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Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Release announcements and important news from the developers.
sgtevmckay

Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by sgtevmckay »

Indeed...I started getting an exorbitant list about 2 hours ago, and it has not stopped....yet
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karmat
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by karmat »

What about if we/you changed the link at http://rainmeter.net/RainCMS/?q=Links from directing people to the main dA Rainmeter Group to our groups gallery at http://rainmeter.deviantart.com/gallery/ ?

That way we would be directing people to skins that have been cleared by us as not having any malware, plus they will be in .rmskin (except for the old ones).

If you change it, let me know, cause we'll have to make sure that everyone who can accept incoming skins scans and checks them first.
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jsmorley
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by jsmorley »

Trouble with that is that there are tons, at least hundreds and probably thousands of skins that get uploaded to dA that are not in the group. We want to encourage use of .rmskin, but not mandate it outside of the group. There is no way to upload directly to the group, so many folks would just be left out of the "community". You also can't search the group gallery, so it is really sorta useless for a lot of folks. I don't want us to bifurcate things into "us" and "them" if we can help it.

On a personal level, I don't want my skins in the group. I have some problems with the kind of hierarchy of ranks, as well as many of the rules and regulations in the way the group has evolved, and prefer to live with the great unwashed masses in the general ares. That is just me of course, and sort of irrelevant, but just by comparing what is in the group gallery and what is in the general area quickly, it is clear that hundreds and hundreds of skins would never be seen.

I have a link to the group on the main page, but I don't think it works to try to ignore the main area. It is where the "new" stuff is on a daily basis, many skins will only ever be there, and while the group plays a great role in enhancing a "community" environment for Rainmeter on dA, I don't think it can or should stand alone.

I think if we find that there is just no solution to the current issues we are having, and we can't get any satisfaction from dA staff, we are going to end up moving off dA altogether and finding a new home. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, as it really is the best site for what the Rainmeter community needs, and it will be hard to find an alternative with the features, power and reputation it has.

All this is just my opinion of course, and I am open to living with the will of the community.
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karmat
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by karmat »

jsmorley wrote: On a personal level, I don't want my skins in the group. I have some problems with the kind of hierarchy of ranks, as well as many of the rules and regulations in the way the group has evolved, and prefer to live with the great unwashed masses in the general ares. That is just me of course, and sort of irrelevant, but just by comparing what is in the group gallery and what is in the general area quickly, it is clear that hundreds and hundreds of skins would never be seen.
Could you expand on that? What is it about the group that you have problems with or don't like?

I'm not sure what all rules and regulations you're talking about. We have tried so hard to be fair to everyone, not elitist, not favouring, not snotty, to encourage newbies, to steer people towards giving credit to original artists etc. I'm really at a loss as to what you're talking about. I don't consider the dA group to be separate, I consider it an offshoot to this one and to this one as being the parent.

And we only started to decline skins not in .rmskin after discussions here - we could always go back to accepting all deviations as long as they aren't infected with malware.

If you don't feel that the dA group is right for your skins, why the hell would anyone else?

I think that really blows, Jeff!

...........................

And I have to add - you're looking for a solution to the malware issue - while changing the link to the dA RM group doesn't solve it, it would certainly help. I'm not suggesting it to make the group more popular, I'm suggesting it to make it safer for people downloading skins.

If we made a conscious effort, with everyone's help, people downloading the software for the first time are then directed to the dA group for skins that we have checked for malware before accepting. We make more of an effort to get new skinners to join the group who will then upload to our gallery.
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Seahorse
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by Seahorse »

Just a quick post from the other end of the telescope. I posted my very first skin in rmskin format on DA yesterday. Whilst I've downloaded odds & sods from DA over the years my old account ended up with some bizarre name like buyer 123456 so I created a new account yesterday too.

As for the groups and the community there, I have no idea what you are talking about, I threw it up on DA as the established superstars here chose to do so, which would seem to indicate it is a worthwhile location.

As to seeing stuff in the group location you refer to, again I have no idea, when I want something at DA I use the search bar at the top of the page... O.O
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by jsmorley »

I probably shouldn't have brought it into the discussion. My point wasn't to take shots at the group or how it is set up, but just to say that I see the community on dA as a "bottom up" environment, with everyone uploading to the general Rainmeter area, having that as the common area where all skins are available. Good, bad, first time skinner, crusty veteran... They are available the instant you post them, and nobody gets to decide if you are in or out. As as been recently demonstrated, this has both an upside and downside, but I'm hoping we can get the virus issue resolved in some reasonably satisfactory way at some point.

