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TEKNIDERMY
- ISSUE 8: February/March 2002
Tek: First I'd like to say Thank you gRAVE & Scarebear for taking the time for this interview, Teknidermy appreciates it! Tek: We might as well begin w/ who you guys "really" are behind the nicks? Such as real names, occupations, boxers or briefs type stuff... (Jason I already know you wear pink boxers & briefs so you don't have to answer that one question) hehe gRave: My real name is Gregor Klevze. I was born in Maribor (Slovenija). My main profession is programming. I have knowledge of PHP, Perl, C++. Scarebear: Real name - Jason Brown. Occupation - House Dad and part time Uni Student. Boxers at night, briefs during the day. NEVER pink ;) Tek: Who's idea was it to create Skinbase? yours alone gRAVE or you and a few friends? gRAVE: Long story, but here is a short description... That I got involved into skinning was my friend's fault when he showed me an article about Outsider in some German magazine (That was 1998 or 99 I think). I went on their page where I found links to customize.org and skinz.org. And meanwhile I started to learn HTML and I didn't know what I should put on my page. I decided I'll add wallpapers. I collected wallpapers over the email and wrote HTML manually for each of them :) Then I found out about Perl. I automated the page, changed design and added support for some other skinning application. In the summer 2000 I decided that I should choose new url, more familiar to users for the site instead of my company url. And Skinbase was born. Tek: What exactly is your role Scarebear on Skinbase and when did you come on board? Scarebear: My role is pretty basic. I post news, create new polls, help the other admins pick the daily Featured Skin, same for the Featured Application, suggest new features to gRAVE and act as a voice for Skinbase I guess. I also test new features that gRAVE comes up with. That's the coolest part of my job. When I actually became an admin I don't know exactly. Sometime around when all the drama started with the old skinz.org I think. Early this year I'd guess it was. I'd been a member at Skinbase for a while and saw gRAVE's request for help in the message board. So I offered to help. Tek: When did Skinbase go live? Scarebear: gRAVE will have the accurate details, but there was a skin site before the domain www.skinbase.org was setup. The original site was at www.klevze.net I believe. Skinbase came next (as www.skinbase.org) and was done in PHP. The first site was not. Slap me if I'm wrong :) gRAVE: Skinbase went live on 12th September, 2000. The original site (on www.klevze.com) was early 1998. Tek: Why the name Skinbase.org? gRAVE: It was interesting how name was chosen :) I was trying to register the new domain and I was asked for wanted words in domain and then a page gave me some domain names I could choose from. There were some cool names and it was hard to choose. Tek: Can you remember what other sites were around at that time and what was your initial goal behind creating Skinbase compared to the other sites that were up and running during that time? gRAVE: When I've started with Skinbase the scene was strong. There was skinz, deskmod, deviantart and probably LOS too. Tek: Are you satisfied with it as it is now? such as Design, Sections, Members & Interaction etc? gRAVE: Things are going well right now. Interaction is growing smoothly. But there is always a lot of things which should be improved. Scarebear: I'm pretty pleased with the site overall. gRAVE is great to work with. I come up with suggestions (as do other people) and he can make them happen. I do think the design itself could be improved. It is a bit trickier than other skinnable sites though because so far all the site skins that Skinbase has are different. The layout can be different from one site skin to another. One site skin has a floating window in it for example and another has the scrolling 'recent uploads' list. It's freeform site skins :) But we'll get there. Skinbase still has a lot to come yet and we'll make it all fit somehow. Interaction is what the site needs more of I think. We are starting to get a few more regular members uploading, leaving comments and using the message board etc. It's good to see skinners I know of and respect uploading their old stuff there now. It might be old stuff to them, but to some new Skinbase member it's the latest cool stuff :) Tek:
What do you think sets Skinbase.org apart in it's own identity from
