Remember folks He did say if the sub drive fell short.

The way I read it is, the more money they have to put out, the more WC will be altered to fit Brads idea of a commercial site rather then the semi independant site WC has been over the years.

Even then... look at Impulse community and the gaming sections. They still have folks chatting it up in those SD run communities. So I dont imagine We will be run off.

Tho,I would be interested in having a better idea of what Brads Vision would be for WC.

Just saying More commercial like is pretty vague. What changes will be implemented if SD does Take a larger part in the goings on in WC ? will there be less categories? Will the mods be replaced with Paid staff? Will people still be able to submit skins? Will there be voting and comments on those skins? Would People still need to subscribe? Will it be more like a store?

Also I do Imagine SD will make sure anyone who subscribes to WC still gets their moneys worth.  Brad and the crew have made thier mark's by building a buisness on customer service and giving the masses more for their $. I doubt this will change.

Yet wincustomize is a big promoter for stardock products people pay cash and then make content and SD it self does not produce much content for their own software compared. Changing it to radicly would be a bad buisness move imo. And as Brad said the money will come from their marketing budget.. so i guess he sees it somewhat like that. People pay for the software to use whats on wincustomize.. symbiotic.....

I was answering AKA... what i meant was if people got together and just wanted a forum it isnt really a problem...

Let me re-post this.  I have two kidneys and only need one.  Anybody know someone who wants to buy a kidney?  Awe, nevermind.  I just realized I'd have to take time off of work to have the kidney harvested...I can't afford that, either.

Great post HG

Very true my friend.

earlier, i had been thinking  if  -the forum could not be kept up and running..was going to suggest creating a WC forum offsite. like v-bulletin ..but anyways, WC forum is a cool close knit community

TG, that simply means that you're mainly going to see sections/category/galleries for Stardock applications by default, rather than non-Stardock like Winamp, Rainlendar, Sysmetrix etc etc.
Those galleries will still be here. You'd just have to 'make them visible' first.

I'll take a pancreas, to go!

Frosty, I'm just worried, because I not long ago found this awesome Community, and the wonderful people in it, and I don't want to see it change, it's too awesome the way it is!

I think some are reading into this that the site will "disappear", and that is not what he is saying.  Right now, WinCustomize is a community site where we have links to all types of software aside from Stardock stuff....Winamp, WMP, Xion, etc.  Moving to a more "commercial" side as Brad mentioned would mean Stardock software like WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, etc. would be the prominent focus on the site.

There would still be a community as the forums would still be around, and lets face it, the forums is where most people communicate anyways. 

i concur island dog mate

I have to agree with most of HG in his comment (#21) and I have to ask or add...

What do we get for the subscription? Does any of that change? I ask because of the change in ODN and the addition (with additonal cost) of ODN Ultimate. Will there be such a change with WC?

And what do we lose by not subscribing? The ability to see ceratin gallery's, post in forums, etc. Upload?

The only thing 'odd' to me is to make this post at the beginning of a big subscription drive when it may make some people hesitant to re-up or subscribe at all. They may want to wait and see how it plays out and learn exactly what they will be getting for their money. I'm always broke after Christmas and  I'm trying to figure out what I can juggle to renew my subscript for WC and ODN and this just kinda threw up a big red flag for me.

Exactly Po, it kinda makes you wonder, but if it's how Frosty and ID put it, it would be ok, I'd just hate to see our user sites and the forums all gone.. I don't want to drift away from anyone here

i agree with you tailsgirl i hope it doesn't change over much i want to keep the friends i met here

will renew my subscript as soon as i can 

1. Management's "new direction"/"new emphasis" and how WC or SD/WC would look is completely unclear. As such, why worry? It's like paying rent on a house you don't even live in. Wait to hear more, I say.

2, The Forums keep a customer base as does WC, happy and united behind SD products. Fact. Nobody's running to kill the chicken that lays the golden eggs. Relax. The last thing SD wants is for folks to migrate to other sites and take up residence there...and there are other sites that want members.

3. Any site that ran like GUIC...well, if you thought WC was bad...just wait: And you'll be doing a lot of that. Remember?

4. Many other sites have sections devoted to Xion, Sysmetrcs, WinStep Extreme, etc.

5. I agree with Po' that this wasn't a great move at the start of the membership drive. Hasn't consumer confidence been shaken enough since September?

6. I still wonder what, if any changes will be made to make WC run better? Weren't we just informed that changes were coming to make WC run better and they were coming in March? How does that jive with this post? I'm not saying they can't just asking how.

7. What changes are being considered that we haven't been told or found out by intentional/nonintentional 'leaks'? How secure is the subscription: After all, a subscription is a contract (of sorts) that money is being paid for a product or service. I believe I deserve to know many more specifics before I buy (and I was going to subscribe tonight) in.

I never thought I'd write this. I am upset and saddened by this turn of events but am trying to remain objective about things until more information is forthcoming.

Historically, Wincustomize was designed as a site that catered to the entire skinning community that included Stardock.

The site was designed to be fairly neutral in what was displayed.  

Over the years, skinning has gotten much more popular but also much more specific at the same time. The programs of Object Desktop, for instance, are far more popular today than they were in 2001.  By contrast, the third party programs that used to be used have either diminished in popularity or, at best, remained at the same level which still means they lost ground.

At the same time, the site has become increasingly expensive to run because of all the overhead in supporting so many different programs and lacks the ability to generate its own revenue because most of its income, today, comes from selling subscriptions and ads for third party items.

IF the subscription drive demonstrates that there is no longer a sufficient community, and I think that the likely case, to support the site as a fairly neutral, independent entity then what will happen is that the new design will be made to benefit Stardock and Stardock's customers.

That will mean a lot less ads but a lot more promotion of things Stardock is interested in promoting.

If you take a fresh look at WinCustomize, you can see that the design of it today is meant to be fairly generic.  Even though 90% fo the people coming here are likely coming for Stardock-related stuff, the actual infrastructure of the site is created to support pretty much anything which makes it far harder to use to promote specific things.

For people who are already Stardock customers, the new site, I think would be a big improvement. You'll still have the forums, the comments areas, etc.

But we would probably begin to stop supporting some of the third-party galleries (most fo them actually) unless they are sending us significant traffic.  Or, at best, they'd no longer be moderated.

I think you'd see the personal pages get integrated with ImpulseDriven.com but who knows. 

Personally, I think it would be a good thing.  But the days of WC being home to getting new third party stuff or finding third party stuff would likely go away. It would be a Stardock-centric site in design.

Sounding ominous again    it just doesn't sound too tempting  for WC fans.

OK...thanks very much for the clarification, Brad. That just makes good sense. Will there still be a platform change as planned?

Maybe a survey could be taken to see how many actual 'third party software' users there are...I have WinStep Extreme, myself.

On a lighter note, by the looks of it, Zubaz has arrived in Detroit and things rae changing aldready.

But it's the VERY Community, you need to make this happen, and saying what I quoted above, well.. how is that meant to sound promising to ANY WC user? I'm sure a lot of subscribers don't come here just for the products, yet you want them to help fund something that will probably, as you said, benefit the CUSTOMERS, not the Community as a whole.

I'm sorry if I'm reading it all wrong, I'm a born panic merchant  and an idiot

In most cases the two are one and the same,imo.

For my part,aside from screensavers and WMP11 skins,the galleries here have always been all about Stardock apps.

It sounds like I would notice little change.If Impulse isn't  DOOMED I doubt WC is either.