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15 must-have sections

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15 must-have sections

from WinCustomize Forums
Once upon a time WinCustomize's stated policy was that it would only contain the most popular apps as sections. Sections that weren't popular would be removed.

Over time, common sense grew and we realized that you can't really do that -- have a section and then remove it. What about the hard work of skin authors and such who took the time to submit something?

So we took a different route - we only would DISPLAY the most popular sections and the others would be dsiplayed by clicking on the header bar ("library") so that you can get to the other sections.

So, if you were in our shoes and had to pick say 15 sections to have on a skin site - ANY 15 sections (whether we have them here or not) what would they be with the criteria based on POPULARITY (i.e. no breaks for a "unique" freeware app please).

Where popularity is determined by a combination (pick your own way of weighting the factors in this combo):

1) Users using the program
2) Activity of skin authors
3) Legitimacy (i.e. app needs to be actively developed and developer of app must publicly approve skins being made with its format).
4) Uniqueness (should matter some, i.e. how many skinnable MP3 players should a site have?)

Here's what I'd pick to get things started:

1) Wallpapers
2) Windows Media Player
3) WinAmp
4) WindowBlinds
5) ICQ Plus
6) NeXTStart
7) Coolplayer*
8) Dashboard*
9) DesktopX
10) WinStyles
11) IconPackager
12) ObjectBar
13) Litestep
14) LogonStudio
15) CursorXP

Others that are right up there:

a) Trillian
b) Talisman
c) Hoverdesk
d) Screenshots

* WinCustomize is the official skin site for Dashboard and Skinplayer so they will always be part of any top 15 list.

Stardock apps that aren't listed:
1) PocketBlinds. Just isn't getting enough skinning support, has been a release candidate for a long time.
2) WebBlinds.
3) SkinStudio widgets

Other possibilities:
Beatnik (we have a section for this but lack of activity took it from the default home page choices)
SkinMem
Quick Notes
Yahoo Messenger

BTW, you can select which sections to display from your settings. So you can have as many or few that you want.
15,778 views 45 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
doh! I forgot something important about EzPop, it´s fun to skin for!
Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Listen to Jafo and Hippy.


By the way... /me drags a dead horse out of the ditch

...did I see HoverDesk up there? What happened to the "HoverDesk competes with Objectbar thus will have no section" argument?
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Why not take Bill Sawyer's idea a step farther, and is you can d/l the skins elsewhere,........ no section.
That would eliminate a lot of bandwidth.
Reply #29 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'll probably get beaten to a pulp for suggesting this but, Sonique? I think there's a pretty large user base out there, and a huge number of fantastic skins. With Sonique 2 on the immediate horizon, I think the popularity of this MP3 player will get a big boost.

At one point I actually used to use Sonique exclusively, but had to give in to WinAmp due to the WBAmp plugin for WindowBlinds not supporting it.
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
On a slightly different topic, is anyone interested in doing an objective review comparison of Sonqiue 2 vs. WinAmp 3 vs. MS Media player?
Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top
in no particular order)

WindowBlinds with webBlinds & Skin Studio subsections
ObjectBar
DesktopX
WinStyles
WebBlinds
Icons
Trillain
Windows Media Player
EzPop - Something I use as much as WB
Logons
Cursors
HoverDesk

Those are the progs I use (not all at once) WB and EzPop are on all the time, CursorXP and IconPackage icon are used most of the time. Progs Like Trillian and WiMP are in use often. Since I plan on buying Hoverdesk after my next pay packet it would be nice to see a section for it here even if it only links to another site but I can see the problems in doing that (the poor sever you link to would take a battering)
Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You've listed WebBlinds twice so you can add another section.

How come people aren't tlaing about Talisman? Far be it for me to be promoting a "competitor" but Talisman is pretty neat.
Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well...don't forget LiteSTEP in that last list...
Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
WebBlinds is so good I put it in twice.....opps I can't spell Trillian either...

Talisman and LiteSTEP I've not used so I can't comment.
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Listen to Alexandrie and Jafo
Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In the skinning primer I wrote that any real skin site has to have litestep.

Litestep is immensely popular. Many of you know we track all sorts of stats. Litestep gets a LOT of search engine hits each day for instance.
Reply #38 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only ones I really care about are the bigger Stardock ones (WindowBlinds, DesktopX, IconPackager et al), LiteStep, CursorXP, Wallpapers (should be even more heavily moderated) and Winamp. Programs such as Yahoo Messenger aren't truly skinnable, it's more a replacement for the listbox background and button glyphs from what I've seen. Another neat choice would be Sonique (there are some really great Sonique skins).

There are in my opinion too many skinnable apps out there that don't really need to be skinned. Programs that would be covered by WindowBlinds in particular (As the famous sociopath Kelly McNeil once said while trying to touch his elbows behind his back and bite his own ear, "Consistency is king").
Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ah, but freeform rules supreme. WindowBlinds is still restricted by windows rectangular model, so any app that relies on that will be consistent, yes, but still very very boxy.

Ofcourse you (may) have a point when it's about skinnable note apps and such.
Reply #40 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm sorry, but I don't buy the "programs that can be skinned by Windowblinds don't need to be skinnable" argument.
Some people seem to forget something: not everybody uses Windowblinds.
And besides, listen to Craeonics.

In my opinion, there are and never will be enough skinnable applications.

I don't see why we should be limited to 15 applications. Programs such as Beatnik, Colorpad and Kewlpad are ridiculously small, so I don't understand what it would save to get rid of them. I agree that there should be a limited number of apps listed by default, but we should have the option to have them show if we want to (like it is now, although those less popular apps could be unchecked by default).
Reply #41 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I agree with paxx, that the less popular apps could be unchecked by default and my opinion is that in the end of the list, we can have the link "More Libraries", so any one who is interesting can go there to find more stuff.
Reply #42 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just a thought - why don't you include sections (hidden or not) for all the skinnable apps that WinStyle covers.

Bandwidth problems I guess But still, it would be nice.
Reply #43 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't think the site should be limited to 15 sections, just 15 DISPLAYED sections by DEFAULT.

Even now you can go to your personal preferences and choose which sections show up on the left.

WinCustomize is very popular in terms of # of unique daily visitors. I think a big reason for that is because the site doesn't have a gazillion sections to confuse new users. Hence the hard limit. Personally I wish we could limit it to 10 sections but that would be too tough.

Hmm, 10 sections..

What would that be.

1) WindowBlinds
2) WinAmp
3) Wallpapers
4) DesktopX
5) IconPackager
6) Media Player
7) PocketPC ->which would have multiple categories
8) ObjectBar
9) WinStyles
10) CursorXP

But that's still too limiting.
You have to have a Litestep section really and a NeXTStart one and a Logons one and since we're the official Coolplayer site need to have that too.



Reply #44 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, OK then. If we're talking about apps displayed by default, then the 15 most popular is perfectly fine with me.
Reply #45 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I like the idea. What about the "Highlited" apps thingie. Will it still be the test bed for new apps?