My thoughts

Ok, time to get a bit serious here.

Two days ago Alexandrie contacted me with this 'XPutnik' wall for a joke. It was my Sputnik wallpaper modified with the XP logo and lettering. When I saw it I couldn´t stop laughing and I uploaded it as a joke to all the XP stuff we have here at Wincusto lately. After that I saw Jafo´s post and we started to fool around trying to get Nicole with the worst wall ( I won, mine is worse than his:) )
To my surprise, that wall went to 1º in the top 10, I went speechless!!! I mean, that wall is the worst thing I´ve ever made since I learned to draw a cow when I was fourteen. At first I was amused, now I feel a bit sad with all this. I have some good walls here that took many hours of work and didn´t even make the top 10 and this piece of crap gets 1º. THIS IS SAD.
From this I can make some conclusions and I´ll share them with you fellow skinners/artists just to express what I feel with this whole thing. It is not my intention to offend XP skinners or users that like and download this kind of stuff.

1- People do like swirls, lens flares and other crappy filters that only take a good graphic app and 5 seconds to do. You don´t need to have any kind of skills, and don´t need to be creative.

2- If you want to show up in the top 10, the only thing you need to do is to imitate the latest Microsoft OS look.

3- If you do this imitation in blue, the possibilities to get into the top 10 increase considerably.

4- This XP stuff is overlooking good skinners/artists that try, and are creative in their work. the chances to get into the top ten are diminished if you don´t do XP related work or aren't a very popular skinner.

5-All this XP madness is being a negative to this site and should be moderated. There is no creativity, no skills needed and as this friend of mine told me, it wouldn´t happen at old skinz.org.

6- I´ll delete my XPutnik wallpaper now, my intention was to do an ironic joke and by the number of downloads it is very clear that my point here was not accomplished.

7- Nicole is mine, she´s actually in the kitchen making us a lasagna and we´ll go to a movie later:)))))
23,673 views 32 replies
Reply #1 Top
now you want me to delete this great wall? MOUAAAAAAAA
Reply #2 Top
Nuvem...you are all class...
You can't spell to save yourself, but I agree with your feelings of need to delete it.

It is one thing to have lots of fun with people and stir our fellow artists with the eroticism of lens-flares and swirlies, but to have the work actually appreciated by the general community is a bit of an eye-opener...

I, too, shall delete mine...[but I'll keep XP-orn up a while longer....gotta lure Nicole back, you swine]....

/me trundles off to delete my most successful walls....
Reply #3 Top
that's too bad people don't reconize true talent.

It's popular because it's Microsoft shit. If it was a normal skinner who had done that everyone would put bad critics on it.

This wall was getting more download than the real wall without XP stuff this is a shame
Reply #4 Top
hehe, jafo, want a bit of lasagna?
nahhhh, this is more than what you can get.
Hahahahahaha
Reply #5 Top
Nuvem you ARE all class.
Alexandrie--you said what I wanted to say so I'll just make it short and simple and say YAY :lol:
Reply #6 Top
Nuvem, you filter-whore, you...
If you only had an ounce of talent you would really have Nicole, and not just her cooking...

/me skips off to woo her back again.... hmmm...swirlies and chrome... now there's always room for improvement....
Reply #7 Top
haha, the cooking part ia much apreciated here:)
and we´ll go to a movie later, ya know ...popcorns, coke, a french kiss in the dark.....I have tickets to the midnight session, so don´t count on us too early,

Reply #8 Top
hmmmmm. Interesting thoughts Nuvem. However, since they're coming from the most popular XP artist to date, I don't think they could be very valid points...*s*











hehe
Reply #9 Top
Note to all moderators, you don't have to approve everything that's uploaded. I know I haven't approved any of the XP wallpapers. I'm definitely pretty tired of them too.

We do have a filtering system in the works where you'll be able to filter by rating on a per section basis. Few XP wallpapers have gotten a high rating.

