skin care revival package

[Spoons]

for those that haven't seen the developement it is here: http://www.dbpoweramp.com/skins/

the skin revival package is basically building a new decent skin review system that both suits end users and skin developers.

it is a little slow on progress but hopefully not too long now before it will be complete. there has been some waiting for bug fixes and also a transition of learning the inns and oputs of this system behind the scenes. it is a rather powerfull/complicated system, but is slowly becoming easier to use/learn.

there are a number of templates i have to edit yet and also i have to get the external header and footer templates working too.

there will probably be another one or 2 upgrades before this software is out of beta, but it is proving very stable right now.

i will list some pointers and benifits of this system soon.
just a short note here to let you all know skins are not dead, just getting ready to bust out and conqure the world! :D

[donny]

Re: skin care revival package

Yeah it really was a long time since the last skin - too quiet around here
Hope this will get some new skins on the way

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

well i think all the skins are uploaded now. but i think there is one missing and i don't know which one it is.

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

aslo there is a problem with avatars not showing when you place a review. i am looking into that.

i also need feedback on the rating options. are they the right type of rating for these skins? something needs changing or added?

thanks.

edit/ i see Donny and Xaos have already reached the Hall of fame for making reviews :D hall of fame

[donny]

Re: skin care revival package

I was wondering what is that sixth star - is it posible to reach 6 stars? All options are max 5....

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

i will look into it. it could be a boo boo on my part. one of the ratings had an n/a option.

so i may have configured that part wrong. i know it does look odd though.

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

ok i think it is fixed now.

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

ok Xaos, you can throw out some comments/feedback now if you want. don't leave me hanging! :D :D

thanks for all the reviews thus far too

[xoas]

Re: skin care revival package

The new site is much more user friendly than the old skins site. The ratings scales take some getting used to and I would prefer that they have somewhat more gradation. For example, in terms of overall quality there seems to me to be a tremendous gulf between "Good" and "Fantastic". I would like something in between. I would like to have a ratings category for overall visual appearance. I am not sure how comfortable I am with the Originality scale, in part because I think the scale you have is actually non-linear and also because Originality has an awful lot of dimensions to it which may not be immediately apparent to the average reader of reviews. For example, is the N-Log skin a slavish copy of the original WinAmp skin or is it a highly creative act on the author's part to recreate this skin for dAP users, especially those who have not had experience with the original? Also, I find myself unsure how to rate the completeness of a skin which may have a tray control, MMC or remote borrowed from some other skin and which is not in keeping with the overall theme of the main skin.
So these are just some thoughts. I fell like I am still getting used to the new system. Overall, I think that the new site is very good and I feel I am just getting used to it. I would like to see this site take over from the old Skins site as quickly as practical.

[BestRip]

Re: skin care revival package

Well I'm sorry to say I'm not at all as happy with the new skin site... I feel it obscures the skins from view... too many pages to open before you can se any skins, and then just one or an oddly choosen few of them...
The largest collection now appears to be on the first page, but then only the ones choosen by the system and the sites rules.

I think this is unfair to lots of skins that will never get viewed. Also I think that the number 1 concern here should be how easily a NEW dAP USER can find skins for their newly found favourite program.

My ideal scene on the new skin site is that it would show all the skin images on the very first skin page (or with a 5 /10 /25 /50 per page choice) and be sortable something like a page on download.com with a similar layout of the page... After this page a second page with the skin image in full size and reviews and such (like authors comments, STAFF(?) comments) could fit in...

I feel this would be much more fair to each of the skinners for dAP and foremost of all it would make it very easy for new users to find skins they would like to try out...

Any comments?

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

Well I'm sorry to say I'm not at all as happy with the new skin site... I feel it obscures the skins from view... too many pages to open before you can se any skins

currently on the front page there is 10 skins listed. the first 5 will show the last 5 reviews. the bottom 5 shows the last 5 submitted skins.

with one click on the "skins" catagory you wil instantly see 30 skins. the top 10 are the 10 latest reviewed skins. the bottom 20 will show the last 20 submitted.

ideally i would like to add a random display skin also.

