I know we all know it, but sometimes we need reminding. I came across a site yesterday called wincustomize.com which claimed to be the "top skins website." While I'm sure lots of people make that claim, I had to look around. I only looked at the Winamp skins and the wallpapers. <br /> <br /> Those of you who don't know, I think the wallpaper section is almost laughable. Many of them are quite literally filter orgies. There are plenty of people who open up Bryce or whatever, hack something together, put a shiny texture on and submit it. Really, the submissions there speak for themselves. I really don't like to insult other people's work - even if it is, quite honestly, subpar at best. <br /> <br /> Point is, we should be happy we're part of a site which to me is clearly the best at what they do.
07:52 am, Wednesday, September 10, 2003 (6 years ago)
i agree with you, but this site is by no means "the best". there are many people who post wallpapers and skin exclusively on deskmod.com or deviantart.com and they are really really good at what they do.
this site doe have a very admirable sense of quality control and that's why i love it. as long as the admins can keep the good stuff in and encourage the not so good stuff to get better, then this site can do nothing but thrive. _____________________________
no one sleeps yet. let's keep it going until the morning.
We have a great collection of artists here at Customize.org; though I would like to see other talented artists who I"ve seen posting to other sites posting here.
We do try to maintain very high standards here at Customize.org; we want to provide you with the best resources we can. However, it's the artists who post their work here who really deserve the thanks. They are the ones providing you with all this great work.
So, thank you to the artists who regularly post their work to Custo, you've made this place one of the top desktop customization sites online.
i don't think that there will ever really be any site out there that is 'the best' in every category...inevitably, there will always be some top-notch artists out there who don't post to every site. custo can become much better and possibly lure some of the good artists who don't post here over to post now and then...i don't even think that i'd want to lable any site as being the best...each site has it's own high points for me, and i think that, if the 'top' sites in the skinning community pulled together more, we'd have a pretty good thing going. but, as for wincustomize saying that they're the 'top skins site', well, each site could say that...each site has members that think it's the best...so it's really just a matter of taste for the members and an advertising/marketing thing for the owners.
We need to encourage the really good artists in the community who dont post here to do so. I know that every so often at other sites I visit, I'll say "Hey you should really take a look at customize.org. Im sure you'd like it" or something along those lines. I know of a handleful of people I have gotten to come to this site such as xenosomething.
And when it comes to the best site its hard to say. If you go by the number of really good artists, DevArt has everyone beat, because they have so many, but still the average quality of work is well below ours. Deskmod has some really good artists we dont have as well, but so do we and I think we have a higher standard for quality work. All around, I think we are the best site, bias or not. Just personal opinion though.
Maybe the 'good' artists have had a mooch around here and seen the kind of remarks that uploads get. Getting totally ignored at DeviantArt is probably preferable to some of the clueless shit I've seen people spout here.
This isn't an art site, it's a skin site. That puts us in a different class than deviantart.com. I initially brought up wincustomize.com because its quality is so far below ours it's almost laughable.
As far as art goes....I'm not sure that's a fair statement. If everybody had an 'open mind' then it's likely everybody would get a good rating and somebody would love everything. When I submit crap - or anyone else submits crap for that matter - we get told about it. It doesn't feel good, but it's the best way to improve your work. It's hard to say that there are absolutes in art, but on some level there certainly are. 99% of the time the majority's opinion is right.
I agree that as a whole there wall section doesnt come close to this one, but ur talking about filter orgies,hacks in bryce throwing a shiny texture on something, and so......there are ppl out there that are very skilled in those area's of art. 1) angelic jean-from wincusto 2) lucious beast-fromThemeXP just an example But, two ppl I think are very skilled I've seen very good pieces get very bad ratings because the person rating it didnt like filters, or photo manipulations, or.......I think if ur rating a piece honestly, you should judge it for it, not the technique involved, it becomes to personal
The thing is, filter orgies and Bryce hacks make up a considerable portion of their wallpaper section. As far as good submission, they have plenty - angelic jean's work looks pretty good. I wasn't impressed by beast's work, though.
Here's the kicker - that's MY opinion, much like you've seen very good pieces get bad ratings is YOUR opinion. Some may agree with us, and others may not. Aside from the lack of quality at wincustomize.com, it seems like every wall has some positive comments and nobody bothers to provide any constructive criticism. And any rating HAS to have some kind of subjectivity to it, otherwise the whole idea of rating is lost.
Guess that's true, maybe it's you opening my eye's......lol.That's the thing I hate about other sites, their way to soft on some of these ppl.if you find a site that does use the rating system, more than likely everyone gets good reviews.I hate to see something thats crap get good reviews at a site, when you know if it was posted somewhere else it would get crushed
At devart I gave someone a bad review (gasp!). Nothing rude, but just constructive criticism. This girl decided to freak out and I almost got banned for it. I got a policy violation or something stupid like that. Anywho the point is... I didnt like someone's work, made comment of it and the whole world almost came to an end.
Incidents like that are why devart is known for people who cant handle criticism.
I think customize strives to be the best, the point being we've never said we were the best, so I'm not totally getting the conversation. If you refuse to take peoples work based on just the opinion of one or two people then it greatly limits the sites production. How are people going to get feedback and grow as designers without getting their work out there? Maybe it’s more important to have a solid community then it is to have all the best artists post here?
The truth is, we have a lot of great artists. But what we have more of is a lot of *potentially* great artists. Customize.org has seen a lot of members develop incredible talents over time and it's a real treat for the admin staff to watch people develop into big names through our community.
But it's true, in order to do that, we have to strive to be the best there is. In such, we're forced to sometimes throw some harsh comments in there. But talk to the people who've come up through our community, and they'll tell you that those harsh comments motivated them to experiment with new things, and try even harder to be appreciated.
For every bad comment you get, you have the opportunity to earn 5 really good ones.
