Windowblinds Quality Control

Funny...every skin I have downloaded and installed has worked....and I haven't seen an inordinate amount/number of complaints that skins are not working.
Certainly, there are some that may not be 'complete' as in skinning all of XP, etc...[mine aren't]...but it's also important to note that standards 'may' vary, but ALL of the skins are done for 'pleasure'...and need not necessarily be required to pass some strict criteria of 'perfection'...

There is a learn from mistakes policy here...nothing else to pass

I do think there needs to be some quality control, but elvee is right, you do learn with the help of others.

If there is a flaw in a skin that makes it almost unusable or unusable, I'm sure the Skinner would like to know via the comments. An update would probably follow.

Ande: BINGO!! Leaving comments is the perfect way to communicate your likes/dislikes with the skin, theme, wall, whatever. If you love it, say so. If there is a problem, say so, albeit, constructively please.

I have recently communicated to other skinners some problems with their skins via the comments area. The skins were corrected and uploaded again. I suffered no hardship in doing this. It is what we should be doing to help one another.

Happy holidays.

I've emailed the skinner about errors in the past so as not to taint his skin in the comments section.

Finding problems and correcting them after the skin is uploaded is one step too late. Errors should be fixed before the skin is uploaded.

The skin named Foundation: when you install it, it calls itself Universal Foundation. That makes it nearly impossible to find it. That type of error should have been picked up by whoever released it, and it should have been fixed before it was released.

Here are comments by Motion re: Blue Saturated Blood - I've looked it over closely Jacob. I think the reason for the original 3 might be because a lot of the bitmaps aren't showing up properly. I opened it in SkinStudio to see if I could find some of the problems. There are many. The close/min/max/help/rollup button bitmaps don't show up. The window top frame bitmap doesn't show up. And there are more bitmaps not showing properly. These errors should have been fixed before the skin was released.

Boxxi's nice skin Carbon Fibre has been downloaded more than 17,000 times and it doesn't support check boxes. This kind of mistake is what tarnishes Windowblinds. Here you have a really nice skin that isn't quite usable simply because there is no quality control.

I think most skinners would be very grateful if they could let someone else test their skin before it gets released to the public. It would be easy to write a short list of problems to look for. I will volunteer to help anyone who would like a little cushion of assurance before they upload their skin. And I would like to encourage others to do the same.

This might sound like a stupid idea but maybe people could label their 'new' untested by the general public type skins as "Beta"... That way you would be forewarned if you didn't feel like testing out someones skin.

Note to PixElated: I used the zip feature in Skinstudio and apparently it didn't take over all the bitmaps I used. Thanks to motion I got that fixed. I just zipped it with that feature again chosing everything to be zipped. I can't help it if features do not work properly. And I also think you shouldn't be so fundamentalistic. We learn through our mistakes. Listen to Ande.

Oh, and if you have trouble with using the skin, it's better to communicate about it with the skinner so that he/she can correct the problem. I always try to make flawless skins.

One more attempt at mediation.
There ARE skins which are rejected through 'moderation' caused by fundamental 'mistakes', not just due to 'ripping', etc.

Whether BoXXi's skin supports check boxes or not does NOT affect its 'functionality', just its 'completeness'. There is a fundamental difference in those two words.

My WB skins will do NOTHING for XP specifically with regards to the start menu. WHY? Because I use LiteSTEP which has NO start menu. The most recent of my WB skins was merely included with the LIteSTEP theme simply so no-one would be denigrating its 'completeness' and thus accusing me of 'poor quality'.

One thing to notice or be painfully conscious of is that many, many skinners do NOT have access to every rendition of Windows OS, nor do they necessarily use Skin Studio to create the skins.
What may work perfectly on their personal OS setup 'may' look like crap on another's.
That is where 'choice' comes in. Don't like it? Pick another, or perhaps leave a simple, clear note explaining any alleged 'faults' you may have unearthed.
I've run some of my 'hand-coded' WB skins through SkinStudio...and that showed up all sortd of 'wacky' errors, although it worked perfectly on my system without a glitch. I found that 'curious', if not 'amusing'...

I know what you are trying to say, but I seriously question assertions of 'millions of downloaded skins' being wrong...particularly when'wrong' translates as 'incomplete'...

Pixelated: I don't understand why you say my Carbon Fibre skin doesn't support checkboxes. I skinned the checkbox and the radio buttons and they work fine on my system. Do you mean some thing else that I don't know about, or something I have missed?

Also, remember that some of us are still learning to skin WindowBlinds, and we are bound to make mistakes. I find SkinStudio a very difficult program to work in. Maybe I am just stupid.

I would hate to think that I am tarnishing the good name of WindowBlinds by making a mistake in a skin for it. Did stardock commission me to make the skin? Did I get paid for making it? Did anyone pay to download it? If someone paints their Ford Taurus slime green with pink stars, does that tarnish the good name of the Ford Motor Company? Please remember, this is a hobby for most people, it's not a life or death situation if my skin does not support checkboxes (which I believe it does), and I don't think it would make the skin unusable.
When I make a perfect skin I'm gonna change my name to Treetog, until then, just point out any flaws in the comments area and I'm sure the author will look into them.

What happened to LeCrayon has happened to me and to numerous others. Sometimes, SkinStudio does not zip the file correctly when you zip it for the web. It happens. We don't know about it until after we've uploaded it and somebody spots the problem.

If a skin does not support something, that is the decision of the skin artist. It's not really up to anyone else. If you download it and decide you want a particular attribute you have 2 choices. 1. Ask the artist if they wouldn't mind adding it in and reuploading(they are usually very obliging about that sort of thing), or, 2. You can open the skin up in SkinStudio or open the UIS file with any text editor, and add the attribute you wish.

