Topic: Skins are the cat's meow, right? (Read 5952 times)

JimH · « **on:** April 21, 2002, 03:16:22 pm »

OK, just a reality check for us.

Please rate the importance of MJ skins (mega or mini) in your life:

0 = oh, sure
5 = not bad
10 = competing with my wife/partner/significant other/motorcycle for my attention

any other comments welcome.

NY40Male · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:23:10 pm »

geekboy200 · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:31:02 pm »

At least an 8.

Collin · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:31:50 pm »

Zero = MJ organizational talents has always been your selling point to me.

ZRocker · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:36:46 pm »

1=MEGA
3=mini

Skins are just eye-candy (to me) and I get tired of them quickly...stability, organization, useful features, intelligent playback and tools that make my MP3/music life easier are my most important items.

RAVMAN · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:39:28 pm »

I would rate about a 1. I am not really into the skins that much. I never use mini skins, but mega skins would be OK.

Doof · « **Reply #6 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:00:52 pm »

Mega : 6 Aesthetics are nice, but not as important as the reason I'm in MEGA-ME which is to get some work done.
Mini : 10 A good mini-me skin is clean, easy to use, unobtrusive, and it gets to the point. I like having all of the most important commands at my fingertips. That's why I like ZRocker's skin so much. Next Page

Michael Horton · « **Reply #7 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:04:28 pm »

0

negative number if that's possible

listening to Cat's Miaow - It Might Never Happen

Glen · « **Reply #8 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:05:12 pm »

Zero. I prefer stability and organization capabilities.
I will be listening to it through the stereo not watching it.

paulj · « **Reply #9 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:16:36 pm »

Mega: 0
Mini: 1

sekim · « **Reply #10 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:20:06 pm »

I think it may have been Matt that said skins may make MJ faster. Correct me if I'm wrong. Once this is a fact I would bump the skin priority higher. As it is now...

Mega-me - Solid 7, I like to look at something that isn't so ho-hum. A little creative skinning breaks the mold. My .02, keep the skins. The way you guys are squashing bugs in this phase is encouraging enough to continue along these lines.

Mini-me - Hmmmm. Sorry, but J River skins fall short here. Somewhat large and obtrusive, they don't compare to the ZRocker - DWex offering. Taken to its most shrunken form, it is hardly noticable. Just push it off to the side, or in my case, the title bar and it disappears. Corners for me are about the same - 7. J River - 0.

zevele1 · « **Reply #11 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:27:13 pm »

mega= 0
If the Windows settings can rule on MJ
mega=10
If the Windows settings cannot rule and the jukebox is..blue

mini=0
I never use it.well ,almost.The smaller of ZRocker's skin,i use it

But you do need some skins,for some it is important

JimH · « **Reply #12 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:31:16 pm »

zevele,
vous devez dormir.

KingSparta · « **Reply #13 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:33:59 pm »

mega-me = 5
Mini-Me = 0 (never use it)

EdJones321 · « **Reply #14 on:** April 21, 2002, 04:44:21 pm »

10

man i need those mini-skins, i dont know wat i would do without 'em, cuz i always listen to music and i need somethin thats like a remote while i surf in web or sumthin, or doin my work so i can keep control of the music. i dont care 'bout design - just sumthin that acts like a small remote.

LCtheDJ · « **Reply #15 on:** April 21, 2002, 05:01:19 pm »

Skins=0 Functionality/Stability=10

I'm not opposed to them, as long as they can be disabled. I don't use them, but I conceed that some others find them very important.

TURBO · « **Reply #16 on:** April 21, 2002, 05:28:35 pm »

-0.5 .
Start----> Next Page

rogramming------>debuging----->testing----->if no errors found----->cosmetics(skin implementation)----->End

Easyrider · « **Reply #17 on:** April 21, 2002, 05:34:00 pm »

MEGA = 0 If you got to have them, make them easy on the eyes.

MINI = 5 When I think of MINI, I think of smaller than the ones that are offered. ZRocker - DWex mini is great with all the options, Small,out of the way, but expandable when you need it.

As stated here, stability and organization capabilities are Number one, in my book.

JimH · « **Reply #18 on:** April 21, 2002, 06:16:35 pm »

Stability is also #1 here.

Holden · « **Reply #19 on:** April 21, 2002, 06:16:42 pm »

Of course I want a stable and bug free MJ, but I also enjoy Mega skins and to a lesser extent, mini skins. So am hoping we can have both.

