Cant use site anymore
Saturday, January 25, 2003 by m4ch1n3g0d | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
I think that it is unfair to make people PAY to use this site, i only come here for sysmetrix skins, and occasionally wallpaper. Now, i cant download anymore until i PAY!!! That is crap!! This site used to be free, what happened?
 |
|
Page 2 of 8 | |
|
|---|
iwontpay
Reply #22 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:49 AM
Reply #22 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:49 AM
"#18 by Skinner stark23x - 1/26/2003 1:04:02 AM
YOU OWE ME, WORLD. I WANT THINGS FOR FREE FOREVER. I DON'T CARE IF THIS IS THE LARGEST AND BEST REPOSITORY OF SKINS, AND I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO FEED SKINS TO THE THOUSANDS OF FREELOADERS LIKE MYSELF WHO DOWNLOAD THINGS FOR MY WAREZED VERSIONS OF STARDOCK PRODUCTS.
SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING HOME.
(The previous words were sarcasm, in case you didn't recognize them. If you are offended, odds are you're a leech and you are probably also stealing software. Bite me. In a friendly way. )"
And how many p2p file sharing programs do you use on a regular basis? How many newsgroups do you visit each week? Im a firm believer that software should be free, and along with it its source code. Im anti-corporate, and damn proud. Im poor, im young, i dont have money to pay to download stuff from this site, and if i did have the money, i have better things to do with it like buy books on programming, take some college courses, learn to create what i normally download from this site. I dont do anything for a cash profite and i think its sad that this site wants everyone to pay now. I go to work each day and pay my bills, i dont steal, and i dont expect to be handed anything in life.
YOU OWE ME, WORLD. I WANT THINGS FOR FREE FOREVER. I DON'T CARE IF THIS IS THE LARGEST AND BEST REPOSITORY OF SKINS, AND I DON'T CARE HOW MUCH IT COSTS TO FEED SKINS TO THE THOUSANDS OF FREELOADERS LIKE MYSELF WHO DOWNLOAD THINGS FOR MY WAREZED VERSIONS OF STARDOCK PRODUCTS.
SCREW YOU GUYS, I'M GOING HOME.
(The previous words were sarcasm, in case you didn't recognize them. If you are offended, odds are you're a leech and you are probably also stealing software. Bite me. In a friendly way. )"
And how many p2p file sharing programs do you use on a regular basis? How many newsgroups do you visit each week? Im a firm believer that software should be free, and along with it its source code. Im anti-corporate, and damn proud. Im poor, im young, i dont have money to pay to download stuff from this site, and if i did have the money, i have better things to do with it like buy books on programming, take some college courses, learn to create what i normally download from this site. I dont do anything for a cash profite and i think its sad that this site wants everyone to pay now. I go to work each day and pay my bills, i dont steal, and i dont expect to be handed anything in life.
da_zman20
Reply #23 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:50 AM
Reply #23 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:50 AM
this is a post I just put into another message board... I am reposting it and changing the names to piss off the guilty:
your opinion doesn't matter m4ch1n3g0d , if you had a real one then it might, no one is getting rich off of this site, you superficial wanabee. The artists who make this their home get all of fame from this site, then the free beer crowd like you and your welfare collecting A$# come along and spoil the fun for everybody. We don't expect you to spend money here, we just expect you to give credit where it is due, as for the band width limitations of this site it all can be attributed to leeches like you who take all they can and never give anything back, so if you want something to suck, me and all of the artists here have alot for you to suck on!
your opinion doesn't matter m4ch1n3g0d , if you had a real one then it might, no one is getting rich off of this site, you superficial wanabee. The artists who make this their home get all of fame from this site, then the free beer crowd like you and your welfare collecting A$# come along and spoil the fun for everybody. We don't expect you to spend money here, we just expect you to give credit where it is due, as for the band width limitations of this site it all can be attributed to leeches like you who take all they can and never give anything back, so if you want something to suck, me and all of the artists here have alot for you to suck on!
