Shoutbox

Before I proceed with this post, I would like to make it perfectly clear to everyone that this is in no way shape or form directed against Patchou who I have nothing but the utmost respect for.

Also not to turn this into a complete "I hate Yuna thread", I am simply stating what I feel in a more public area.

I am officially leaving the skinning scene. Yep, there I said it.

I know I haven't been active in a while. I'll be honest in saying that initially the reasoning I haven't done anything lately was that I was trying to get my life sorted out a bit more and that what was going on in the Messenger world had nothing to do with the silence.

It wasn't until late last year where I actually started thinking about coming back with some new stuff. I had some pretty cool new ideas I wanted to try out but with Messenger 10 looming around I was playing the waiting game seeing what would happen with that first. I am glad I chose to do that because now it doesn't feel like I wasted any time.

I am completely fed up with the situation that is going on between Yuna Software and ignoring the community and I felt the need to come out in public and express my utter disappointment in the events that have led up to today.

To this day I have no idea what they are all about. I want to make it clear that the reason I am deciding to leave is because of this company. Whilst my personal life becoming more involved is a minor reason I know that given a different situation with Yuna I would have probably stayed and done something in a minor capacity.

For the past 2 months, we the community have been trying to get answers from a company which from what it seems is blatantly ignoring us. A few community members emailed them to express their concerns on how they were going to proceed with the community being part of the Messenger Plus! Live development process (something which I think Messenger Plus! is famous for).

Instead of getting replies, all we got was more silent updates, silent moves..... basically utter silence. So this went on for about a month until we finally got a representative assigned to us. So we decide to give them the benefit of the doubt and be as friendly as possible and ask again.

Yet again utter silence, we only got replies to the small talk. The burning questions and concerns we had were ignored yet again. With the community being torn apart more and more as time goes on.

Sometimes all it takes is for just a few people to stand up and say enough is enough for people to realize that what is going on is simply horrible and that everyone has to speak up. And this is where I hope me quitting will help in that respect. I refuse to create skins where users have to use a program made by a company that simply seems to not care about its users or the community that made it what it is today (again not directed at Patchou).

Whilst I doubt my leaving will make much of an impact now, I know that when Messenger 2010 rolls around and there are no major skin releases that the 3-4 Million downloads that the updates to my skins would have received will be felt.

With that being said. I ask that out of respect that people do not try and port any of my skins to Messenger 2010 or future versions of Messenger. I can not stress this enough. The reason I am leaving is because of how this company is treating the community and if people are updating these skins then I would have left for nothing. I guess what I'm trying to say it to please do not connect the work I did when Patchou was in charge to now.

If by some miracle Yuna does a complete turnaround on this whole situation and becomes as awesome as we want them to be then maybe I can come back or help others bring my old work back. But until then this is it.

So where do I go from here?

For now I'll hang around for a bit longer just to see how this whole situation comes to a close and if it does improve I will still be around the community. The next thing you can see my work in is FacebookDiscovery which is being built by Matt from Messenger Discovery. I've been doing the UI design for it and I think it's a pretty cool concept.

I will keep Design Evolved around for a bit longer, just until the transition from Messenger 2009 - 2010 is complete.

From there I guess who knows where I'll end up. Either way its been awesome guys. Thanks for all the support over the years.

4.5 years, 5 Messenger Versions, 30+ skins, 12 Million+ downloads, countless memories.

This is Willz signing off.
Take Care.

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EDIT

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So as per usual I speak my mind and then like 2 hours later something comes up which kind of kills what I have just said.

For what I posted previously, I still felt that with the situation that was going on I really needed to post what I felt and I'm sure most of the community felt that way as well. I hope that people can see that I was coming from a place of concern and not trying to stir trouble.

So moving on from that.

The new developments that Patchou has brought to light where things are going back to normal. I am extremely relieved and happy to hear that things will finally be going back towards moving to the new Messenger Plus! If only the timing had been right haha, but I still feel I needed to say what was on my mind.

So where does that leave me right now? I still stand by that for now I won't be doing anything, not with Messenger 2010 looming around.

I also want to see how things play out now with the fresh start to Yuna. Give them a second chance since Cyril is a bigger piece of the puzzle now and see if everything works out for the better.

Am I gone for good? Who knows, knowing me someone or something always keeps me around in some capacity, even if its a rare occasion. It's just a matter of seeing if something keeps me around this time.