Hum, I didnt know that Lady_A left...When did that occur?

Sometime after she compared WInCustomize with a restraunt and herself as a customer at said restraunt.

Apparently, the volunteer moderators and admins here are, in her view, waiters and waitresses to serve her. She apparently sees a hierachy in community participation with her and others like her at the top of the pyramid and somewhere at the bottom are volunteers who actually run these sites on a day to day basis.

 

Also, A_67, I think its unreasonable for you to leave...Now, I dont know the details, but I think its childish to delete ones entire library of walls and skins just cause some idiot said that they're cr*p. You just have say, "Yea, well thats coming from some *ss who doesnt know what he's talking about" and move on...Instead of getting all worked up about it and saying, "Well, if he/she is gonna call my work cr*p, then Ill just leave and take my skins with me." You also take out upon those who (Like me) DO appreciate your work. You will notice...that most of the criticizm comes from ppl who havent made a single skin of wall worthy of upload.

*sigh*

DA and WC are two different sites. If you like one better than the other, then please support that site. I don't see what the big fuss is about. Apparently a whole lot of people prefer DA to WC, and apparently a whole lot of peolpe prefer WC to DA. Do I go around DA saying how much they suck and how much WC is better? Come on now, we are gown ups, we are allowed our preferences.

DA and WC are totally different beasts. DA is an Art site, while WC is mainly a Windows customization site. Consequently I find that a lot of people submitting to DA like to label themselves as "artists" while a lot of people submitting to WC like to consider themselves as "skinners". Nothing wrong with either.  Even the wallpapers subitted here are primarely considerd as such: wallpapers, as in meant to have icons on top, as in meant to complement the general look and feel of a customized GUI. While at DA, wallpapers are primarely submitted as "art". You could take the same piece, frame it and put it on your living room wall.
I doubt many downloaders here download stricly wallpapers. I feel quite comfortable saying that people here download wallpapers that will match the skins or theme they use.

DA have a LOT of wallpaper, or other digital artform. A LOT. Much more than they have skins and themes. In general, DA have a whole lot more stuff than we do here, but they have a comparable amount of visitors (or a bit more). It's really just a mathematical question.  Imagine a site gets 1 million downloads among 1,000 pieces. That's an average of 1000 downloads per piece. But if another site gets the same amount of downloads among a total of 1 million pieces, well that's an average of 1 download per piece. 

We'll never be DA. We'll never have that many wallpapers or skins to download from. For some people, that's why they like WC.

So, anyway. I have nothing against DA. Nothing at all. It's a completely different site with a completely different approach. Either you like one, or you like the other. Make your choice and move on.

Thank you.

I agree.  dA and WinCustomize are roughly equal in traffic.

But they are very different. dA is an art community. WinCustomize is a skin site. dA is the world's #1 art site.  WC is the world's #1 skin site.

Saying one is going to go over to dA is not much different than saying they're leaving to go visit Slashdot.

If you make things to customize your desktop with and want as many people in the world to see it and possibly use it, this is the site to do so.

If you want to create art to have part of a community portfolio, dA is the place to do it.

dA gets a lot more wallpapers and artwork than WC gets. WC gets a lot more skins and themes than dA gets.

Well put E.H.
I am kinda glad that i am not at this site to much

Me too Paxx...I go here, I go there, I go over there...and there too. I take and I give. WTF is wrong with some people?

Oh, did I mention, I go there also?



[Message Edited]

China: Exactly

In fact, I wrote just today on this issue on my dA journal:

http://frogboy2.deviantart.com/journal

People who are relatively new to this sort of thing mistakenly think that the community is one site. It's not. It's many sites. I visit dA, Deskmod, Skinbase, Neowin, amongst others on a daily basis. Some of the people here are moderators on those other sites as well.

You can always recognize a "newbie" (so to speak) when they take the attitude of "I'm goign to remove all my stuff and go to site X". As if these sites are competitors like Coke vs. Pepsi.

I like pepsi better...Cant stand coke.

#51 by Scribe Frogboy - 7/27/2003 3:24:47 PM As for AP67, for someone who's downloaded so much from the site, I'd think you would feel some sort of...well responsibility to give something back. Just because you've bought software from Stardock doesn't even begin to cover the costs of running this site.