da_zman20
Reply #24 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:53 AM
Reply #24 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:53 AM
no offense meant by the last post to anyone on this site who has contributed in anyway... this includes people who post positve comments on the message boards, skinners, polite visitors, people named jafo, and anyone who collects welfare because they need it for the sake of getting their foot in the door (if I needed it I would take it, it's not a hand out, it's taxes that we all we pay, and deserve to get back when we need it)
da_zman20
Reply #25 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:00 AM
Reply #25 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:00 AM
one more comment is $20 so much money??? I have 20 bucks, I'd rather donate it to something I believe in than waste it on sodas and fast food, cause that is what we all do when we have an extra $20... I've bought the following from Stardock, Window blinds, IconPackager, a year later I upgraded to object desktop, I donated to Mormegil to get his Icon selection going, then after that I helped him out some more, bought his orion icon set, I didn't need it... I had all of his other awesome sets, but I did it cause I like him, and what he does...and now that my object desktop subscription is up for the second time what am I gonna do, get rid of heck no... im gonna renew it not only because I want to help the skinners, because I am a bigger fan of the software now, more than ever 
I love this site, and I will defend anyone that believes in it... so fork over 20 bucks, or download your 50 megs and go home... we won't miss you, but we'd much rather have you here....
I love this site, and I will defend anyone that believes in it... so fork over 20 bucks, or download your 50 megs and go home... we won't miss you, but we'd much rather have you here....
m4ch1n3g0d
Reply #26 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:01 AM
Reply #26 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:01 AM
Why do we have to start fights? Why cant people get along!! Why do we have to insult each other. Yeah, i was a little outraged that i was banned from downloading from this site until i pay, but you are being rediculous da_zman20. Your gangster mentallity will surely get in the way of rational thinking. Maybe I will pay to download more. This site is great, and i have been coming here for almost a year now. There are alot of great artists here, and i didnt mean to insult anyone.
Roy Munson
Reply #27 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:10 AM
Reply #27 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:10 AM
I just copyed this from the faq section , it says the limit is 150 megs. So what is it 50 or 150?
Why can't I download more than 100MB of stuff from here?
Actually its 150MB at this time. But this can change at a later date. As WinCustomize has become more and more popular the number of downloads that occur daily has risen dramatically. This has caused a significant increase in Bandwidth costs for the site. And bandwidth usage continues to rise. In an attempt to recover some of this cost we began selling some merchandise on WinCustomize. But the amount of merchandise being sold still did not even come close to paying for the bandwidth costs let alone the rest of the operating costs that are incurred. Then we began offering Subscriptions with additional benefits as way for patrons of WinCustomize to help offset those costs even more. However, this still was not covering the bandwidth costs. So what do we do next? We either need to increase sales or decrease bandwidth? So the next step we tried was to do both by putting a cap on they amount of data you can download from WinCustomize for NON-PAYING visitors. If you have purchased "Any Product" from Stardock or WinCustomize or if you have purchased a WinCustomize Subscription you are provided with the benefit of Unlimited Downloads. We encourage people to try before they buy. That is why all Stardock Software is available as shareware. To try out all the software you will want to download skins from WinCustomize so we need to make downloads available for free. But we also need to place a limit on downloads to help control the Bandwidth costs. So how much should we allow. We ran some queries and decided that most people had downloaded less that 25MB's from WinCustomize. So realistically 25MB's is what most people would need to try out our software. But we did not want to push people away from WinCustomize either. So we decided to be generous and set the cap fairly high. We decided on 150MB. Once you have downloaded 150MB you are requested to purchase a subscription to WinCustomize or at least purchase the Product in which you are using the skins with.
Why can't I download more than 100MB of stuff from here?