I think this is unfair to lots of skins that will never get viewed. Also I think that the number 1 concern here should be how easily a NEW dAP USER can find skins for their newly found favourite program.

current stats , the numbers are the current view count for that skin.

Nishaneel Green 60John Cantu Raiders Fan 1 62Raaghav Palmtop-Zire 65Narler Crypt 800 66John Cantu Raiders Fan 73Spoon Golden Amp 80Nishaneel Violet 80Narler Metalastic 90Narler Narler - NTM 91Skyler BlackWhite ver. 1.0 94Nishaneel Black 98Spoon Little Black Number 98Heinz-Ulrich Schwarz ChemCats 102Narler Narler Advanced Tie Fighter 108Donny The Matrix 108Narler Crypt 1024 109Prog-fr SmallOnePlayer 120Donny Donny's Blue 127TotalXS Windows Classic 129compunet La grenouille (frog) 132Narler 1967 Fastback Mustang 143Donny Beyond 144Narler IMI Desert Eagle 50AE 153Curt Curts-Golden-Wonder - ver 2.2 updated 159Donny The Matrix Revisited 174Taz Looney Tunes 190Narler Narler - X 193Spoon dBpowerAMP Music Converter Release 10.1 (1.4MB) 199PEDEKO BLUE CAR 200LordRyan Metal Skin 202Nishaneel XMPlay 208Narler Roland TB-303 231Narler Billet Alloy 236Spoon Diamond Rio 500 259Spoon Brushed Steel 286Prog-fr OnePowerAMP 302PEDEKO PIONEER 305Archon 3D wood skin 313Archon Quake 3 329UnReal Web Development Agent Smith 332Curt The Studio 344Nishaneel Nature 350Alchemist Pioneer 380BestRip dAPDOS-XT 423Donny Donny's Stereo Ga Ga 452Curt Curts - DualPro 455Paddy DigitalBlade 467Spoon H2O 611WODEKO A green big Player 622BestRip BestRipCDRed 630BestRip Alyssa Milano 639BestRip dAP-Skin-dAPDOS-XTv2 640BestRip N-Log 655BestRip WindAP 834BestRip BestRip skin dAP-HK-AMP 896BestRip dapWIN2000 1539

My ideal scene on the new skin site is that it would show all the skin images on the very first skin page (or with a 5 /10 /25 /50 per page choice) and be sortable something like a page on download.com with a similar layout of the page... After this page a second page with the skin image in full size and reviews and such (like authors comments, STAFF(?) comments) could fit in...

i guess this is the winamp skkin view style of showing skins?

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

i had a look at the winamp skin site and found it rather clumsy in some areas, but overall it is ok. you have to do a lot of searching and sifting to find skins there. but i on our new skin site i find it a little more easier and intuitive. but that's me

also we only have a few skinners so to speak. as opposed to how many winamp skinners?

[BestRip]

Re: skin care revival package

I don't regard the WA skin site as optimum. They have so many skins and skinners it is almost unmanageable...
I think that up to a few hundred skins the download.com style on layout could be employed, something like:
Image____Skin name___vendor___total downloads___last week___download button___vote___



Image____Skin name___vendor___total downloads___last week___download button___vote___



and so on, one row for each skin. Then it could be sortable on most columns.
Don't take the above litterally... for instance vote could be a quick vote system or a review vote summary or both or something like that... the main point here is exposure... of ALL skins... DIRECTLY on the first skin page!!!... not hiding the skins behind a little note saying:
Skins (55) based on movies ...
looking like there are possibly some skins there... based on movies???
The new user will miss this and just find the most recently reviewed items in the left column. This is evident from the pageview stats... and really not fair to the skinners and their skins....................
Any other skinner who has an opinion?

[donny]

Re: skin care revival package

mostly (like I said) I like the new site... but BestRip maybe right about the views of the new users... some impovements could be made, just we have to figure out what exactly...

[Spoons]

Re: skin care revival package

i can remove "views" altogether so no one will know what is being seen or not