Mega - 8
Mini - 6

Shawn Rebelo · « **Reply #20 on:** April 21, 2002, 06:57:06 pm »

Yes, I have to agree on the mini-me skins. They are clunky and obtrusive. I had planned on re-making them to a smaller level.

Callithumpian · « **Reply #21 on:** April 21, 2002, 07:10:53 pm »

Mega = 3
Mini =

nila · « **Reply #22 on:** April 21, 2002, 07:11:19 pm »

Mega = 3 - I like them and they look pretty but they definitely come after stability, low memory usage (which I'm pretty sure they have a negative effect on), extra tools to say for instance find duplicate songs (very easy to create a basic tool for this: SELECT count(name) as howmany FROM songs GROUP BY name HAVING howmany > 1

Mini was 0 as I never used it. With the introduction of the LowerLeft and Lower right skins however this has changed to around an 8 as these are the perfect remote control, non obtrusive type design I LOVE as I can have it constantly running playing my songs and also give me access to control them. I would also however like to see lower memory usage when in mini me mode as the whole point is that all I want it to do is sit there quietly playing an mp3 from a playlist. Nothing at all fancy and Winamp can do exactly that using: 3Mb of RAM with a playlist of over 5000 songs. I think most users want the player to just sit there unobtrusively when in mini me mode.

claudio · « **Reply #23 on:** April 21, 2002, 07:18:35 pm »

I personally would not code a new skin, but I like to have a choice. In particular on mini-me I like to have the option of a small and non obtrusive skin (e.g. lower right or the old "slim" mini me)

MimiMe = 7
MegaMe = 5

RemyJ · « **Reply #24 on:** April 21, 2002, 08:22:52 pm »

Skins are cool but cool skins aren't the reason I like or use MJ (same for visualizations). In fact, one of the things that drew me to version 7 was the plain, easy to see, easy to navigate appearance. In many ways, it signalled to me that you guys were more interested in functionality than flash. I still believe that BTW, so hopefully you won't get further sucked over to the "dark side" Next Page

I guess that makes the vote mega=0 mini=

Mavrick · « **Reply #25 on:** April 21, 2002, 09:05:54 pm »

Mega-0 I use Windowblinds to do this.

Mini-10 Would like to be able to define fields displayed in playlist tho.

bennyd · « **Reply #26 on:** April 21, 2002, 09:50:51 pm »

MEGA ME = 10
MINI ME = 1

mike · « **Reply #27 on:** April 21, 2002, 10:49:17 pm »

Kerensky · « **Reply #28 on:** April 22, 2002, 12:37:12 am »

Mega Me = 10
Mini Me = 10

Of course I enjoy making skins as a hobby so they are more important to me than probably others. Since MJ is my default MP3 player, it would be nice if I could finally be able to make skins (or at least convert my current ones) for it that I enjoy. I order for this to ultimatly happen though, I still think the mini-me skinning engine needs some additions to make it class leading and attractive to many other skinning authors. You can see my other posts for most of those suggested additions. You should also take a look at the current Winamp 3 beta skinning engine. The features available to skinning authors with that player is awesome and is very exciting to many skinning authors including me. Particularly with its Windows XP only features like alpha blending for skin edges. As far as Mega-Me skins, I don't find the current implimentation particually exciting, but considering I wasn't expecting there to be Mega-Me skinning at all in MJ8, I guess it's a nice start. I think the ultimate goal of the Mega-me skinning engine should be to have the same functionality of the mini-me skinning engine. I don't mean to sound overly harsh against MJ8. I love MJ, it's just its lack of a class leading skinning engine has been a sore spot for me for a while, and it gets frustrating sometimes when I see other players like Winamp 3 and Sonique skinning engines still surpassing MJ's, even though MJ is a far better player. Anyway, just my opinion.

Cmagic · « **Reply #29 on:** April 22, 2002, 12:51:28 am »

Mega = 0
Mini = 5 (just because of lower left/right thanks ZRocker)

Birdie · « **Reply #30 on:** April 22, 2002, 01:05:21 am »

Megame = 2
Minime = 7

gvag · « **Reply #31 on:** April 22, 2002, 01:13:54 am »

mega = 0, mini = 0.

Organization, Being able to turn off/hide what I don't use, DSP, Track Info, Tagging = 10
Burning, Ripping, Converting = 8
Visualization =

Shotgun2 · « **Reply #32 on:** April 22, 2002, 02:07:12 am »

No interests in skinning. They take up space and resources that could be used other places.

cjdshaw · « **Reply #33 on:** April 22, 2002, 02:20:27 am »

Zero - All I ask is that the colours are taken from the Windows appearance settings.