Actually its 150MB at this time. But this can change at a later date. As WinCustomize has become more and more popular the number of downloads that occur daily has risen dramatically. This has caused a significant increase in Bandwidth costs for the site. And bandwidth usage continues to rise. In an attempt to recover some of this cost we began selling some merchandise on WinCustomize. But the amount of merchandise being sold still did not even come close to paying for the bandwidth costs let alone the rest of the operating costs that are incurred. Then we began offering Subscriptions with additional benefits as way for patrons of WinCustomize to help offset those costs even more. However, this still was not covering the bandwidth costs. So what do we do next? We either need to increase sales or decrease bandwidth? So the next step we tried was to do both by putting a cap on they amount of data you can download from WinCustomize for NON-PAYING visitors. If you have purchased "Any Product" from Stardock or WinCustomize or if you have purchased a WinCustomize Subscription you are provided with the benefit of Unlimited Downloads. We encourage people to try before they buy. That is why all Stardock Software is available as shareware. To try out all the software you will want to download skins from WinCustomize so we need to make downloads available for free. But we also need to place a limit on downloads to help control the Bandwidth costs. So how much should we allow. We ran some queries and decided that most people had downloaded less that 25MB's from WinCustomize. So realistically 25MB's is what most people would need to try out our software. But we did not want to push people away from WinCustomize either. So we decided to be generous and set the cap fairly high. We decided on 150MB. Once you have downloaded 150MB you are requested to purchase a subscription to WinCustomize or at least purchase the Product in which you are using the skins with.
da_zman20
Reply #28 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:14 AM
Reply #28 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:14 AM
good as long as we are on the same page, I hear everyday how people here are greedy and all of that maintaining a site is expensive, and this site is NOT about making money... no offense to you... I just hope you can understand that... and if you truly agree with me that this site is about the skinners and not the money then I hope you can accept my apology... I was heated about a guy in another post and then your post was the next I read... remember there are no pop-ups on this site whatsoever.... this site has to be paid for somehow... the cap makes sense, because if you buy any stardock program, you don't have it. and that's the point, everyone needs to contribute to the band width, or else the skinners will lose their safe haven that they have here... I didn't mean to be a jerk I apologize...
da_zman20
Reply #29 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:19 AM
Reply #29 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:19 AM
at the current moment it is 50... the reason being is that bandwidth is too low right now... to many people downloading... and they said why in another message board... I can't remember... but they said it would be low for a while... it will be 100 again soon
Roy Munson
Reply #30 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:26 AM
Reply #30 Sunday, January 26, 2003 4:26 AM
Thus far I have not purchased a subscription to WinCustomize because you must buy a two year subscription and I would feel a lot more comfortable with a one year plan. The reason I would prefer a one year plan is because two years is a life time when it comes to the internet. If this site goes down after I used only one year of service would I get a refund for the year I didn't use? I doubt that would happen.
I think the nasty response the person received that started this thread was uncalled for and will only encourage people like me that are on the fence about purchasing a subscription to leave! I have noticed this type of response more than once in the short time I have been coming here.
I have my flame suit on..so fire away!
I think the nasty response the person received that started this thread was uncalled for and will only encourage people like me that are on the fence about purchasing a subscription to leave! I have noticed this type of response more than once in the short time I have been coming here.
I have my flame suit on..so fire away!
da_zman20
Reply #31 Sunday, January 26, 2003 5:24 AM
Reply #31 Sunday, January 26, 2003 5:24 AM
did my last post notget recieved hmmm... I don't see it, oh well... basically what I said was it's all good... I didn't mean to be mean... but this is site doing farely well... and it's not aboutthe money... why haven't you bought a subscription yet if you don't mine me asking... it actually is one year that's what I bought it as... you get the second free... 
if you dont want the second year you can give it back at any time... I think it's worth it as do many others... and if you buy it, you aren't lining someoneelses pockets with money, but what you are doing is keeping the sight alive for another two years:)
if you dont want the second year you can give it back at any time... I think it's worth it as do many others... and if you buy it, you aren't lining someoneelses pockets with money, but what you are doing is keeping the sight alive for another two years:)
messybuu
Reply #32 Sunday, January 26, 2003 6:20 AM
Reply #32 Sunday, January 26, 2003 6:20 AM
Roy. People receive nasty responses when they post nasty messages. One can't expect one to receive respect when one refuses to show any. Now if someone was being respectful and showing some netiquette in their criticism of WinCustomize, and they were flamed, then I would agree. I'm not aware of an incident like that though.
