WinCustomize in 2011
Sunday, January 2, 2011 by Island Dog | Discussion: WinCustomize News
Tomorrow (Monday) begins the official first day of 2011 work for many of us here. Aside from having my wisdom teeth removed last year, I didn’t take much time off so I tried to make the most of this break and stay offline for much as I could. I was able to do that because of the great staff we have here – Jafo, Hankers, WOM, DrJBHL, HG_Eliminator, Snowman, Lantec, and the other names who are escaping me right now. They truly are the best to work with and I personally appreciate everything they do for the site and skinning in general.
Getting back into work mode one of my first goals for 2011 is to make WinCustomize even better than it is. Site traffic has declined over the last year or so as skinning is moving back to its niche “roots”, and getting more people involved here and download/submitting is a top goal. Looking back at Win98 and WinXP when I first got involved into skinning, Windows was terribly bland and skinning was almost a necessity. Now that Windows is more physically attractive skinning has also gone from just changing the look of Windows, to changing how Windows looks and how to boost ease of us and productivity. This is not a bad thing in my opinion, and an app like Fences is the best example of what I’m talking about.
Taking lots of things into consideration I made a short list of things I’d like to address in the first half of 2011.
- Address lingering site issues. WC 2010 is brand new, but there are still some issues that need to be worked out. Yes, the delete skins button is one of them.
- More/better tutorials. Skinning isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, but it’s definitely not impossible. We need better tutorials and a better way for new and old users to find and use them.
- More contributors. We have a great core group of skinners that submit to WC, but more would be even better.
- More content. Mobile wallpapers maybe? Any other apps that can be skinned that should be added? Let me know!
Community is important as ever, and looking at our user groups here it was a fantastic decision to bring on board DrJBHL as our article/news poster for WC. He has been doing a phenomenal job at keeping WC users up to date with the latest tech and PC news, and I think doing this is a great move to broaden appeal to new users. In trying to address the tutorial content we definitely more people to contribute. Over the years I have written what seems like a countless amount of tutorials, but many are outdated and there are many others on WinCustomize that are more “experts” at specific apps than I am. If you would like to dedicate some time to helping update/write tutorials, once again let me know.
Getting more people over to submit to WinCustomize has been more difficult. Many just don’t know about the site, and others I have spoken with just don’t have the time to submit to multiple sites which is understandable. We “recruited” some people this year who are well known on other sites like DA who just didn’t realize that WC gets millions and millions of visitors each month. WinCustomize is a great way to expose yourself (no pun intended) and since we do obviously focus more on customization, it can be easier to get your work noticed. I’d like to see what the interest is in some type of referral program. Introduce an artist to WC and once they become a regular contributor a reward is given. Thoughts on this? Would you take part?
Well I think I have rambled enough, so let me also take this opportunity to thank you for your support in 2010, and I know 2011 will be even better than last year was!
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Reply #42 Thursday, January 6, 2011 2:47 PM
quoting myself
and that's confirm my Reply #19 not even the long term skinners will take care to click on any HIDDEN drop down\lateral menus and filters
Reply #43 Thursday, January 6, 2011 4:50 PM
... and most of all a very poor welcome for the anonymous visitors and believe me very few of them will care to click on any HIDDEN drop down menu or filters ...
and that's confirm my Reply #19 not even the long term skinners will take care to click on any HIDDEN drop down\lateral menus and filters
Now you got it! 
Reply #44 Thursday, January 6, 2011 5:01 PM
If that's achievable, it'll be a good thing for the artists and users. 
Ideally, I'd like the same as you, Steve. I hope it's achievable. I think that no matter what, if we can achieve the proper representation for the artist's work and do it in a well organized manner, great.
I think that's by separating Docks and Icons....but that's just me. I'm willing to listen to other view points. Everyone's opinion is in some way informative.
Reply #45 Thursday, January 6, 2011 6:13 PM
Since the latest few post have been related to Docks I will throw my 2 cents in. Two or three months ago a thread came out and the main topic was about the OD gallery and wallpaper gallery. The comments all came to the same thing fix these two Galleries. Why do these threads even come out as nothing is ever done or at least not visable to us. Gamers and the people that make the Icons for the games are as important and valuable to the Community as the rest of us. I don't have any facts to back this up but I would think the a gamer looking for icons would like it much better if there was a category for them because I doubt if they actually like going through all the docks to find the icons they want. The other problem I have is check the misc Icons category, it's loaded with gaming icons. So now we have two categories loaded with these icons. Time to have Object Dock category for docks and add a category for gaming icons. This would also turn the Misc Icon category back to better use and again for those who want to just look for regular icons.
Reply #46 Thursday, January 6, 2011 6:59 PM
This is a great idea, TMB (and great to see you here, lurker!).
TheAVMan and I'd also love to see iPhone/iPad and Win7 Phone apps developed which could notify owners of new skins/walls/docks, etc.
I believe this could draw an incredible amount of traffic.
Reply #47 Friday, January 7, 2011 4:46 AM
If it ever happens...which I doubt it will...someone make sure I'm sitting down when you tell me.
But it's been years asking for something like that to happen. After doing over 450 "sets" of dock backgrounds I just got tired of waiting for it to happen and took it as no one cared and then just went and skinned something else. In time as I see no more downloads of those backgrounds since many of them are not even being seen anymore from being buried...I'll just get rid of them...no point in having them there taking up space if they aren't being used. At one point I had considered updating a lot of them but decided it just wasn't worth all the time, work and effort. 
Reply #50 Tuesday, January 11, 2011 6:38 AM
Reply #51 Tuesday, January 11, 2011 7:11 AM
Rainmeter gallery is in private mode right now to build up, so.....
I am going to see what I can do about the OD Backgrounds.
Reply #52 Tuesday, January 11, 2011 7:14 AM
Your video reminds me of a late night TV show whose name escapes me at the moment. Psychedelic. Definitely get the creative juices flowing. Good post.
Reply #53 Tuesday, January 11, 2011 7:05 PM
That would be freakin awesome Spencer!
Reply #56 Tuesday, January 11, 2011 8:19 PM
"Not really to damn old"
One of those sentences that can be ruined by [wrong] punctuation....
"Not really, too damn old"
Ain't the same as...
"Not really too damn old"....
....
Reply #57 Wednesday, January 12, 2011 1:46 AM
... by the name StarDOCK ...Reply #58 Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:52 AM
I can't make a promise, but I personally would like to see a separate gallery. So if I can do it, I will.
Reply #59 Wednesday, January 12, 2011 8:07 AM
So far, a lot of good ideas and some promising changes. Let's hope for more!
Reply #60 Wednesday, January 12, 2011 11:03 AM
Cute video Doc. That one second from the right is going at warp speed. lol
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Reply #41 Thursday, January 6, 2011 2:20 PM
Your missing the whole point. There shouldn't be a need for filters or sub galleries. As I said "just docks" in the "Object Dock" gallery. Actually...I shouldn't even let myself get sucked into this exercise in futility.