In and amongst the statements made in Frogboy's thread regarding the Old Guard and New Blood, was some interesting statements that sounded much like stuff our parents used to say like "When I was your age I had to walk 20 miles to school in knee deep snow uphill both ways".

While this is understandable pride in the accomplishments of pioneer skinners that have brought skinning to the popularity it is today it seems also to illustrate a duality in the mindset of many skinners. The first might be sumarized as "Skinning today is too easy, resulting in less quality and more quantity" and the second is "Products like Skinstudio and WindowBlinds have brought skinning to the masses, it is no longer a province of an elite few".

Is it inevitable that, in the effort to make skinning more popular the talent gets diluted?

I'd be interested in your thoughts.