I had a similar convo with a friend recently. I suggested a video game dialogue-like design for a forum rows but instead of just taking a free pattern online, they were trying to come up with something on their own. At this point, it was just a draft to see how it looks, so I asked why they were insistent. And they said that they didn’t want to copy otherwise it wouldn’t be their “own.” I told them it doesn’t have to be the final design. It’s just like trying out clothes and seeing which part of it looks good, which doesn’t work, and what ideas it can bring.

I’m not active in skin making as you guys but I am pretty sure the reason the “copying” skin is being made a big deal is bc the community is small. You can’t improve in writing without reading. You can’t expand your drawing skillset without studying art. You can’t design clothes without admiring the work of others. People have to grow, and the best way for that is for us to teach each other and learn from each other.

The copying issue will remain an issue no matter the field. But there’s really not much you can do about it other than be genuine in your intentions and make sure the final product is as different as it can bw.

I personally look at designs religiously. I have been doing so since i asked a friend if i could learn how to code by copying their codes. I do this for forums too. I study what makes it good, what i like about it, and tilt my head repeatedly as i form ideas about what i’ve observed. But i don’t earn money from skinning, and i’ve always had a different style from the more popular trends… to this day, konya/bonbon and novas are still my inspo when it comes to template and skin design. I’ve done designs that are similar to them, but i ended up scrapping them after a whole because i was able to make a better design to fit my theme. But because i checked out how they did something, it pointed me to a direction suited for my style.

i think it’s unavoidable to be wrapped in drama in such a small community where everyone knows each other. We need to strength our personal bubbles lol

is disliking unjustified text my boomer opinion? probably

nah justified text is v millennial

New coding confession

Tumblr themes are my fav inspo. Minimalist ones specifically. I like how personal they feel and how they make use of space with text…

There is some sort of coding demon that people are secretly selling their souls to in order to understand how to skin a jcink forum and they're not hookin' a brother up and it makes me sad. 

My latest design inspo are resumes

i literally will do anything else but code board mods. they are the bane of my existence. and making them responsive? literally screaming crying throwing up

the coding demon is ghosting me

Why. -headdesk- are. -headdesk- there. -headdesk- so. -headdesk- many. -headdesk- things. -headdesk- that. -headdesk- have. -headdesk- to. -headdesk- be. -headdesk- coded. -headdesk- for. -headdesk- a. -headdesk- jcink. -headdesk- site?!?!?!?!?

do it in bits and pieces.. take a break

A wholeass mood buddy. I agree with Tanz. Give yourself some breathing room. You’re on a roll, and it’s addicting- I get it. But give yourself a break bc you will burn yourself out if you’re not careful. No one skins in a week.

not to double post but do you ever read someone else's coding, and it's so vastly different from how you do it that you're just "huh" bc your instinct is to do the exact opposite of what they did to achieve the same goal

and you never woulda thought to do it that way probably