I just did a total count of the designs I have downloaded from WC, they add up to 68 (wb,walls and icons) My contribution to this site were 70 something designs (walls, logons and wb) If you never saw them, well, you missed them. But the 300.000+ people that downloaded them, know my contribution. So I guess is fair to say that I contributed just as much as I downloaded. Now I never said that the money I paid to purchase products from Stardock is going to cover any expenses. So that comment is way out line. You also mentioned how we would feel when you limit the downloads and we have to purchase a subscription to continue to download. Well I never had a problem with paying for what I like, and If I’m limited to download and I have to pay to get a design I like, I will gladly pay. Just as I paid for all the software I use to create my designs.

I personally resent the attitude that you and Ap67 and lady A have taken that we are somehow basically your servants to provide you with a "service".

Whooa! let m pull the emergency brake and stop your train of words that are totally made up. Please show me where in any of my post I have said that I think of WC as a servant for providing any type of "service". Never have I refer to this site as such nor have I mention anything about thinking that with the removal of my work I’m intending some harm to WC. I took my work from WC just as I would take my belongings from anyplace after I move out. It’s that simple.

But those are people who have provided real contributions to the community. Not some relatively newcomers who popped in over the last several months thinking they are god's gift to the world.

Every permanent contributor to this or any site starts out as a newcomer that one day popped in out of nowhere. The reasons for they remaining in a site for yrs to come are only known to each one of them.
So please don’t come saying that A_67 thinks of himself God's gift to the art world. Or that A_67 cleared his work because he thinks he can cause any damage to WC. Because that will not only be a lie but also a way to try and pin the blame on something when in fact most of the blame lies within the site's administration.
Take for instance these 2 threads. 1 started out with a harmless comment about how the work accepted has in fact diminished in quality. And look at the extent that it has been dragged. The other started as another harmless comment from an artist that wanted to know where all my work went. And look at all the mess it evolved to. And in the amid of all the posts, we read all kind of stuff from bandwidth, wallpapers been useless and unnecessary, artist been ten a penny, assumptions that a hand full of artist want to harm WC by removing their work, etc, etc.
Now go on and make your own conclusions about what the issues are really about. Is really of no consequence to me.
Oh, and I just noticed my level user went down. Hahaha. I guess I should have suck up to the bosses instead of disagreeing with them

Yes, theres been some unnecessary 'flaming' in these recent posts...Tho, Id still like to know WHY your stuff is gone...It seems very petty IMHO. *Would also like to know who put his user lvl down*

[...] in fact most of the blame lies within the site's administration.

Can you be more specific, instead of coming up with another unfunded accusation?

You do see that 'suck up to the bosses' is what is so inflammatory....the suggestion of a need to 'brown nose', when all that is required is common sense understanding and appreciation of the efforts expended, whether 100% favourable to one particular individual, or not.

The admins and moderators at least 'try' to serve the common good, where what is ideal for a site's success is not always in harmony with an individual's perception of what he might want the site to be, or do.

6 and a half hours, now...[though I did manage a shower and a coffee]...and we're still here debating smoke, and seeking the fire....

.

Ap67, the system tracks bytes downloaded:

Nick: Apocalypse_67
UserID: 513520
User Level: 3
Bytes Downloaded: 675671 k

That's 675 MEGABYTES.

As for your contributions, since they are not here, we only have your word which, given how off yoru download estimates were, make me inclined not to believe how popular your submissions were.

Which is, of course, the problem. Once you delete your stuff, you lose any clout or any moral high ground you might have had. Now you're just a user who has used up 675 megabytes of bandwidth.

I have a lot more submissions here with more downloads you had I'm sure and I've only downloaded around 300 megabytes of stuff and I've been here (obviously) from day 1.

There's nothing wrong with downloading lots of stuff. But at some point, one thinks that youwoudl feel some sort of obligation to give something back. You claim you had a lot of stuff here.  But it's not here now so it's hard to say what you have given back to the community.

As for your access level - yes, access levels are determined by one's contribution to the community. Only 0.1% of users get promoted to elite access (apprentice or higher).  I certainly don't see how someone with nearly 700 megs of downloads and no submissions should have elite access.

 

So it all comes out "in the wash" so to speak .... im off to fetch another hot pocket this is great.