing me here ALL the time] the then WC admins decided I should be one, too cos I was here TOO MUCH [they couldn't work out how to IP ban me, or something]...

This ain't the end of it all....there's more chapters to come, as SD/MS/Vista, et al ....all go from strength to strength embracing the concept of skins and skinning......

The only sad thing is the gradual loss of skinners [who move on elsewhere] and all those Indie skinnable apps that were around in 'the good old days'.....I mean, gee...I was the No 1 skinner [dls] for CDStomper back then.... and now it's probably unknown to 2.599 million of the 2.6 million members here... [sniff]

Wincustomize.com has a great bunch of people....hence my spending typically 12 to 16 hours a day trolling...

Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My name is Mark, I'm 46, and I live Toronto, Canada (yes, it's winter and yes, it's cold out there!!). I work in the golf business (and yes, we are not really very busy in the winter! ), and I run marathons (or further) for fun!

I'm pretty much a User - I figure I don't do much WITH my computer, I mostly do things TO my computer. I didn't use computers much 'til a few years ago, and never used one at home until I received one as a "hand-me-down" from a brother who was up-grading a couple years ago. Probably the first thing I found I could do with it was turn the blue frame of a window SILVER! That set me to google "XP themes", and that led me here!

I find this has become my first stop every time I log on. I have hung around WC for a couple years, but am only now starting to try software, and to get involved in the forums. I really enjoy the camaraderie and help the members offer one another. As someone with rather average computer skills, and maybe a touch of artist ability, I am awed and inspired by the work of the members at WC! I have made many icons for my own use, and have now started messin' with the GIMP (it's free 'til I know more of what I'm doing!) and trying to create wallpapers and logons. I'll probably always be a "user", but one with aspirations to make at least one thing, one day, worth uploading!

Thank you to everyone who makes this enjoyable, educational, and inspirational!

P.S. I'm still waiting for Bichur....he left 3 days ago to ponder this....!
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My Name is Chuck. NW Indiana is my home. We got hit with the Lake effect snow today. Beautiful wife and two daughters.

I am a customize addict. I've tried the 12 step program to no avail.

When I get my tax refund I'll finally subscribe.

Love to all!

GO BEARS!