Skinning's Golden Age

i believe the golden age was 2 years ago, maybe longer...

although a lot of good things are happening now and will continue the happen, i loved it when custo and skinz were about and skinning was 'our little secret'... i miss the days of scathe, thug life, and utopia... the day when the first non square sonique skin hit the scene and caused a burst of creativity...the days when this community was tight bonded with limited complaining and every new discovery was amazing...now we just take it for granted and expect more...

i just have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about the community feel with the growing popularity... very bad feeling...

I think skinning's golden age is still to come.

But I also miss the early days when it was all still very new. Very new in not knowing what was possible to do and not knowing what was going to happen next.

But as a skin author and skin software developer, the tools available now and the programs available to skin with are reaching their height right as the number of new users entering per month is probably close to reaching its zenith.

But like iMike, I worry about zillions of new people who might come in and wreck the community. I would really hate to see WC turn into a generic download site with an empty message board and hardly any comments on anything.

Well, I was almost gonna say 'Listen to Mike', till I got to the last bit....
The golden age was back when Litestep was in b23, Thug Life made your comp all LCD, and the biggest argument in the skinning crowd was whether eFX was more, or less buggy than Windowblinds. SHog's Scathe was cutting up the competition, and WinAMP skinners had yet to resort to tinting their skins and claiming it as a new version. There were new shells coming out every day, most as useless as tits on a bull, and eFront hadn't noticed us.....yet.....

As for bad feeling?....Nah...as long as we don't get more epidemics of repetitious junk as seems to occur when a new OS is imminent. [cough] XP [cough]....

I have to agree with Jafo.

[cough] beOS [cough]
[cough] Aqua [cough]

hehehe i think there's a flu goin around

alternative shells golden age is sure past. but skinning....maybe the jury is still out on that.

Oi, iMike. Leave 'em BeOS ports alone. If Be carry on the way they do, that might be all we have left.

Seriously now, I've only seen one decent BeOS port, and that was by EFIX. I do, however, agree with you on the aqua epidemic.

You forgot one... *cough*XP*cough*

I don't look at the early K-jofol days when eFX was fresh and I first sutck my head around the corner as being the Golden Age. I see it more as the antedeluvian world.

I remember in the 80s reading usenet news (you could skim through all groups while having your morning coffee in those days). Every july posts would appear from concerned "old internet users" about the new college students arriving and starting to crowd the newsgroups, ruining the community. It was the same when aol got usenet access. Fact is the "net" has been groving ever since and I have yet to see it wreck communities.

Maybe it is a good thing. New talents will get interested in skinning. We've had some setbacks with sites going down - we need some new blood.

Many things long better in retrospect when viewed through alpha-trans skinned rose-tinted specs in the present. Personally I feel the skinning scene's never been more vibrant or inventive - even given the endless *belch* *fart* XP ripping.