its other brother skinning sites? gRAVE: I think for sure it is that we try to support every skinnable application, and the second I would like to expose is our designs. We offer more than 10 different designs to our visitors and they can decide which one they like the most. They are also welcome to make a new one and add it to our collection. Making the new one is pretty easy. I think that we're the only one who have "real" popularity statistics, which is based on downloads/days submitted. Scarebear: I think the number one thing Skinbase has going for it is the sections. If it's skinnable, or if it was skinnable we hope to have a section for it. It's not about downloads (to me) it's about pleasing the users of the software. If there's one person using an application then that person deserves the chance to find a skin for it. Also, if I could create skinnable software myself (no matter how trivial it might be) I'd like to think that a skin site somewhere would have a section for it. Tek: Are you working on implementing new features in the future of Skinbase or will it pretty much remain the same? gRAVE: I'm always looking for new features. But my biggest enemy is time :) I have many ideas which I want to release but never enough time. I think what would be a great feature, if we try to implement our webring (http://www.skinbase.org/dew/) more with Skinbase. In near future I want to release win32 application which will notify you about news at Skinbase and let you write new comments, news, download etc. Scarebear: More changes. gRAVE and I are working on a few things together now and as we add things to one site we realize it would work well on another site. gRAVE has coded Skinbase, PixelPrintz ( www.pixelprintz.com btw) ;) and the Desktop Enhancement Webring so far and each of those sites offers different features. So adding features created for one site to another will keep us (mainly gRAVE) busy for a while I think. Tek: What kind of traffic does Skinbase get on a daily basis? gRAVE: I must say that traffic on Skinbase grows monthly about +20% or more. We're using Webalizer for analyzing our traffic. Last month I think it was about 200,000 visits. And the most visited month was July 2001 when we had almost 500,000 visits. Tek: Are you satisfied with the traffic as it is currently or hoping for more and could you handle it? Seeing as so many other sites go under with Bandwith issues after traffic gets out of control? gRAVE: I think we don't have to be scared about losing Skinbase because of traffic. We have been assured all things for operating skinbase for a long time independent of their traffic. The only thing we should do in near future is upgrade our server. Scarebear: I want to see more interaction. That doesn't have to mean more traffic. The Guest/Member ratio needs to even out and the members need to upload, skin, comment and chat. Tek: What kind of things are you hoping to see in this sites Future, such as maybe more collaboration on skinning suites or what? gRAVE: There are few things we have in mind right now, but I think our members will give us the final word what they want to see there. Scarebear: I love an idea that has started up on our message board. A skin suite for beginners with some skin veterans offering their assistance. Those of us who have skinned before offering to teach others how to skin. The idea was started by some 'fool' named Elwin ;) I really want that to see that take off. I'd love to see more new skinners. Fresh people with fresh ideas. I think this idea is like taking the community skin suites one step further. And look how cool they were! :) Tek: How does it make you feel seeing some of the other skinning sites around going up and down so unexpectedly? gRAVE: That's certainly not good for the scene. But most of them are back now, that's good. I hope they have fixed any problems and they will be stable from now on. If they can still stay up, people will decide which are stable and they will support them, because I think skinners like to choose one place for their home and stay there. Scarebear: Sad. As I write this, skinz has come back in a new form, LOS is still down and DeskMod is coming back. I think it is better for everyone if all the major sites can survive. The more sites there are the better. Each site has something cool and unique to offer so we need them all. Tek: Where do you rank Skinbase right now looking at the scheme of things? gRAVE: First of all I must say that a lot of work was already done at Skinbase, but I know that a lot off work still comes. I think we made the grounds of the site so far. Scarebear: Ranking compared to other sites or on the scale of how finished I see it? Compared to other sites it's not as neat and tidy as some, but it offers the most I think. On a scale of completion, I'd say it's still in the early stages. There's plenty still to come. I am yet to come up with a suggestion gRAVE couldn't do yet ;) So coming up with new ideas and features will help Skinbase continue to grow and keep Skinbase a busy and fun place to call home. That's important too. Because skinning should be fun! (I HAD to say that) ;) Tek: And skinning is that much more fun thanks to you gRAVE and Scarebear and making Skinbase what it is today! Thanks again so much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to do this interview Tek wishes Skinbase much success!
Well
Teknidermy readers what are you waiting for? addendum: after completion of interview,DeskMod and Lotsofskins have returned |