As for the subscription being two years, one could look at it as da_zman20 stated, one could look at it as only $0.83 a month, or one could also look at Stardock itself. Considering that it's been in business for some time, I don't expect them to shut down anytime soon.
As for the subscription being two years, one could look at it as da_zman20 stated, one could look at it as only $0.83 a month, or one could also look at Stardock itself. Considering that it's been in business for some time, I don't expect them to shut down anytime soon.
GFXWizard
Reply #33 Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:50 AM
Reply #33 Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:50 AM
so many times i've herd this talk.blah blah blah
(One min. u say u want non now u say u want)
(One min. u say u want non now u say u want)
Koasati
Reply #34 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:21 PM
Reply #34 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:21 PM
I had intended to stay out of this thread, but I wish to respond to a few things...........
#22 by Citizen iwontpay -
And how many p2p file sharing programs do you use on a regular basis?
... Exactly 0.
How many newsgroups do you visit each week?
... I visit Stardock newgroups occasionally, but I don't get your point on this one.
Im a firm believer that software should be free, and along with it its source code. Im anti-corporate, and damn proud.
... That's fine, you're entitled to your beliefs, but this site is ran by a 'for profit' corporation. You should look elsewhere for a site that agrees with you.
(You probably feel that groceries should be free as well.)
Im poor, im young, i dont have money to pay to download stuff from this site, and if i did have the money, i have better things to do with it like buy books on programming, take some college courses, learn to create what i normally download from this site. I dont do anything for a cash profite and i think its sad that this site wants everyone to pay now.
... I'm poor and I'm old, so what? I don't have the money for a new computer, but I don't write Dell, telling them what greedy bastards they are, because they want money for their products.
I go to work each day and pay my bills, i dont steal, and i dont expect to be handed anything in life.
... Really? You've already stated you don't do anything for profit, but you work to pay bills........
You don't expect to be handed anything in life, other than software, and the source code, and the bandwidth you would use here.
Please get a grip.
#22 by Citizen iwontpay -
And how many p2p file sharing programs do you use on a regular basis?
... Exactly 0.
How many newsgroups do you visit each week?
... I visit Stardock newgroups occasionally, but I don't get your point on this one.
Im a firm believer that software should be free, and along with it its source code. Im anti-corporate, and damn proud.
... That's fine, you're entitled to your beliefs, but this site is ran by a 'for profit' corporation. You should look elsewhere for a site that agrees with you.
(You probably feel that groceries should be free as well.)
Im poor, im young, i dont have money to pay to download stuff from this site, and if i did have the money, i have better things to do with it like buy books on programming, take some college courses, learn to create what i normally download from this site. I dont do anything for a cash profite and i think its sad that this site wants everyone to pay now.
... I'm poor and I'm old, so what? I don't have the money for a new computer, but I don't write Dell, telling them what greedy bastards they are, because they want money for their products.
I go to work each day and pay my bills, i dont steal, and i dont expect to be handed anything in life.
... Really? You've already stated you don't do anything for profit, but you work to pay bills........
You don't expect to be handed anything in life, other than software, and the source code, and the bandwidth you would use here.
Please get a grip.
BoXXi
Reply #35 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:25 PM
Reply #35 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:25 PM
Randy: To quote Meatloaf... You took the words right out of my mouth.....
(but forget the next line of the song, big boy!)
(but forget the next line of the song, big boy!)
da_zman20
Reply #36 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:59 PM
Reply #36 Sunday, January 26, 2003 12:59 PM
Kosati gets it where do I go for the free groceries???
where do I go for the free groceries???
joetheblow
Reply #37 Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:19 PM
Reply #37 Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:19 PM
#34 by Koasati - 1/26/2003 12:21:51 PM
I agree with Koasati. You want things for free and yet you pay for school and pay bills. You pay for programing books. I guess you feel that there are some thing you should pay for and other you don't. Photoshop costs hundereds of dollars. But it should be free, right? Someone came up with an idea that so many profit of off, she woprks millions of hours programing photoshop, makinfg help files, having operaters help people with the program... but hey lets go to a p2p program and get it for free because it should be free anyway.
