I think skinning has died after the release of WLM 2009. Version 8.5 was so easy to skin and many found it difficult to skin the new Messenger. Personally, I was bored to try to learn again the whereabouts of each thing and skinning stopped being a pleasure for me.

Of course there are still skins for the new Messenger. But, they only change one picture and do not have the quality of the skins that were released for 8.5. They do not offer the options many skins had and certainly there are only a few designs that are good for WLM 2009.

I want your opinion on this matter. Do you think skinning will die, once and for all?

I think the skinning requests section should be removed. When was the last time this actually happened?

You should suggest that in the Forum & Website section.

I actually fulfilled a couple a while ago

Largely the requests are just for people wanting a skin of a particular person/band......and that can kinda be achieved through the same means as my SexySkin.....the couple I did were just kinda building on that framework and replacing the pictures of women for pictures of whatever had been requested.

I agree though, the skinning community certainly seems to have died down a bit.  It was quite a big task updating my skin for WLM 2009....obviously I thought it was worth it as I use the skin myself, but I can see why it would/has put a lot of people off.

Hopefully WLM10 will be easier to skin and look so bad people will take the time and skin it.

Well, i was thinking of making a skin called "MSN7 Clone" for WLM 9. Also i forgot to tell people here, that i've stop "WLM 8.5 Clone" skin.

Anyways, i decide to stop skinning until WLM 2010 comes out. If i start skinning again, wlm 2010 comes out. I have to update my skin.

Skinning community is dead because:

1. the new generation kids/teens have no interest
2. no one have time, school, job
3. too hard to skin, given up
4. lost interest
5. lazy

ps. Snow Leopard skin will be slowly convert to WLM 2010 once it comes out.

Most skinners, specially the good ones like Willz, are extremely busy with their personal lifes. And, unfortunately, there aren't that many people interested in making skins, only in requesting/using them.
I myself will have about 10 hours/day of free time, which about 5 will be for sleeping (because nobody's of steel =P), and clearly will not update any project of mine, be it my blog or a skin.

I think more people will eventually do something and start new skins, which includes learning new tricks, so that skinning doesn't die.

I had Life of Vista 3 in development...but I lost if after all the computers in my house died ._.

And coolzee does sum it up quite well. School is being intense and I kinda lost interest xD.

Most likely be back for at least one skin for WLM 2010 (I have to admit, all my WLM 2009 ones sucked.)

Like most things, without the developer base, projects just aren't going to be produced. Back in the day of MSN Messenger there were several developers of skins including myself. Names such as the unknown, Terill and Satin may not ring bells for some of you, but these developers were at the fore of innovative design in Messenger and have since moved onto other things.

The decline of IM in itself fails to attract new developers, and although the skinning platform is now more open, there is a lack of talent willing to exploit it. Windows Live Messenger 2009 has been the worse major Messenger build in terms of skinning developers and much of this boils down to the lack of designers who know what they are doing (excluding Willz).

Then again, it may be the case Windows Live Messenger is visually appealing enough for it to no longer warrant skins.

As for the above comment for the requests board, I believe it was primarily added so that all the requests wouldn't clutter the other threads. And I have just set the messageboard to hide that particular section.

It's just a cycle, there are times when things die down and then they pick up again.

It happened with the transition to MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger. There were at least 7 people making skins at that time and then all of a sudden they all disappeared leaving about 3.

Its the same thing now, it's just up to someone new to come in a keep things going. Really a person can only skin for so long before their personal lives become more involved and it becomes time to move on.

Ultimately its up to the new people to carry things onto 2010.

My position on if I will continue in 2010 is still pretty cloudy. But even if I chose not to continue I don't think it will have an effect on the skinning community as whole (asides from initial withdrawal syndrome ).

Is skinning dead? Ask me again when Messenger 2010 is close to being released.

hi. do not think the skinning die ...

I think the question would be better. because,  the  skinner stopped developing or lost interest.

I think what we need is to encourage people to make skin ...

do skin,  it's very difficult, I believe that after hours and hours and learned a little. thanks to "LuckyMe", "robert_dll" and "Zoid", forgiveness, thanks to the great help "LuckyMe", "robert_dll" and "Zoid" and managed to learn and explore new options for myself.

