Why is it that people who don't want to use something feel the need to tell the rest of us that we shouldn't use it.

Some of us don't care. We don't care if people know what skins we use because we want to know what skins people are using so that we can easily find stuff that is good.

If you think it's a bad idea, that's nice. Go away. Let those of us who aren't paranoid figure out what features we want to have in such a program.

Being a stats junkie, I think it''s a neat idea. Obviously it would have to be a separate program and be an opt-in thing, but that''s already been covered. Having a more accurate idea of what programs and themes people are using would be interesting at a minimum. It seems like it could also help sway the direction of skinning - IOW it would be easier to identify what people liked and make more themes that catered to that. Of course, you wouldn''t want it taken to an extreme so that a lot of skins ended up being mere variations on one another.

The rating system here probably does a pretty good job of getting feedback, but it does have its limitations that a program like this could overcome. Imagine knowing not only which themes I used, but how long I used them for? I might use some of them a few times a month, but there are others that might be racking up 90% of my usage time. That would be an interesting statistic, I think.

I wonder if it could be sold in the same vein as the Neilsen ratings. There are a bunch of people that willingly offer to have their TV viewing habits recorded and don''t mind any ''privacy invasion'' issues. Seems like this is an analog in the computer world.



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So you don't really want to know what people think of the idea? That surprises me and doesn't sound like Brad. Personally I trust Stardock, after all I got so much stuff on that I'd be totally screwed if they weren't trustworthy. Certainly SkinSpy is a user-choice so there shouldn't be any problems if one chooses not to run it.

A couple of folks have suggested that current sensitivity (seems to me Joe User has a blog on this) to spyware might indicate a rash of negativity arising from SkinSpy. Logic doesn't apply when paranoia strikes. Your company,your choice.

Brad maybe a poll will give you better results?

At first when I read what Brad wrote, I thought someone else needs to do the PR work for Stardock , but in reality he's right. Brad's using this thread to find what features people who would want to use this type of program would want, not whether or not anyone wants this type of program. So all commentary, other than about features, including my post here and my previous post have nothing really to do with this thread. ....and now I'll go away

Brad...Thanks for the clarification

Wow Frogboy what a grump!!!

I got chewed up ripped up spit out shat out and spun around on an unknown finger.....forgive the 'paranoia' but...

I don't have a whole lot of extra system resource left to run a program...but if you could guarantee the safety of it...(that somewhere down the line it wouldn't cause me any more grief) I'd be more than happy to oblige.

No harm intended with the opinion....and yes I trust Stardock and Wincustomize and the quality products that I have purchased...and the service I've gotten to support it...and I Thank You for that....

*sigh

Maybe look at it in a different light. It would be no different than cable companies, tivo, etc. recording what you watch for ratings. Thats been done long before spyware. Call it ratingware. ooooooh, that was bad.



sorry xymatix, just saw your post. my bad
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So I guess its going to say something like this:

50 people are using this xxx blind, 30 people are using this xxx wall, etc, etc?

or

50 people are using blinds from xxxx Author, 30 people are using walls from xxx author, etc, etc?

Just currious.

Speaking strictly for myself, I have no problem with this kind of "spyware" when it is upfront about the purpose, states clearly what information is being collected, and we have conrol over whether or not it is installed, enabled, or even, as has been suggested, Selectively enabled.

I see no cause for concern with your proposal. Stardock already has been entrusted with my name, address, credit card number, etc. And if you seriously wanted to bundle spyware onto my system, you have had ample opportunity to do so. The spyware that troubles me is the kind that attempts to sneak on to my system, seriously invade my privacy, steal my resources, and then clings tenaciously to my system when I try to remove it.

My only question about this has been touched on by Xymantix, and that is what type of data will be collected. Knowing what skins are being used at a time of login seems a bit lax to me, and the data would probably be more useful if you somehow could monitor uptime for skins, and send periodic summary reports. It might even be kind of neat if it could collect a user log SO I myself would be able to look back and see what skins I''ve used most or even those I''ve not used at all that I might want to archive and remove.