I think allot of things should be free; food, shelter, education.
that is what should be free. your being asked to give something back to the community of artist that work and give skins, people who set up the database and maintain it, and a help desk to fix programs and the site in general. does that sound free?
The funny thing is YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY!!! you could make comments, submit news, and help on the message board. BUT I guess that would take TOO MUCH OF your time.
I agree with Koasati. You want things for free and yet you pay for school and pay bills. You pay for programing books. I guess you feel that there are some thing you should pay for and other you don't. Photoshop costs hundereds of dollars. But it should be free, right? Someone came up with an idea that so many profit of off, she woprks millions of hours programing photoshop, makinfg help files, having operaters help people with the program... but hey lets go to a p2p program and get it for free because it should be free anyway.
I think allot of things should be free; food, shelter, education.
that is what should be free. your being asked to give something back to the community of artist that work and give skins, people who set up the database and maintain it, and a help desk to fix programs and the site in general. does that sound free?
The funny thing is YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY!!! you could make comments, submit news, and help on the message board. BUT I guess that would take TOO MUCH OF your time.
da_zman20
Reply #38 Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:53 PM
Reply #38 Sunday, January 26, 2003 1:53 PM
but also remember this site doesn't exist to sell software... that isn't what this site is about.... it's all about the skinners... so why do people call wincustomize greedy??? because the bandwidth is barely enough, and for a non profit web site to stay in business is impossible, all money donated to this site in any way goes towards bandwidh and servers, not a single person at this site takes home a dollar in profit... the skin browsers sold all go towards adding bandwidth and content... but stardock does give the site a grant every month to stay operational, they pay for any one who doesn't buy the browser... why are you here if you don't have skinning software??? You must have something... all wait but their is more, if you haven't bought the software, and participate here... you are allowed to download as well.... more even... if you do nothing at all here... not even talk in the message boards... they still give 50megs of free downloads what more could you want??? who is greedy??? wincustoize gives all day long... how bout everyone else does their part and I just bought Toon XP, good job Pixtudio, and Mormegil I love you guys
and I just bought Toon XP, good job Pixtudio, and Mormegil I love you guys
Frogboy
Reply #39 Sunday, January 26, 2003 2:18 PM
Reply #39 Sunday, January 26, 2003 2:18 PM
The bandwidth limit has been limited to 50 megabytes. The original poster has downloaded more than 75 megabytes. Or put another way, they've downloaded a LOTTT of stuff.
The average systemetrix skin is 100K. There are only 176 such skins here (17.6 megs). So where did the other 60 megabytes of downloads come from? Wallpapers? That's a LOTTTT of wallpapers.
Someone has to pay for the bandwidth. It seems to me that at a certain point, the people using the bandwidth should contribute in some way.
The average systemetrix skin is 100K. There are only 176 such skins here (17.6 megs). So where did the other 60 megabytes of downloads come from? Wallpapers? That's a LOTTTT of wallpapers.
Someone has to pay for the bandwidth. It seems to me that at a certain point, the people using the bandwidth should contribute in some way.
Frogboy
Reply #40 Sunday, January 26, 2003 2:20 PM
Reply #40 Sunday, January 26, 2003 2:20 PM
I should also add that WinCustomize's policy is to EITHER find ways for people using all the bandwidth to help pay for the bandwidth THEY are using or to encourage them to...well go away.
I've never quite understood why someone who hasn't done anything at all other than leech bandwidth would consider it somehow a bad thing for the site if they went somewhere else.
I've never quite understood why someone who hasn't done anything at all other than leech bandwidth would consider it somehow a bad thing for the site if they went somewhere else.
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!
|
|
Page 2 of 8 | |
|
|---|
Reply #21 Sunday, January 26, 2003 3:38 AM