One way to encourage people or at least the one I found is helping to make skin, such as helped me, I created in the Hispanic forum for a guide or tutorial that interested people can learn.

but I think even lack encourage more people with skinner contests and more guides in different languages to make things easier

pd: translate.google.com sorry

That which is already dead cannot die again.

Rolando is right I believe. Skinning's best era was after Patchou added it in Plus! It was something new back then (saying it was new, I mean that it was easy for everyone to create a skin) and many people learned to skin. But the lack of time and the fact that most skinners have lost their desire to skin brought us to were we are today.

I'm still convinced the best era was during MSN Messenger 7.5. Terill's skins were nothing short of spectacular.

I am talking about skinning generally. In the era you are talking about, there were few skinners and few good skins. When Plus! skinning was released, many people started to skin and many good skins came out.

Skinning seems to peak up and down.

It may be at a low point now, but I'm sure it'll get better.

On the other hand we have Plus!5 and the new WLM to look forward to.

I'm of the opinion, (having seen 'screenshots' of the next wave of WLM), that the popularity of skinning will receive a substantial boost once the new wave is released. With such a change, interface-wise, people will no doubt want numerous graphical changes to what has been designed by Microsoft.

At the moment skinning is just following the general trend of Live Messenger and the add-ons for it. Not very much is happening, things are quiet.

Some people who have been around for a long time move on to other things, but that's nothing new. People have always disappeared when they got busy with study, work, or girlfriends. The thing is, because not much is happening there are not much new people coming in either. It as been a while since any major Messenger or Plus! release, Microsoft isn't getting testers involved like they used to, Messenger related blogs and forums not doing much posts, people preferring social networks over IM, MS changing design in a major way between 8.5 and 2009 making it hard for people to update their skins... it's all part of a massive chain reaction which has been going on for about a year now. Because not much is happening not much fresh people come in, because not much fresh people come in not much is happening.

On the other hand, looking at the raw stats it doesn't look so bad. Still millions of people using Plus!, number of active users fairly steady, certainly when you take into account the long time since the last major Plus! release (which always gives a nice boost). People are still downloading skins.

I think it will stay like this for a while, until Microsoft comes with Messenger 2010, and until Patchou has his office rolling smoothly and Yuna pushes out MP!L5. What happens after that nobody can predict yet, all depends on how the users and community react to it. But at least it's no dead end yet.

This thread has inspired me to write a short editorial on the decline of skinning development:

http://www.msgstuff.com/news/post/619-is-messenge...inning-in-decline/

I was getting into skinning and design and then I heard news of a messenger upgrade, and then 2009 was released, so I re-learned locations of files and names and got used to it all and then got distracted by work and probably won't get back into it until after WLM2010, no point before then if its all gonna change again.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie
probably won't get back into it until after WLM2010, no point before then if its all gonna change again.

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quote:

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Originally posted by absorbation
This thread has inspired me to write a short editorial on the decline of skinning development:

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quote:

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Originally posted by Toxn
Hopefully WLM10 will be easier to skin and look so bad people will take the time and skin it.

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I moved away from skinning because my graphics design skills suck and the fact that I don't have much time, and as many told, if I go back to skinning, I will wait until WLM2010 gets out.

In my opinion skinning isn't dead! Only a decline of people that are bored to work on it... Just look at Willz, ZOiD, etc that created very powerful and awesome skins (a reason not to start =P ).
Otherwise probably people are bored to work on it because they like the simplest live design.
I don't know�¿!?

The fact that this thread is still on the 2nd page of the skinning forum while the last reply in it was in February is something that clearly shows skinning is indeed dead.

When skins were introduced in Plus!, this forum was full of threads with people showing their skins or asking questions, something that does not happen now.

The novelty has just worn off that's all.

In the beginning there were 'too many' replies and activities etc. It simply has now settled down to a 'normal' pase. The same happened to scripts; in the beginning there were scripts flying everywhere. Now you rarely see a (decent, big) new script (which isn't a variation on something that exists).
And, other than with scripts, the learning curve is a bit high. So it isn't for everybody either.

And of course the fact that there is a new Messenger version coming.