If you are someone who doesn't know anything about skinning, well, number 2 presents a good opportunity to learn.

I think the main point that complainers should realise is that these skins are being supplied by the various authors for free, out of their own good will; they don't have to do this for any other reason than the fact that they want to give other people a little enjoyment. Lighten up already, if you don't like one skin or have problems with another skin, find something you do like and show a little gratitude...

I agree with what you say motion, except after you zip it up in skin studio you can try applying it as if you downloaded it, just to see if it works. Thats just a little quality control on the skinners part.

Thats cool Jam, but what about all those people who use foul langauge and puke signs because they don't like it?

That's what I mean, they should lighten up and show a little gratitude...

Or else we'll deal with them rather severely, eh wot?

Perhaps pixElated should make his own skins instead of downloading all these free ones. That way we'd see a perfect skin eh?

He has made some skins. Find them here: https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?authorid=177571

I uploaded Christmas Time CurXP. On my system the busy and working dissapeared although it looked fine in the CurXP program preview. I mentioned this in the notes when I uploaded. Some of the comments mentioned that it looked fine and some commented that these two cursors didn't work right. I really did appreciate the comments. Still don't know how to fix it. OS may be the culprit. New at this but look forward to learning more. Hence the comment section. This site leans way over on "helping the other guy". Further, these author's skins are not for sale. THEY do this hard work for the pure enjoyment of sharing with US. If you were to look at my download numbers you would see that I have been collecting these fine skins for quite a while. Very few have given me any real grief. Peace, Patience and Tolerance. Happy New Year to you all!

It wasn't my intention to criticize anybody's skins, but Jafo said the following "Funny...every skin I have downloaded and installed has worked....". I guess he doesn't download many skins or he has his head in the sand. Because of his comment, I pointed out only 3 mistakes. Motion knows his most recent skin was unusable when he uploaded it, and Agneva's latest skin was a mess.

Yes I know that the skinners are no to blame. I've done some skins myself, and I know they take an unbelievable amount of time. That is why I think Wincustomize should help out. But if Jafo isn't sympathetic, we might as well forget it.

Please note that I offered a simple solution to the problem and volunteered to help out. Most of the posters in this thread don't even remember what the thread is about. Like most message boards, the folks who hang out here are always defensive and quick to attack anyone who opens their mouth. If you think you are doing Wincustomize a favor by being rude, you are mistaken.

LeCrayon - I only used your skin as an example because it was recent and because Motion had already publicly documented the problem. Don't think that I was attacking you. To the contrary, I am trying to establish a system where the skinner has some support BEFORE his skin becomes public. My apologies if I hurt your feelings.

BoXXI - The code for your Carbon Fibre skin refers to a non-existant check-box image. I modified that skin to better suit my own taste, so I am familiar with it. I only mentioned your skin because it has been so popular. Your graphics are first rate and your other skins work fine as far as I know. After Carbon Fibre was first posted, you promised an update. I downloaded and tested the update on the Wincustomize site and it didn't display any checkboxes, so I posted a comment to that effect.

As is often the case, the Admins' efforts are trivialized and over-simplified in the minds of the observers.
So often an individual gets singled out as an example of 'bad skinning' [or recently at ArtUpRoar in the case of 'bad wallpaper'] when all that 'may' have been at fault was the 'reviewer's' poor taste or at least poor tact.
If I come across as 'unsympathetic' or 'rude' then it's in public defence of individuals' slights.
I have never been much for the public degrading of another's efforts whether graphic or otherwise.
Complaints/concerns about a particular skin should be kept with the skin comments themselves, and not topicalized in a public forum.
If you [pixElated] 'must' use examples then try my skins. Find fault with them...there's bound to be plenty, particularly since many were done before XP or even SkinStudio existed.
I think the original approach of this thread could have been a tad more 'diplomatic'.

Of course you will get a lot of skinners being all defensive and quick to attack....particularly when their efforts are being attacked in the first place.

Now...to your 'beta tester' proposal....why not?
Some already do it...sending others their skins prior to upload, so maybe a community 'thread' devoted to bug feedback makes sense...but only provided it is an 'optional' process, not some 'big brother' making you get it right or else...

As for 'head buried in the sand'....if only I had the time....sounds like it could be relaxing...

I read this entire thread, and I'm sorry, but I don't see where "pixElated" was putting anyone or skins down ... I tend to agree with him in some areas, especially when it comes to some one not giving praises here, people here are defensive I think his idea of skins that are "buggy" should not be uploaded, then updated/updated/updated, especially from those that have been skinning for some time now... what a easy way to get higher downloads but then again that is another issue and not for this thread.... I help others in the community and test their skins, and many more of us should do that, as pixElated pointed out, it would cut some extra usage on the bandwidth. The last two weeks WC and the forum board is sloooow for me and others and I'm cable, and with all the upgrading and donations for a faster site is not helping, my opinion, please don't misunderstand what I'm saying.

WOM - I trusted the zip feature in skinstudio. Why should I check what programmers should check. As I read motions comment here it's a bug in skinstudio. Perhaps it has something to do with renaming the bitmaps. If a program doesn't work correctly I can't help that.
PixElated, no worries, I just pointed out what I said above. If you redownload the skin you will see it works fine.
As far as downloading skins, I too find some unusable. Sometimes it's because of colour, sometimes it is because the skinner wasn't very careful with magic pinks or text alignments or clip texts. Sometimes just because I don't like the design. Sometimes because it's not innovative and just the 34th in the dozen. I think you do have a point, but we all have so many people we trust to skim through the skin. I try to only release the skin when I think it is finished. There are people however that are so eager to upload a skin as soon as possible it has to have mistakes in it still. So, to all those: give it a bit more time to check, work with the skin for a day and be critical at your work. If it can withstand it, you are ready to upload.