TG, that simply means that you're mainly going to see sections/category/galleries for Stardock applications by default, rather than non-Stardock like Winamp, Rainlendar, Sysmetrix etc etc.
Those galleries will still be here. You'd just have to 'make them visible' first.

I think some are reading into this that the site will "disappear", and that is not what he is saying.  Right now, WinCustomize is a community site where we have links to all types of software aside from Stardock stuff....Winamp, WMP, Xion, etc.  Moving to a more "commercial" side as Brad mentioned would mean Stardock software like WindowBlinds, DeskScapes, etc. would be the prominent focus on the site.

There would still be a community as the forums would still be around, and lets face it, the forums is where most people communicate anyways. 

I have to agree with most of HG in his comment (#21) and I have to ask or add...

What do we get for the subscription? Does any of that change? I ask because of the change in ODN and the addition (with additonal cost) of ODN Ultimate. Will there be such a change with WC?

And what do we lose by not subscribing? The ability to see ceratin gallery's, post in forums, etc. Upload?

The only thing 'odd' to me is to make this post at the beginning of a big subscription drive when it may make some people hesitant to re-up or subscribe at all. They may want to wait and see how it plays out and learn exactly what they will be getting for their money. I'm always broke after Christmas and  I'm trying to figure out what I can juggle to renew my subscript for WC and ODN and this just kinda threw up a big red flag for me.

i agree with you tailsgirl i hope it doesn't change over much i want to keep the friends i met here

will renew my subscript as soon as i can 

Historically, Wincustomize was designed as a site that catered to the entire skinning community that included Stardock.

The site was designed to be fairly neutral in what was displayed.  

Over the years, skinning has gotten much more popular but also much more specific at the same time. The programs of Object Desktop, for instance, are far more popular today than they were in 2001.  By contrast, the third party programs that used to be used have either diminished in popularity or, at best, remained at the same level which still means they lost ground.

At the same time, the site has become increasingly expensive to run because of all the overhead in supporting so many different programs and lacks the ability to generate its own revenue because most of its income, today, comes from selling subscriptions and ads for third party items.

IF the subscription drive demonstrates that there is no longer a sufficient community, and I think that the likely case, to support the site as a fairly neutral, independent entity then what will happen is that the new design will be made to benefit Stardock and Stardock's customers.

That will mean a lot less ads but a lot more promotion of things Stardock is interested in promoting.

If you take a fresh look at WinCustomize, you can see that the design of it today is meant to be fairly generic.  Even though 90% fo the people coming here are likely coming for Stardock-related stuff, the actual infrastructure of the site is created to support pretty much anything which makes it far harder to use to promote specific things.

For people who are already Stardock customers, the new site, I think would be a big improvement. You'll still have the forums, the comments areas, etc.

But we would probably begin to stop supporting some of the third-party galleries (most fo them actually) unless they are sending us significant traffic.  Or, at best, they'd no longer be moderated.

I think you'd see the personal pages get integrated with ImpulseDriven.com but who knows. 

Personally, I think it would be a good thing.  But the days of WC being home to getting new third party stuff or finding third party stuff would likely go away. It would be a Stardock-centric site in design.

But it's the VERY Community, you need to make this happen, and saying what I quoted above, well.. how is that meant to sound promising to ANY WC user? I'm sure a lot of subscribers don't come here just for the products, yet you want them to help fund something that will probably, as you said, benefit the CUSTOMERS, not the Community as a whole.

I'm sorry if I'm reading it all wrong, I'm a born panic merchant  and an idiot

I love the products Wiz, I couldn't live without that Hammerhead shark on my desktop , but that's not what I mean.. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore I just keep seeing the demise of WC, and I can't seem to look past that   I love the place too damn much!

TG....relax...it's ok...no need to panic.

After all, it's not like Brad is taking your PS7 away....

And there's NO WAY your friends are going anywhere nor can you lose us...OK?

Don't fear change.

hehe NT,  Can't help it, I'm a Taurus

HG, Okay, I'm not gonna panic anymore

It very hard question. now in world that was crashed by crizis, most iprortand thing for all became goods of first need like food, home accesories, etc. so it will be hard to sell stardock products in this year. all marketing of the world must changing.