Developer/Skinner discussion forum needed.

This was supposed to go in Stardock support...why do my post end up in the wrong sections?  

New forum: General Discussion->Skinning

 

IR that's sound like a good idea but i think is not a good idea.
Maybe a forum section called like that where we can talk about this kind of thing but for all. I think there are most people who are simply visitors who can help us sometimes with idea in skinning and in developpement. Maybe i'm wrong, but it's my think.

Frogboy this isnt about skinning per se...its about program issues that skinners need help with from Stardocks developers.

Somewhere we can get answers without seeming to badmouth the programs.
I posted many WB issues and got zero response from ANY Stardock personnel.

We need a spot to hang with the developers...alone.Capable of image inserts.  

The Stardock Support Widowblinds section would seem more appropriate...got next to nothing in help or answers tho.  

Better programs=Better skinners= better skins=better sales.  

My question is...how would you define the "skinners" and the "general public." Would access be granted based on user level, customer level, something else? Because surely there are skinners who are citizens and there are apprentices and up who aren't quite skinners (like myself).

Perhaps there is not enough "time in the day" for something like this @ Stardock, I understand you are busy, but it can only behoove both skinner and coder to have ongoing discussions about functions, bugs, requests, queries etc. I have absolutely TONS of things I would like to discuss and I don't post basically because I know it probably wont get answered due to lack of folks that can answer it and the time needed to.

I think it would help everyone out if improvements had some input from community skinners, the people actually using the product, day in and day out...week in week out..etc

Maybe were asking too much but I think in the long run if something can be implemented im ALL for it.

Better programs = happier skinners = better skins = happier coders = less complaints (need for support) = better bottom line.   

Access level high enough that questions and bugs would only come from skinners VERY experienced with the programs involved.That way you wouldnt get basic questions being asked that CAN be answered in normal forums.  

Jeez ..lol, I didnt even catch that the first time around..  

Guess your talking Journeyman  and above. 

You can send bugs to stardock support by email.  Used to beable to do it on stardock IRC but they don't like that anymore.

email isnt efficient when discussing skinning issues...you need pics and you need to be able to respond quickly.(or it would take days just to explain a simple issue)  

IRC is even faster than forums...and you could just link to images and stuff, not quite sure why that can't cut it. But then again I guess I'm just an IRC nerd.

IRC isnt permanent...after the session,only those that were there get any benefit...a forum post is forever...latecomers can still access the discussion.  

Being able to see a pic while reading and discussing makes things much clearer and keeps things in one place.

I was going to propose a DesktopX community site.
A place where people could upload tutorials. (With this I had the intention of integrating it to my DesktopX Script Manual gadget so it'd automaticly update a list of tutorials available. There are many good tutorials here at WC, but with the overhead of the site it'd make it more cluttered and harder to cache. So I had plans of asking for permission of tutorial writers to convert their tutorials into a slimmed down HTML page in the style of the DX docs.)
I also thought that the site could have a project page where people could set up community projects, and set up a central point for each project for people to brainstorm. Each project would have goals and sections which users could assign them self to.
I suppose this could be extended to a site about skinning in general.
If we could set up a website for this with PHP and MySQL backend I'd be happy to code it.

Anyone remember the original site? The forum layout had a skinning section seperate from the general discussion forums. It worked very well. It weeded out newbies with the usual newbie related stuff. Skinners worked very well together to sassist each other and discuss things some don't really get. It was boring for most but very helpful for skinners. No silly nonsense, just skin making talk.
The forums being seperate from the general discussion is what made it easy to track. There weren't a bilion threads pushing them around.
Perhaps something like this could be set up for paying members only. A discussion forum with limited access. You could allow apprentices and above to gain access. It could also be more motivation for people to subscribe.
This way one could have emails sent to them when there is activity without getting bombarded by emails based on activity from the general discussion forums.

Need more coffee...lost train of thought..   

thomassen: Something like this?

No. not quite like a wiki. More like a website with a project management system.

My main point was for Stardocks developers to have a place they could easily find us without having to sort thru the entire forum.
New user questions can almost always be answered by our regular forum users.I would like a place where deeper issues can be answered by people that can acually make changes to skinning progs.

Some probs have been around since XP launched...maybe together wecould fix some of them.Recently I have seen things that in the past I was told were impossible,yet some person more clever than myself was able to accomplish.I would love to see these capabilities incorporated natively into WB and SKS.


Just look how much WB already does that wasnt 'natively' possible.Its some of the little things that could make a windowblind perfect...as opposed to nearly perfect.  

I'm no skinner, but I do think this is a good idea. WC2K7 is the year of the community right? Skinners are a *huge* part of this community...after all, it is the reason we're here.

  

No one is using the newsgroups. Y'all could post there with less of a chance of being interrupted by
<--apprentice riff-raff!

news.stardock.com

LOL, I used to live there before they went on life support.

What about the original idea? No definitive answer from anyone?   

We have had a post about a major WB bug in the forums for weeks now..not one single respeonse from any developer..or anyone.

WWW Link

at least tell us no, no one likes being ignored... especially I.R.   

You think I would be used being ignored by now.