But I think the time has come to lock down on the XP uploads. Yes, people like them based on the downloads but they are squashing out original, high quality stuff.
Reply #10 Top
Aaargh..someone showed good taste and moderated my XP wall....now I'll never get Nicole....
Reply #11 Top
Nuvem, as I posted not so long ago in one of your walls, YOU are one of my idols, not just as an artist, but as a person too.
You DO have all my respect.
Reply #12 Top
Ditto what Renato says, of course. But I just hate him for taking Nicole....
Reply #13 Top
Jafo, what about Pricila (that drag queen from the film), she is australian too.
Reply #14 Top
Well said, Nuvem. I fail to understand the "XP Obsession" myself!
Reply #15 Top
It's really sad... You did so many highest quality wallpapers. For me, the 'Lost Souls' series have to be in the Top 10 all the time. But of course, that is not everyones taste...
Hmm but maybe 'Lost XP Souls' would match better..
Reply #17 Top
treetog...we have quite a few world-renowned Aussie women worthy of note..[in the purely aesthetic sense]... Nicole Kidman, Kylie Minogue and Elle McPherson are three that spring to mind..
I, however, shall never forgive Nuvem for stealing Nicole from me....[I have met, and spoken to the other two]. He is beneath contempt. I demand satisfaction....pistols at dawn...
Reply #18 Top
O.K. you guys, stop arguing, I was the first to upload a joke XP wallpaper(xp BoXXi style),and my girlfriend (Kylie Minogue) thinks it's much better than yours!
Seriously though, the wall that I made took about 7 minutes to make, and would have made the top 10 if I hadn't forgotten the lens flare (damn!)lol.

Helder: I agree with all that you said. I personally have never even looked twice at any XP walls, and find it hard to understand why people choose to use them. I would much rather spend my day looking at a Nuvem wallpaper than some blue screen with a Microsoft logo on it, after all, isn't that why we are skinners and artists, so that we can get away from what the corporate giants WANT us to have?. Think about it, these people are paying good money for programs like Window Blinds etc, and then using it to make their systems look like a Microsoft desktop!! Go figure.......
My conclusion and advice....... Get Litestep, a Nuvem wallpaper, and a LIFE!
Reply #19 Top
But BoXXi...I like to argue...

But if someone with the artistic prowess of Nuvem starts themeing for LiteSTEP, then what are mere mortals such as myself gonna do then?
Oh, I know....
While he's themeing, I'll have Nicole to myself.... OK, go for it, Helder...
Reply #20 Top
Yeah, I heard that while you were arguing about which flag to put out at the Australian Grand Prix, four cars crashed! lol.

/me goes back to creating latest XP masterpiece...
Mac XP for Litestep ha ha.
Reply #21 Top
wow... something's going on.
OB section went down to 22 from 30 in the last 2hrs. And all the removed were XP themes...

good
Reply #22 Top
hehehhee...
my one claim to fame:

I, Kenray, have never ever looked at an "XP" anything, on this site or any other. My eyes (and therefore, mind) remain in a state of XP-Virginity.

The simplest solution to the XP-lague is: abstinence....
Reply #23 Top
Treetog, this was the right thing to do, I mean if I ever get to 1º at top list (wich I doubt)I want it be for my value as a skiner or wallpaper artist.not this way.


Jafo, who needs Nicole when you have China;)
Anyway. she dumped me when she found I wouldn´t buy her some glue of diamonds she wanted:P
Reply #24 Top
Nuvem....this is true....
Reply #25 Top
Ok, I can see why people are upset over XP and I agree that a lot of talented artist don't stand a chance of getting into the top ten if there work is other than XP lately.

Worse thing is I was in the OB section just now, and every OB theme I saw was XP, and they all look identical now. I encouraged one of the artist to do something original. Hell I get asked to do this too. I was recently accused of having like 30 XP WB skins ! ok that just is NOT true, and there is now only a few of them on the site now. I have deleted the rest in favour of my recent upload which is the one I wanted all along to look like.

Feel sad at the fact that many talented Artists arn't getting into the top ten. I have spoken to Treetog about my real feelings on this. And hell I am not just doing XP stuff forever anyway. I have some stuff on deviantart that is not Microsoft.I started out like that, then tailed off. Ok maybe there is hope for me yet,

I do have to say though that it does take skill and talent to create any kind of WB Skin or any other skin for that matter. Not just about every one can use a Skinning program to start with. WB is not a piece of cake to learn. As for graphics, well. I did much of my graphics by hand too. Ok I know some people wont accept that. But that is the truth and I stand by that. Most XP skins I see except a small portion of them are bad copies of skin that were done before them. They should not have been submitted as there was no need for them. Alexandrie, Scratch, and even Dan Decampaneu created early Luna and Whistler skins. I ended up doing them after I had created a theme for Hoverdesk for them. Anyway,.

Dont worry guys it will all be over some time soon. When XP is out no one will touch another XP so and so on here anyway, and the real talent will still be here. I do think that some XP work should well be moderated, to keep the high quality of standards. Some should be but not all.

I know in fact this must already be happening anyway. As some of the XP stuff has vanished. I moderated my own skins, and removed theones that were not important anymore. I WAS thinking of doing an OB version, but I decided not to. There is still too many in that section.!

[And mostly by the same person] Thats why I have encouraged him to try new hights.