the fall of customize?

Indeed it is sad. It's become just a wallpaper site.

Only on Customize would the admins of the site tear down newly releases of skinning programs without even trying them.

http://www.customize.org/news/232

It's been quite a fall from where they once were. Now it's the slum of the skin community.

the "slum of the community" is an intriguing quote.

Customize.org, its admins and its [remaining] members has a jaundiced view/interpretation of the skinning world.
Once the creator/originator of the whole 'community' it is now certainly 'different'.
Whether that is because of the rise and flourishing of other sites, or whether it is a reflection of the behaviour and mind-set of its administrators, is open to conjecture.
But..
Too much ill-feeling has been directed by them at the members of the same community that Custo was pivotal in creating.

Indeed. Can you imagine an admin here commenting on a NEWS ITEM on this site saying how terrible the program that the news item was about was?

Or Jark on DA or Chaz on LOS or Scarebear on Skinbase or Dave on Deskmod? It would never happen. It's just bizarre.

heyhey custo is custo, just a weird place I decided to quit long time ago.

The problem there is mostly young admins and users saying anything just for fun after a frustrated school day. This is the way to relax over there.

Nothing wrong with customize, just a different crowd really.

exactly, diff strokes for diff folks...

uh.. not really. some strokes just shouldn't be taken. it's not right to excuse inappropriate behavior by simply saying it's 'different.' it's simply not true that all things are ok, just in their own way. some things are wrong.

old custo / new custo .. two totally different things.

mig remember we're on the net... who's gonna stop them from saying what they want? hehe

that crowd over there (the new one) has been the same since day one of it's grand opening, I don't see it changing now cuz it already has established it's personality over there and I just read and click next on my Fav's and go onto the next flavor of site... hehe (each site has it's own theme even this one)

thou shall not judge ppl by the sites they visit...
(cept pr0n or porn) hehe

/me wonders why ppl get so bent outta shape from things they see or read on the net??? =/

good ole equivication. can't criticize indecent behavior because it's not indecent, it's just 'different'. pity. once upon a time there were concepts like right and wrong and people knew the difference. now it seems nothing is 'wrong'.

Brad knows his product is good. (the sales show it is)
make a good product and "nothing that anyone can actually say" will bring it down, me thinks...

/me morphs into evil_crae

"Wrong" and "inappropriate" are subjective and depend on your context. To them it may be okay, to you it may not.

well JayG who is gonna stop ppl on the net? hehe
you can only control your own house that's it really.

what is so inappropriate about bad mouthing a product? been happening forever Microsoft is still here? is it not?

Some people think blowing themselves up in a restraunt to kill people makes them a hero too. If you don't speak out against behavior you think is bad then it becomes acceptable. cust's admins are routinely rude kids that have turned a once great site into a graveyard.

well bad mouthing stardock and blowing yourself up in a restaurant I "think" are two diff things... hehe

oh, i'm not saying it would ever change. there's absolutely no way to change something like that, and i wouldn't want to. they have every right to say what they'd like. but that doesn't mean it's ok i mean.. i could tell my neighbor he has b.o. and i could mention it in conversations around the neighborhood. but it wouldn't be cool to do that. and.. i should expect to hear something from my neighbor about it, or at least expect him to not be quite as friendly towards me.

it's about being polite. simple courtesy. is it 'required?' no.. but it's a good idea if you want to interact with people. often people don't catch on to this until they're a bit older and have screwed up a few interactions, or even friendships, by being rude or tactless.

true mig
and I'm the type I would not tell my neighbor he has b.o. in person but on the net I would! hehe

I bet half the crowd over there at custo would not say the same things in person too... most are face to face shy?
(I know I am and I only sing my tunes on the net) hehe

some ppl can just express differently I guess, they are just venting their thoughts outloud whether ppl agree or disagree on the net welllll it does not matter cuz there is no net police to make them shut up or be quiet right but again
we all have that same right to speak or "Type" back!!! hehe

B.o.?

/me goes looking for the dictionary

Oi! I get to teach Dutchy something new!!!!!!

b.o. = Body odor


hehe

Aha. No I can imagine you won't tell your neighbour that. Unless he/she is a friend ofcourse.

I think his analogy was valid though. I tend to think it's a cop out when people try to excuse obviously bad behavior as just being different.

But that actually isn't what saddens me because at the end of the day there are some absolute measurements of such things: Website success.

Customize.org makes a good textbook case of how important admins are to the success of a site. It's a site that had a good domain, has been around a long time and has lots of sites that link to it. In short, it has every advantage. Yet look at the activity. It's last in # of skin submissions (it's mostly screenshots now and some wallpapers) and the message boards are relatively inactive too.

Now, why is this? Well, in my opinion it's because they have alienated those who are crucial to the success of such a site - skin authors and developers. Last year they completely alienated many of the top skin authors with their terrible treatment of Treetog, Alexandrie and others. And what software developer is going to be anxious to support a site where the admins themselves are just as likely to rip on the software as say something nice?

Now, if their goal is to demonstrate how to destroy a website, then yes, they're very successful. But if their goal is to create a website in which there is a lots of activity in message boards, skin submissions, and visitors, then clearly it's pretty undeniable that they've harmed it. Behavior does have consequences. If anyone else has a theory as to why Customize.org has lost so much of its popularity with skin authors and users, feel free to bring it up. But it seems pretty obvious to me that seeing the site being run by a bunch of rude juvenilles can't have helped.

that's also true Brad, but in the end who knows, the net is very vast right? Porn sites have their own crowd too...

I don't talk on custo cuz I don't feel comfortable myself in that crowd to chat but I do read from time to time over there and what I read I don't pass judgement on, I just read and carry on, I have no right to say what is right or wrong for other ppl to type on their screens.

I think if a site is that bad, take it off your Fav's or Bookmark and just don't go there.

/me is still evil_crae (that's what happens when you have to let php interface with Access)

Potential other reasons:
1. too much other skin sites
2. bad reputation (whether they deserve it or not)

1.