You won't find many better free skins than this..... https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?skinid=7000&libid=1 So, nothing to complain about really......

Master status was Stardock's way of saying thank you to the top skinners who provided so much free content over the years. I think it was a natural progression in skinning. Many Masters, including me, still haven't sold a skin yet and continue to provide free content that we enjoy making. So, it's not ALL about the money. Maybe I'll sell a skin when I make one that's worth selling.....

Ignoring [our] Master skinners and their premium skins for a moment....the concept of purchasing/paying for skins was going to happen...with or without Stardock/Wincustomize.

It did just that.

The first notable commercial skins were from/by Pixtudio and about the same time - The Skins Factory, neither of whom were 'doing it' through Wincustomize.com/Stardock.

The lamentation of the loss of an 'era' occured years ago.....the arenas were Deviantart.com and more vocally Customize.org.

PixelPunk ....did you miss all that grief way back then? [if so then you were lucky]....

As has been stated previously by Brad, the site does not run itself. It takes people and money. I imagine with the size it has grown to and with all it has to offer, subscription fees do not cover the entire cost. The impression I always had was that Wincustomize was really about the community and could easily cut the community out and go completely commercial.

Masters and anyone else who can are going to sell their skins if given the oppurtunity. There are ohter sites, some run by Masters, that already do. Wincustomize is the best place to do it for them, higher visibility and all. They deserve the chance to profit for their hard work. Not everyone could make a skin that could or would sell.

There have been 10 skins this year that subscribers could download. Not to mention the discount subscribers get on Master skins.

Masters can still make free skins. It benefits them to as well as everyone else. As to who they 'cater' to...they make skins they hope will appeal to all. Some Masters offer the skins on this site and their own, so the base isn't that small. I am not sure what you mean by reduced exposure. Folks still post screenshots across multiple sites for others to get a glimpse. (Free advertising, really) If anything, it had made Wincustomize 'exclusive' as the site to come to for the best in skinning. Kind of like having to go to AT&T for an iPhone, but you've heard of them, right?

I'm not a Master, but there must be a different kind of gratification when selling the skins. I have seen skins that were just awful, even downloaded a few, that had no bussiness being uploaded to begin with. The number of downloads for them will often be go into the hundreds or thousands. If people were paying for them, they would be freaking out. Being a Master, you have the satisfaction of knowing your work is good enough that someone 'would' pay for it. When you download a Master skin, you know you are getting quality work.  When I played guitar on streetcorners for the fun and love of it, I didn't make money. When clubs started paying me to play and took me off the corners, the crowds were smaller, but there was the satisfaction that I had reached a level of professionalism and quality that I could get paid for it. When I want to do it just for the love of it, I go hit the corners again.

IMO having the Master program keeps some of the better graphic artists working (at least part-time) in the Windowblinds arena.

It doesn't serve the community to have them hone their skills here and then move on to just doing web site design and custom skins for those willing to pay.

Neil can correct me if I'm wrong but the only thing the first version he created did was roll up the open window...hince the name "WindowBlind". Skinning came at a later date.

The ratio of Master skins to free skins is slim, very slim.  I have been seeing this a lot lately where people are complaining that they "have" to buy premium or Master skins in order to use WindowBlinds.  It couldn't be farther from the truth!

Especially wth WindowBlinds 7, you can use just to skin Aero with textures and such and never touch a skin.  I think you would be missing out, but it is possible.

I think many people move on. When we were kids, we collected baseball cards to flip or trade. We collected stamps...then, while some continued these pastimes (for love but also for profit) others moved on or away.

Now a days, lots of people seem satisfied with the run of the mill XP or Vista...now Seven comes with many walls and themes...enough so the average Joe doesn't get bored. Also, as screens and hardware improved, the GUI's also improved.

Might happen in the future that there'll be GUIs that you can modify to your heart's content and won't need skill or talent to do so.

Anyway....I think you understand what I mean. If Brad Wardell hadn't have picked up the pieces of the skinning community and if he didn't see the possibilities, where would skinning be today? Would there be any othere sites to call home? I don't know...but it strikes me odd that for someone who saw all these things happen, you'd ask. If Brad makes a good living and provides a roof for us all, seems a bit ungrateful to critisize how he does it.

Also, since when does one have to buy a Master Skin?

If a painter did the walls in your house, wouldn't you expect a bill? Did someone make his brushes and paint for free? Give him a free car and free clothing and food? I think you understand what I'm driving at.

...not quite...

dern double posts ..

and that's the truth. ok...1 slice for you...with 'everything'.

Very well put Smedley! How can you even think straight with all the meds your on?

Well it seems to me that there is a great deal of Community support for the Master program and the ability for Masters to sell skins... and quite rightly so.  Not only does it reimburse these Masters for their hard work, dedication and efforts, not to mention their financial outlay to purchase their programs, it gives up and coming skinners something to aspire to, an incentive, so to speak, to be the best they can be at what they do.

And this....

I agree wholeheartedy! The Master program, in a way, helps to bind this community because the incentive for our most experienced skinners to hang around, and still contributing community skins, also, is there.  Without our top (Master) skinners we would sadly be lacking, and that is not the way we want things to be, so yeah, the Master program and the ability to sell skins MUST stay.

smedley rocks.......

Master... er, Mistress Kitty double rocks... with bells on

you all rock.

I think it's pointless to debate the Master skin logic, as there are many masters here, and none of them is the same as the other.  Some of them sell their skins, some of them don't.  The facts are simple -- WinCustomize has a hierarchy of skinner levels, at the top of which there are masters who are permitted to sell their skins.  WinCustomize and Stardock runs on a market system -- if you don't want to reward masters who sell their skins, then don't buy them -- it's that simple.  Quite frankly, if you want to beat the system that is in place, then learn to skin yourself, and then you will hold all the power.  That's one the reasons I'm learning -- I don't want to depend on somebody else (and to have to wait for somebody else to get the ideas I have) to create the skins I want, whether they charge for them or not.  In the process, of course, I'm having to depend on a lot of people to help me out, but everything I learn I freely pass on to others who are learning, and I think THAT is the real sense of community that exists here, and that is also why there NEEDS to be a master program -- so that those who have gone on before stay around to help those of us who are on the journey to learning right now.

I'd like to get everything for nothing and see skinners profit from their labour and talent. Fortunately, this is one of the few areas in life where I can get a lot for nothing; in the rest, I have to pay.

I'm pleased some times to pay for a skin in order to reward the artist. Most of the Masters probably don't make enough money to justify the amount of time spent on their work, so we're a bit lucky to get a vast majority of the things we want for nothing.

Well said, Karen.   The Masters impart much, much more than the skins they create, whether they be Master Skins or for free.  They also impart, as you so kindly pointed out, of their knowledge and experience... to help those newer skinners, such as yourself, learn the ropes. 

That in itself makes them worthy and important parts of the community, and we all, whether we're skinners or not, should be grateful for their contribution to the community. 

What's more, apart from skinners recuperating a little for their expenses, teachers do not teach for nothing, so why shouldn't Masters receive some remuneration!  Teachers do, it's their bread and butter, and Masters have to eat, too.

exactly if someone can make a living off of a hobby .. why not? I mean if I could make a living off of looking stupid,  I'd be happier than Starkers in a cabbage patch.

 or is that happier than starkers attending a bearded lady contest? HG_Eliminator wonder off to ponder the question at hand..