Roger the Shrubber · « **Reply #34 on:** April 22, 2002, 02:54:34 am »

0,0 until a skin is made available that comes with a guarantee to lure my daughter away from using Winamp for playback......

Mouseman · « **Reply #35 on:** April 22, 2002, 03:22:39 am »

Hi
MEGA-ME: 7
mini-me: dont use them so 0

I think its important to have a cool skin.
But its up to us to made them so you MJ Makers
can use all your power on Functionality/Stability

~Mouseman
ICQ: 76171056

Pinner · « **Reply #36 on:** April 22, 2002, 04:00:32 am »

0,0

Have you noticed the number of bug reports that are cosmetic? How many 'person-hours' are they consuming? There are still enough basic errors (memory leaks, BSD etc.), missing /unfinished features (cover art handling, database manipulation etc.) that are not being addressed.

tullio · « **Reply #37 on:** April 22, 2002, 04:48:37 am »

0-0. Add my voice to the "I love what it does, don't care how it looks," chorus.

Gatobrit · « **Reply #38 on:** April 22, 2002, 05:27:29 am »

Zero.

dwex · « **Reply #39 on:** April 22, 2002, 06:32:22 am »

Mega - 0
Mini - 8

When I'm working with MJ (catloging, editing, ripping, etc), it's in Mega-Me mode, and I don't need eye-candy

When I'm just enjoying my music, I want MJ to be small and unobtrusive, hence Mini-Me skinning is very important, so that I can do things like LowerRight/LowerLeft.

--dwex

Trelane · « **Reply #40 on:** April 22, 2002, 06:37:24 am »

Mini-me: 0 (I don't use mini-me)
Mega-me: 5

About the resource usage thing everyone mentions with mega-me skinning... give it some time. For the week that the guys at JRiver have been working on the skinning engine, I'd say they have done an awesome job. It's a tad slow now, but it'll improve with time.

Cmagic · « **Reply #41 on:** April 22, 2002, 07:05:55 am »

The score so far on 38 votes :

Mega Me : 84.5 -> 2.22
Mini Me : 115.5 -> 3.04

Next Page

Jewcifer · « **Reply #42 on:** April 22, 2002, 07:27:34 am »

That's funny, cause I was gonna rate them:

mini - 2.22
Mega - 3.04

JohnC · « **Reply #43 on:** April 22, 2002, 07:28:33 am »

Mega=8
Mini=5

I think the looks are what attracts new customers to a product, Then they will realise what a GREAT product they have in MJ, and then they cough up the dosh.

JohnS · « **Reply #44 on:** April 22, 2002, 07:59:37 am »

Mega: 0 (I use XP themes to make my windows look different)
Mini: 1 (I RARELY use Mini-Me)

Alonso Nefarious · « **Reply #45 on:** April 22, 2002, 08:39:03 am »

Mega: 8 Because Looks Matter (No matter how smart she is...)
Mini: 2 Too small to use, can't access library.

Poor Zeek · « **Reply #46 on:** April 22, 2002, 09:13:23 am »

mega: 0
mini: 0 (never use mini)

gwwsj51 · « **Reply #47 on:** April 22, 2002, 10:17:44 am »

mini:0 never use it
mega: 1

Badger · « **Reply #48 on:** April 22, 2002, 10:42:11 am »

I don't understand the need for skins. They must be a necessary feature to be competetive in this market, otherwise you wouldn't be spending so much time on them? I guess that's why you're asking the question. My vote(s) are zero all around.

John C says skins might me necessary for people to "cough up the dosh". DOSH, a combo of Doe and Cash?. I like it! Any other origins of Dosh I should know about?

JimH · « **Reply #49 on:** April 22, 2002, 10:46:23 am »

Being called "dowdy" stung. Also, there's always a possibility of making a skin that looks like MS Word, so your boss/wife thinks you're working.

INTERACT FORUM

Author Topic: Skins are the cat's meow, right? (Read 5952 times)

NY40Male

geekboy200

Collin

RAVMAN

Glen

paulj

sekim

zevele1

LCtheDJ

Easyrider

Holden

nila

Mavrick

mike

Birdie

gvag

cjdshaw

Roger the Shrubber

Mouseman

Pinner

Jewcifer

JohnC

JohnS

Alonso Nefarious

gwwsj51

Badger