Bizzaro World of bandwidth users...
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
There's an interesting thread over at Neowin about WinCustomize's new bandwidth system.
Let me outline how it works:
After you've downloaded over 50 megabytes of content, you are asked to tie your WinCustomize account to your Stardock customer account. In effect, the site begins to check to see if you're a Stardock customer in some way. This only happens to those who are Citizen access, anyone else won't see it.
At 100 megabytes of downloaded content, the new system is activated. If you are a user with Citizen access and have downloaded >100 megabytes and have not registered any of your SD software nor have purchased an account you are required to do one of those things in order to continue downloading from the site.
So in effect, if you're using the shareware version of WindowBlinds and have been silently downloading skins for months, at some point you now actually have to register your software if you want to keep using the site's bandwidth.
One user in that discussion commented "You knew the risks of piracy when you guys opened the site..." to which the obvious response seems to be collectively: "Yes, we knew the risks and here is our solution which you apparently don't like."
I just can't seem to grasp how anyone can possibly argue that the people who register their software or purchase Object Desktop should somehow pay for those who are pirating the software to be able to download an unlimited number of skins.
As it is, 100 megs is a LOT of stuff.
Let me outline how it works:
After you've downloaded over 50 megabytes of content, you are asked to tie your WinCustomize account to your Stardock customer account. In effect, the site begins to check to see if you're a Stardock customer in some way. This only happens to those who are Citizen access, anyone else won't see it.
At 100 megabytes of downloaded content, the new system is activated. If you are a user with Citizen access and have downloaded >100 megabytes and have not registered any of your SD software nor have purchased an account you are required to do one of those things in order to continue downloading from the site.
So in effect, if you're using the shareware version of WindowBlinds and have been silently downloading skins for months, at some point you now actually have to register your software if you want to keep using the site's bandwidth.
One user in that discussion commented "You knew the risks of piracy when you guys opened the site..." to which the obvious response seems to be collectively: "Yes, we knew the risks and here is our solution which you apparently don't like."
I just can't seem to grasp how anyone can possibly argue that the people who register their software or purchase Object Desktop should somehow pay for those who are pirating the software to be able to download an unlimited number of skins.
As it is, 100 megs is a LOT of stuff.
werewolf
Reply #2 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 2:18 PM
Reply #2 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 2:18 PM
Those are the kind of folks who show up here occasionally and stir up trouble. Ignore them. Most of the thousands and thousands of us here totally support this policy.
_Coolballer
Reply #3 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 2:38 PM
Reply #3 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 2:38 PM
i'm a citizen... whats the difference if your not a citizen i havent downloaded much but still
Woodbridge
Reply #4 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:22 PM
Reply #4 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:22 PM
I've got 109MB of skins saved on my hard drive...wow didn't relise I'd got that many. But then again I've got a OD sub, skin browser and recently Drengin.net sub.
Hope you appreciate the support because now I can't afford to buy food
Hope you appreciate the support because now I can't afford to buy food
Ogre66
Reply #5 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:46 PM
Reply #5 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:46 PM
Coolballer, if you have purchased a Stardock product or have a Wincustomize subscription, it doesn't matter if you are a citzen or not, after you tie you email you order the products from Stardock to your Wincustomize account, you can download as much as you want. If you hang around here and contribute skins and/or help out others alot, the admins may promote you. If you get promoted and don't meet the prior criterium, you can still download as much as you want.
Ogre66 hopes that covers it and is correct
Ogre66 hopes that covers it and is correct
Ogre66
Reply #6 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:48 PM
Reply #6 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:48 PM
grrr...got so worried about getting criteria right so Jafo wouldn't have to correct me, i messed up a your 
c242
Reply #7 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:15 PM
Reply #7 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:15 PM
Hm, I began to archive skins from my HD (including all sorts like wp's and icons) since 01-2000 on CDR's, so ~1.8 GB now... If anyone is looking for his work after a HD-crash, just contact me... 
WOM
Reply #8 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:38 PM
Reply #8 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:38 PM
c242: Do you have your modem set for continious download!! Damm thats a lot of skins. Sounds like a full time job.
c242
Reply #9 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:38 PM
Reply #9 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:38 PM
BTW, read the thread and I saw JAF02's (now deleted) rude comments here. Some people... 
c242
Reply #10 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:42 PM
Reply #10 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 4:42 PM
WiseOldMan : I used to collect everything I could get since I detected skinz.org (No, I didn't fell over there because of this search-engine "skin" thing... )
)
Jafo
Reply #11 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 6:20 PM
Reply #11 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 6:20 PM
c242....admit it...you thought it was 'skins.org'...
Faramir....you fritzed a 'citizen' there, too....
Faramir....you fritzed a 'citizen' there, too....
WOM
Reply #12 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 6:32 PM
Reply #12 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 6:32 PM
Well I typed in wincustom.com a few months ago and got a skin site(real). Boy was I shocked. I was trying to show some little old ladies the site. Did that ever backfire.
Frogboy
Reply #13 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 8:52 PM
Reply #13 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 8:52 PM
There also seems to be a general lack of understanding that the skinning movement, for want of a better term, has grown massively in the past year. Mian once told me that skinz.org used around 6 megabits of bandwidth at its height. WinCustomize typically maxes 20 megabits all day every day.
And it's not just the bandwidth that's costly. In Skinz.org's time, it was mostly expert users into skinning. Now, there is a considerable technical support involvement by Stardock supporting things that aren't related to Stardock (The Litestep folks should love us, I think it would be accurate to say that no one is doing more to get more users using Litestep than us given how regularly we have to support it). These aren't complaints, they are part of the cost of doing business. But someone has to pay for that cost.
And it's not just the bandwidth that's costly. In Skinz.org's time, it was mostly expert users into skinning. Now, there is a considerable technical support involvement by Stardock supporting things that aren't related to Stardock (The Litestep folks should love us, I think it would be accurate to say that no one is doing more to get more users using Litestep than us given how regularly we have to support it). These aren't complaints, they are part of the cost of doing business. But someone has to pay for that cost.
DavidK
Reply #14 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 9:34 PM
Reply #14 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 9:34 PM
Most people also don't realize that until about a year and a half ago there was real money to be made in banner ads. That was why efront bought skinz in the first place. The revenues from ads on a site (even without popups) was probably about a hundred times what it is today. Sites could pay their expenses, their employees and even make some money if they got enough traffic. Ad revenues dissolved into mediocrity and today, without multiple popups, provide almost no income. That's when the search for a viable alternative for income became such an issue.
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
Reply #1 Tuesday, June 25, 2002 2:13 PM