Another thought occurred to me, as some others mentioned here, how will you collect data on unpublished skins in use? For example, I tweak almost every skin I download and save it under a different name (Original name X2, ___X3, etc) so as to keep the original skin intact for reference purposes. And even though some of those "tweaks" are fairly major, in my mind, they are still the work of the original artist. But should they be counted or even can they be counted? I also have a number of skins I''m creating from scratch that are loaded on a regular basis. How would you take into account those kind of things, or do you think it would even matter?

At any rate, those are the kind of questions in my mind, but if you want a yea or nay, then my answer is that I would support this program.
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Another thought occurred to me, as some others mentioned here, how will you collect data on unpublished skins in use? For example, I tweak almost every skin I download and save it under a different name (Original name X2, ___X3, etc) so as to keep the original skin intact for reference purposes. And even though some of those "tweaks" are fairly major, in my mind, they are still the work of the original artist. But should they be counted or even can they be counted? I also have a number of skins I'm creating from scratch that are loaded on a regular basis. How would you take into account those kind of things, or do you think it would even matter

I think this is where the ability to stop the monitoring would come in. Just turn it off when you're working on your own skin, or using mods of others. Or maybe there could be a way to force the program to recognize a modification of a skin. Hmm.

I agree that download numbers and ratings don't always indicate what is being used since many of us download and rate skins we don't end up using on a daily basis. However I don't really want another program running in my tray. I would prefer an option for it be included with the WC browser or with SDC. I could turn it on when I wished to report a change.
I think the results should be linked with the skin on WC. So a person can see then now many people are using it now and perhaps how many have used it.
It sounds helpful, but not sure how much it would change my view about using a skin. I primarily go by the screenshot, if I like how it looks then I download it and see. I don't care if a ton of other people like it, it doesn't mean I will.

Again: The question isn't whether you would use such a program. If you aren't interested in using a program like this then move along. Find something else to talk about.

So for those users who are interested in this kind of thing (we're talking a free program anyway) what features would you like to see?

I want to be able to "Apply Most Popular Theme" from each of the categories.

That would be cool.

BTW, here's how it would work:

The program wouldn't know who you are. That data is irrelevant.

It just send the name of the skin/theme you're using to a database. Every time it matches with one that is existing, the count gets incremented. If it doesn't match, it creates a new entry.

At the end of the day, it sees which entries have the highest count and then looks at the WinCustomize database to see if there is a match there, otherwise it would just list the name. So if you're "working on a skin" it doesn't really matter because that would never show up in the top 10.

In terms of applications, what we would do is have a list of every skinning program we know of in a database. It would then go through that database and see if you're using it. If you are, it would increment the count in the database and then provide links to the top 10 or so.

It's pretty simple stuff and WindowBlinds used to have this built in in the pre 1.0 days and it was pretty neat. Users could which databases they wanted to contribute to and in return they would gain access to the results.

It's basically Alexa for skinning.

Cool. Sounds good too me.

Well now that I know more I would probably use it Brad.

But it would never change as I always use Souluna.

I think its a cool thing if it works... not too sure if that data will help in any way for Stardock but...

I think SkinSpy is a bad name for it, the way you described it in #40 seems it's just another harmless application, the word 'Spy' makes it sound like a bad thing. People who install it will know what it's function is, it's not like it's gonna get there on its own.

I'd also like to see as an option, a 'Send Data Now' button, and the rest of the time, it should be off...

How about CustomEyes or something?

Collecting skin name and [therefore] skin Author and listing both categories' top 10 would be the go.....and I'd certainly use it....as the more that did, the more relevant the data collected...

I'd use it in a heartbeat. I'd like to see how skins are rated according to actual use.

being able to query the database on a particular skin - it would be fun to see if anyone is actually using something you created that would be a good incentive to encourage the use of such a program...

Hey good idea, Tiggz!

Sounds ok to me. I like the idea of knowing which skins are being used the most.

I too wouldn''t use the ''''spy'''' name though, it gives people the wrong idea however slight or subconscious it might be.



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