I remember hearing those words in some Pink Floyd record when I was just a stoned little boy, and now, as a sober old man, I am starting to realize just how subtle and wicked that phrase is.
I am no longer the rowdy, mile-a minute kind of fellow that I was in my younger, wilder years. Some would call it maturity, some would call it “getting old” but one way or another, it sure is “slowing down”… easy enough to see from the drivers seat…
And so, I think it is, with skinning. We can call it “stabilizing”, “hitting its stride”, whatever we choose. The obvious truth is, that this art form has flattened a bit and to a certain extent, skinning has gone soft.
That's not a comment on the quality of the work being done, but a comment on the style and ambient “state of the community” of artists (and programmers) surrounding the work. What “killer app” has gone unskinned? What new wonderful methodology for skinning can we come up with? Does anyone really care when “Visual Styles” will alter 90 percent of the programs most people use on a daily basis?
Rhetorical questions aside, the backwash of XP has rolled back into the “surf” and we are left in a world where everyone and their brother knows about customizing the look of their computer. This is no little coffee clutch anymore, sweetness. So what's next?
Well, strangely enough… how 'bout a retrograde? Take skins off the machine and back engineer them into the “real world”. Look at PixelPrintz, “DA Prints on the Horizon”, and the ability to “skin” your own Motorola phone and more… It would seem we have turned some mystical corner where we jump off the screen and into the home, with all our glories trailing… but.
But.
To a certain extent, skinning has gone soft. I won't go as far as some have in my evaluation of the “state of the art”, but it is plain to see, as we wind our way around the skin sites daily, that there certainly is not the kind of “flurry” that one used to witness almost daily.
And certainly, when four skin sites run the exact same skin as the “Featured Skin of the Day”, something has gone soft. When skinning slowly boils down to the three W's — Wallpaper, Winamp, and Windowblinds — it would seem obvious that the speedometer has dropped below fifty.
Now, let me not give any reader the opinion that I will enjoy skinning and skins any less for this development. Just as surely as the mature man enjoys his -ahem-uh-ah- *passions* more vividly than the youth, the mature skinners are definitely producing a heretofore-unseen quality of work, and our newer artists start at a much higher stage of development than in previous years.
But.
To a certain extent, skinning has gone soft. Look around, compare today with yesterday, and you will start to feel it creeping up on you… just like “Soft Middle Age”.
— Kenray, June 2002
So cynical for one so young!
alienSCOT {07.05.2002|19.20}
hehe
Doreen {07.05.2002|20.54}
Sorry Kenray but I think you are projecting your own fatigue on skinning out as to a general trend. Statistically, you're incorrect. There has been a significant increase in suites, DesktopX themes, CursorXP themes, etc.
Perhaps a different outlook would be that many of the old guard applications (mainly freeware ones) have slowly declined. You don't see as many Beatnik or Colorpad or even Coolplayer skins as we used to.
Frogboy {07.06.2002|01.52}
That's probably what Ken is aiming at.
craeonics {07.06.2002|06.56}
well. I just did a cool player skin (ALIEN EGG if you saw it). I turned to cool player because i wanted to skin free form app and didn't choose Winamp 3 because of the complexity of it.
I'm also planning to skin litestep in the near future. So you might think i'm going back to the "old guard applications" but , hey, i never skinned them !
i'm pretty new on the scene (about one year) so, for me it's all still exciting to discover new app capabilities and all...
i think you'll pretty much change your mind as soon as Nullsoft release it's final WA 3 version with the promised XML compiler and when the other apps will start to use this advanced skinning kind of engine.
it will be the "modern time of skinning" ;) and it's near...
L-courni {07.06.2002|13.09}
poor old kenray would love to see a Renaissance ... crae hits it on the head, too...this was once the domain of the freeware app, like some kind of linux on acid, where folks made and shared stuff for love fun and freakiness...yeah, my old man pining for the old guard I guess...
L-courni - I got and love your egg! thats the kind of thing that keeps me browsing...
(yes, there is life after Red Leader)
kenray {07.06.2002|13.23}
maybe because the commonly skinned programs require you to buy a $50 registration, and then another $50 for a skin suite for them?
weze {07.06.2002|14.17}
hey, thanks Kenray, you made my day :)
weze sounds a little rude but i think what he is trying to say is that the scene is becoming more and more mainstream, business oriented and professional...
L-courni {07.06.2002|14.49}
You are wishing for a time that never existed. Commercial apps always dominated.
Even back at its dawn in 1998 (4 years ago) you can use the wayback website and see - it was commercial apps back then dominating (WinAmp which was shareware then, Neoplanet, WindowBlinds, IconPackager, etc.).
Only Litestep has really consistently moved forward and remained fairly popular.
While a handful of freeware apps have had some success and it's basically been only as long as the developer was willing to keep updating those programs. Eventually, writing a program loses its fun and at that point, there has to be an incentive to keep working on it. Does anyone seriously think writing WindowBlinds is fun? It's been constantly developed for FIVE years now. Who wants to work on something tedious for five years unless there's a pretty good incentive? That's why non-free stuff tends to outlast the efforts of freeware.
Eventually you get tired of rude email from some guy in Holland demanding you make your free program work on his S3 Virge card running "Win98 lite". For the software developer, it's mostly complaints and criticisms we here. The infrequent public "thanks" that people make to authors doesn't come close to making up for the daily complaints and criticisms software authors get.