It is the only place you can "search", when a user is looking for a clock, or an iTunes skin, or a Yahoo weather skin. The group certainly has value to many, and I regret bringing my personal feelings into it. It's just that I see the general Rainmeter area on dA as the repository, and the forums here as the place to engage in the "community". The only reason we even have admins here is to get rid of spam and keep the site running. The only real rules are to keep things SFW and stay reasonably polite to each other. This is the only environment where we can share snippets of code and attachments, and engage in the kind of back and forth help that really makes a community.

I have no problem at all with any leader or member of the dA Rainmeter Group, in fact just the opposite. I think the world of everyone over there. I just don't care for the way groups are implemented on dA. No ability to search the galleries, blog entries that can only be done by a select few leaders of the group, in general an environment that is good for "Skin of the Month" and some "top down" communications, but feels very constrained and limited for interactions between regular Rainmeter users. The comments that a regular user can make can't be categorized in any way, are just sequential by date, and again can't really be searched. Not anyone's fault, but it is an environment, by its nature, that feels to me, and in my opinion only, more as a "committee" than a "community".

I agree that vetting skins and adding them to the gallery after we are sure they are clean, then pointing all users there, has its charms. It certainly would add a level of safety that we are looking for. I just don't think the way dA is set up is going to make it practical to depend on the group to be the focal point.
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jsmorley
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by jsmorley »

Seahorse wrote:As to seeing stuff in the group location you refer to, again I have no idea, when I want something at DA I use the search bar at the top of the page... O.O
As do probably 70% of folks looking for skins there. I don't know how you would find what uTorrent skins are available in the group galleries. I don't know how you would find all of John Doe's skins using the group. I don't know how you would find all skins using the "NowPlaying" plugin.

I really do recommend that you check out the group at http://rainmeter.deviantart.com/ Seahorse, it is very cool and has some great stuff in it. It's just that the way groups are done on dA has some limitations.
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karmat
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by karmat »

The group has it's limitations yes, but for all the things it doesn't have, the forum does.

People come here to discuss, run code, get the most up-to-date info, answers to questions, etc. The big main stuff. The dA group is the window dressing, a place to have all the skins and screenshots in one place because this site can't handle that - otherwise it would already.

If both groups had everything, one or the other wouldn't be needed. Why shouldn't it be more integrated, more cohesive?

The dA group doesn't have to have all these operators/administrators/honorary members, but it does need at least 2 or 3 people committed to doing maintenance and like Max did, give notice when they want to go inactive.

As for searching, I had no idea that most people go looking for specific skins, I always go to the main gallery to see what's new, only sometimes using the search bar.
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by jsmorley »

karmat wrote:The group has it's limitations yes, but for all the things it doesn't have, the forum does.

People come here to discuss, run code, get the most up-to-date info, answers to questions, etc. The big main stuff. The dA group is the window dressing, a place to have all the skins and screenshots in one place because this site can't handle that - otherwise it would already.

If both groups had everything, one or the other wouldn't be needed. Why shouldn't it be more integrated, more cohesive?

The dA group doesn't have to have all these operators/administrators/honorary members, but it does need at least 2 or 3 people committed to doing maintenance and like Max did, give notice when they want to go inactive.

As for searching, I had no idea that most people go looking for specific skins, I always go to the main gallery to see what's new, only sometimes using the search bar.
I agree completely. There is both room and need for all the ways we interact with each other. The main site front page with the beta changes and download links, the forums for getting help and having real "conversations", the dA group as a focal point for the "community", and the main Rainmeter area on dA as the general repository of skins. Not sure any one is more important than the other, and I'm not suggesting that we can have the environment we want without all of them.
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karmat
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Re: Warning from the Rainmeter Team

Post by karmat »

jsmorley wrote:I agree completely. There is both room and need for all the ways we interact with each other. The main site front page with the beta changes and download links, the forums for getting help and having real "conversations", the dA group as a focal point for the "community", and the main Rainmeter area on dA as the general repository of skins. Not sure any one is more important than the other, and I'm not suggesting that we can have the environment we want without all of them.
Not trying to beat a dead horse here, but while the malware event is happening, this might be one more way of safe-guarding users and that is the reason behind my suggestion. Cause I can't think of anything else except for dollar bills floating down from heaven to pay for a dedicated rainmeter website.
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