It is 1.7% Dave - Steve I tend to be a bit high. I like to think my money is earning 5.00% instead of .50%. This person hasn't even replied and may not. We all know the Masters, skinners and all the good people here are necessary and that is the important thing. I think we are now just feeding this person.

We can evaluate Doc at a later date. 

Yeah, no one is squeezed out, just to prove it, I have all 5 slots in the recent uploads on the front page....nary a Master skin to be found.

https://www.wincustomize.com/

I think I am correct in saying that besides me, only 2 other WindowBlinds skinners have commented here. So with that, I digress:

Well, I'm not new, but I'm not a Master either, and I'm not discouraged. In fact, I think there are some great Master Skins on the front page now!

Thousands of hours is about right. I don't know if you were being sarcastic or not, but my latest WindowBlind took me A LONG TIME to finish. You absolutely would not believe the amount of detail involved in just ONE PART of one skin.

Okay? OKAY??? The Masters are Masters for a reason you know! Now I don't buy each and every one of the Master Skins, just the ones I personally like. But I would say that the Masters are the absolute best out there, and their skins show it.

Money grubbers. Yeah.

You know, having a real good knowledge of what goes into making a skin, I'm surprised anyone only pays $5 for them! I realize that they can only be sold according to demand, and maybe that's why the price is so low, but I think these skinners deserve to make much more from each skin! My goodness, you can't even eat at McDonalds for $4.95!

Without Master Skinners and Master Skins, there would be no standard of excellence; little ambition for the new guy to improve; and a whole lot of mediocrity.

I want to applaude all you Master Skinners out there! You're work is wonderful and you should be getting a little something for your work! I'm thinking you only make a few dollars anyway, so what's wrong with that? Pixelpusher, you should try making a few skins and see how well you do! See, then you would have a reason to complain, but as it is, you don't have a leg to stand on!

Agree with you jazzi!

I think this has ended up a good post. Now the Masters, other skinners and not just Windowblinds skinners and good people in general know how much we need and appreciate them. Hey I'm a skinner I made my Avatar.

Definitely not me

Its simple for me, If i couldn't make Master skins, I couldn't keep skinning. I try to contribute other stuff, docks, wallpapers, tiles etc as time allows.

It is nice to see support for our work and it is always appreciated.

I'm not a skinner but I was a systems analyst for software programming optimization (rewriting programs to be smaller, faster and more user friendly) for a number of years so I have some appreciation of the effort involved in producing a master skin. Whew, that was a mouthful. I have bought several master skins and I enjoy the aesthetics but to be fair, only one master skin was without significant problems. The most common problem involves text and background color choices. Twice I suggested the text of something was hard to read and was lambasted about "the skinner has made personal choices as to colors and white on white or black on black IS the design. OK, it's their creation but the buyer should have a right to a refund, for X number of days, in a simple straightforward manner. If the skinner wants a formal "letter of destruction", that's fine too.

Really I applaud the master skinners but let's be fair to the buyers as well. 

that would be a nightmare I imagine, to implement...and open to abuse.....

I think the secret to happy customers....is a very detailed screenshot of as many areas as possible so you can gauge whether it will be right for you or not....

I'm sure if there was an area that you felt was not represented for you to assess...a pm to the skinner would likely give you a screenshot of it for you to make a decision...they're pretty accommodating...

You could always change the fonts/text colors to your liking via SkinStudio, I do it all the time.

I am pissed!!!!!  I had the whole front page, all 5 slots, and someone uploaded a few walls!!!!!   Now all I have is 3 skins on the front page!!

I am being crowded out by common uploaders!!!             

And whatever you do for god sake don't use comic sans!

Poor baby! Sucks to be you!

Am I the only person who understood where the OP was coming from?

Dunno that I agree with it...or the need to segregate payware vs freeware skins....

....but I know where he's coming from....

So...what your saying is...you live in the same neighborhood?

I understand where he's coming from, I also understand where he's going. But Masters have worked hard to become Masters, honing skills, giving years of work away for free, not to mention being great assets to the community. They deserve to upload at will and have their work on the front page in the main gallery along with the rest of us.

If there was a gallery of only master skins, and they all went there, Masters wouldn't get the exposure they're entitled to, and have worked so hard for. And some of those Masters have only recently become Masters. Where is their incentive to become Masters if their work is set aside where only those seeking to pay for skins will see them? I never set out looking to pay for skins, hell, I'm a cheap skate! But when I see a real good Master Quality skin, if it is true quality, I am enticed to buy it. This would be a loss for the Masters if it were taken away.

As for free skins, yes, there are plenty, but I've seen a fair share of fairly ugly skins come through here in the past year, so I for one love seeing those master quality skins.

No more caffeine for you Jim!