And to keep softare going forward, it has to be kept up for years. You can't make the ultimate program in 1 year. It takes many years. Litestep's open sourceness saved it - others could pick up where others left off. But the rest tend to get left to fade as the authors move onto something that's new and interesting for them.
So that is why you pay $50 for your skinnable apps. Because money creates an incentive. It lets authors buy food and and shelter. It pays for a stable ISP. It pays for marketing and distribution, it pays for cool duffle bags that you can give to friends during the holidays. ;)
And the people who make skins, icons, and themes who are nice enough to share their work go with the things that are used by the most people. There is a certain gratification knowing that 20,000 people are using your skin. And they rarely care whether an program is "free" or not since most of the top skinners are adults who don't consider $20 (or even $50) to be a barrier to entry.
Frogboy {07.06.2002|15.41}
For the record, that Dutch guy wasn't me. I never installed Win98lite.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not Ken writes these bits just to push frogman's buttons.
I think it's not so much freeware vs payware as well as the change in scale that is bothering Ken. Small, cozy, know everyone versus the whole world and their grandma too. The freeware thing is merely his focal point.
craeonics {07.06.2002|19.06}
M.C. Hammer - Won't touch this
hehe
or was that song "Can't touch this"
Doreen {07.06.2002|19.45}
..Well I was trying to be subtle but yes, Craeonics, you..specifically you single handedly destroyed freeware. And not just skinning software, all freeware on all OSes. Even OS/2 freeware! I hope you're satisfied with what you've done!
him {07.06.2002|23.32}
That begs the question: when am I going to get my statue? or are ya'll going to wait till I kick the bit bucket?
craeonics {07.07.2002|10.17}
I think you know the answer to that question, comrade. ;) Not so much a statue as..preserving you forever in your glory. Whohahaha.
princess {07.07.2002|13.20}
Is it only a matter of time before an *exclusive* skinning community is created? One where membership is not open to all, but open only to those that contribute?
It's arrogant. It's elitist. And i'm dangerously close to flamebait here, but in the interest of sparking a good debate, i think it's worth it.
What does everyone think? Is it time to resurrect the tight-knit community? Time to go underground?
- infinil
infinil {07.08.2002|10.42}
sorry pardon me, I'm only here to look at that old ken bunny... hehe
(I love that bunny!)
Doreen {07.08.2002|19.34}
Why are the anmes messed up?
Anyway, the problem with communities is that only the DO-ers can move it forward. Someone has to write the software, someone has to make the skins. Someone has to host the skins, someone has to host the software.
I don't see any sort of exclusive community in the making any more than previously. If anything, things are a LOT less elitist now than they used to be. At least things now tend to be more of a meritocracy. In the early days, a vocal opinionated user could build quite a following with a lot of influence without contributing anything constructive to the community.
I for one don't miss the days where you could be a "big deal" in "the community" simply because you had a lot of time to spend on some obscure IRC channel. I much prefer the ones with influence being the ones who actually make skins, make software, host skins, host software, and participate in a positive way. Thanks to that sort of thing, today's user gets a lot more stuff for free than ever before with users having the option to pay and get even MORE stuff.
Frogboy {07.08.2002|23.57}
And I was just about to mention irc as the new underground clique. In fact, is there not a seemingly closed "elite" group already?
And er, what "anmes"?
craeonics {07.09.2002|06.37}
how can people be considerated "elite" for being some irc channel addicts ?
it's what you're doing that should makes you "elite", not who you know or what you're saying...
i think a "elite" group exists, but most of them are on NO irc channel... i don't know what channel you're talking about anyway...
L-courni {07.09.2002|09.33}
I think that in fact there is no such thing as a elite user group, just a bunch of familiar faces throughout. But to the new people this (intimacy witin the group) might unwantedly seem as elitist behaviour.
craeonics {07.09.2002|19.25}
you're right Craenics, but i was more talking about an elite "skinners" group, not an elite community "users" one.
;)
L-courni {07.10.2002|01.59}
sorry, i think my O died somewhere under my fingers :p
L-courni {07.10.2002|02.14}
Good job on the issue kenray and tek.
ravi {07.16.2002|13.53}
Couldn't disagree more. When skinning first started "hitting" with Winamp, it was mostly new and exciting and different. And basically, a "youngster's" game. Now, it is hitting everything....from OS's to individual app's. And it is for everyone and anyone......I have just started on my first OS skin(with Windowblinds) and I am 48. One of my favorite artists(for both skins and wallpapers) is 56 and just started a year or so ago. I do see that for every "new style" that comes out, there are a bunch of variations(sometimes in the thousands), and that may be what you're seeing......but every time I start to think it's all been done, that I've seen everything.....WHAMO-BLAMO, I find something truly new........
dragger201 {07.20.2002|16.19}
yeah true everytime you "think" you've seen it all, someone new comes in and brings a new design...
Doreen {07.22.2002|20.26}
"but i was more talking about an elite "skinners" group, not an elite community "users" one."
Not eliteist, tribal. The community is splitting into tribes based on mutal interests and friendships. ; ) That's my take on it anyways...
blackadder {08.25.2002|20.07}
were the hell are the pics on this site????????????????????????????????????
olly {11.01.2002|02.20}