..calling on all XP authors .... please read and reply ;) thanks

Cat, I liked your nonXP stuff, and always wanted to see more of it. I am glad to see you move on to new and better things, and look forward to see what you do next.

Thanks. but the lack of response here worries me. As the Other XP autors just dont seem to be brave enough to answer this post ! this also means more of the damned same updates.. urrh.

just seems they are just going to carry on flogging it until even the public hate it too.!

This is a simple request for people doing XP work to just now move on from it. But so far I dont see other XP authors responding which is dissapointing. I am brave enough to ask people for this so come on and please reply and give your reasons to or not to if the case maybe.

Well said, Cat. I've always admired your work but think you are more than capable of producing quality in whatever avenue you choose to follow.

sad thing is though can any other skinner who has done XP themes recently. The Object Bar section
and Desktop X section concerns me the most. I am also concerned now that the skinners invloved with causing this problem in the community in the first place wont comment here, or ok maybe they just dont look on the message boards. [more the pity] as it means being more direct.

I have seen the great upset its causing and is causing skinners to argue over this more these days. thats why it has to stop here I think. I never joined the community in order to create this mess. Ok, most people say my XP work is good quality, and is great, but does not show my real skills off. even a close friend has said this. who is also a skinner here..

To give my current input on the XP situation, there is to many similar XP "based" items here.

The "XP situation" as I call it has gotten way out of hand, you all know me as the xpFreak and would think my thoughts on the problem would be to "keep the XP stuff coming" but it is pointless for us XP authors to create an item that has the same XP look to it, the community has had enough.

But I see no problem with creating XP related items that has pizzazz and that is out of the ordinary.

Well done ! at last one Xp author has shown up you have gained some respect from me personally for this, as I thought i stood alone on this.

Your right of course XP freak, the do all look the same now. Particulary in the Object Bar and Desktop X sections. God I regret posting my own Luna theme there to be honest. But Luna Experienced was made well before a lot of newbies jumped on the band wagon and tried to copy the success of theme like this.

I dont know though, using the XP logo itself is sure to encourage a bad rating on the skin or wallpaper. Even if the idea in the skin is original. Because it has an XP logo people see red so to speak and think it is anything other than original even if the wallpaper is not using any XP elements at all.

When I first XPFreak appear on this site I did think why on earth did he call himself that ? No offence XPfreak trust me. But I thought it was too convieniant and seemed ready made for the craze of XP.

people who have been doing XP stuff need to develop there own style, and I see some XP authors who are quite new here and have not produced a single original item yet. So i am encouraging them to do that. You wont find recognition in XP or respect. A good friend of mine who is also a fellow skinner told me these words recently to encourage me to return to my original idea's. And to return to original work.

Cat:
I'm glad to see that your moving on and I do have to compliment you on your Dragonz walls. They are both good and It's nice to see you expanding your knoledge and talent...

--(TasT)--

'knowledge', TasT....

Thanks ,

Jafo

It's comforting to know you're still watchin' out for me..

Cat, I personally don't like Luna, it's too chunky, but you have done some great ports of it. Your words are wise and true though, I'm sure lots of people did like Luna, as was reflected in the downloads, but I think it's time to see some fresh stuff. There's a lot of talented people out there that have a lot to offer the community, and I think Luna has been perfected enough for now, time for something fresher.

Cat pointed it out herself: most people do not read this boards, so the only thing they see is low ratings and then they start to wonder. Maybe telling them this as a comment to their works is the best way to get their attention.

Yes, Crae, I am afraid that is the only way to get the message across to some people I guess. I had a change of heart in my skinning direction after I realised the comments being made by skinners rings true. I personally feel saddened at what is happening to skinners over this subject. It is causing upset people arguing, and it does NOT help the community as a whole. So the XP skins must stop even if its for a while until some thing fresh comes along. What must be done thugh is for FRESH new work to come into the community, and revitalise the top tens with original work.

Sadly enough i noticed another new arrival in the DesktopX section of another Luna theme in silver. Looks like another skinner is jumping on the band wagon You know guys, I was one of the most well known XP authors and I did many imports as I looked for the perfect one. BUT.. Now I look back at this and realise how narrow minded I was in doing them. Instead of developing my own artist skills.

Unfortuately I see others jumping into my shoes to fast to mention hoping to get into the top ten downloads etc. If that is true for them then perhaps they will never know how futile their work looks considering the amount of copy's that came before them.

Cat, sshhh, don't tell anyone, but I actually kinda like the Luna style interface. I have your Whistler + Luna themes in my collection, along with many other OS ports. Simply because they are good.

(Has anyone ported the KDE2 Hi-colour theme yet?)

But I'm really looking forward to seeing some new, non-MS stuff coming from your corner.

Keep it up.

(Thanks) I will be starting some new work shortly ..[hopefully]

Cat I'm glad you've suddenly seen the light, it was getting very tiresome indeed, BUT just because YOU have suddenly realised this shouldn't mean that other XP authors should stop creating their xp stuff (as boring as it is) on your advice. God knows enough people tried dropping the hint to you, myself included and you didn't take the blind bit of notice. If I was an xp skinner I wouldn't stop just coz you've seen what's happeneing!!!!

Ok that's got that bee out of my bonnet.
Now let's see some more of those hvd themes which were springing out of your imagination before all this xp shit happened.
Looking forward to what you come up with

[Sigh]....Yes I don't really expect any other XP author to change directon. Mainly due to the fact that most of them are actually new to wincustomize and dont understand how long this XP craze has been going on..

So ! I can only expect them to upload more of the XP skins and then claim to be the best or some one will [anyway]. This is without realising how old XP skinning actually is now.

But for sure ! I will be doing more original skins than before. For Hoverdesk and windowblinds and will start hopefully branching out onto other programs too.

Thanks for understanding I know many of you have gone for ages to me to do some original work, at the time it made me feel miserable, as I just wanted to get my PC to look like the Luna appearance. But even I have to move on some time.. So there certainly wont be any new Luna themes uploaded by me to wincustomize..

in a homer simpson voice "woohoo!!"

I'm so hungry.
CAT you know I respect whatever work you do...as long as the title bars stay under 75 pixels
hah

Well I said i am not uploading any *New* XP skins. because I *Really* DO!! want to start on new skins, and themes. So i will be doing less of XP anyway..

(Damn! I had a really cool looking silver Luna theme lined up for DX as well) ! [Cat side steps out of here before the screaming starts..]

thecat: I must to congrat you

After posting a thread like this you just re-update your "final" XP windowblinds skin again?!

So I was wondering the reasons that made you act like that:

1- You didn't attempted at your own "call" of your thread or this is just for the other XP "authors"?

2- As I saw in the skin's descritption, you update it for "bugs fixing". Did you spend allmost 2 weeks to find them after the second update?

3- Or you simply couldn't resist on being in the newsest additions one more time and the hell with the damn thread?

Yup! you are really funny!

If I had found a bug I would have updated also..

wouldn't you Tog??

Have any of you thought that maybe xp themes and skins are of significant practical value? I'm friends with the college's lab admin and he's thought about using XP skins to make all the machines in the lab look consistant once Winxp comes out. ObjectBar for the start bar and Windowblinds for the skin.

for sure I would Tast, but I never spent 15 days to find one, extremely after the second or third update.

No kitty there's a bad kitty! (My pot pie)