Sole Images No Longer Possible In S and T

eversince i announced this new feature, i got constant reports that people are still capable of submitting sole images to various categories inside the Skins & Themes gallery and i have sent a report to moonbeam13 accordingly, so that this would be fixed.

well, i'm glad to tell you that just minutes ago i was told by Danie, that the restriction should be fully functioning now.
so, please keep an eye out on screenshots and other image submissions to the S&T and please report to me, in case you find any.

thanks and all my apologies for any previous inconveniences this may have caused you.

(end of update)

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That's right, i just received confirmed information from moonbeam13 that "Once a site sync has occurred, image files will not be allowed to be submitted to Skins & Themes (except for preview images of course)" anymore.




In short: it's no longer possible to submit only an image file (i.e. jpg or png) to any category inside the gallery of Skins & Themes, unless -and that's the important part- ...unless you have uploaded an archive (zip, rar, 7z etc.) or a supported skin file (rmskin, cskin etc.) to go with that image first.




By all means, YES!

I mean, just think about it.... What is the gallery of Skins & Themes all about?
If we browse through all the various categories of that gallery, we would expect to find Skins and/or Themes, which we can download and apply to our desktops, right?. What we do not expect are images and concept shots of said Skins & Themes or even screenshots of an entire desktop. Not to mention the ever increasing amount of miscategorized photos, muro doodles or whatsoever.

So, this new restriction, of being no longer allowed to submit sole and mere image files to the gallery of Skins & Themes, is a great way to almost automatically avoid miscats from being submitted to the Skins & Themes gallery.

Of course, this won't totally prevent miscats from happening in this gallery, but i think this is actually a great step to get back to what the Skins & Themes gallery once used to be: a place to discover, find and download Skins & Themes, without a lot of non-relevant images to interfere with that.

And there's another thing that's really good about it. You might have seen them before: those deviations that show an image and in the "Artist's Comments" there's a link to some dubious off-deviantART location, where you're supposed to download something, which isn't even sure that this will be the skin/theme you opted for.

If uploading your file doesn't work and if that's the reason why you're providing a link to some off-deviantART location, then you should first check your computer settings and possible softwares that might be preventing you from uploading things to deviantART (most likely AdBlockers). deviantART doesn't restrict uploading files in any way. Neither for certain members, nor countries.

And just in case you have your own website with your Skins/Themes being hosted there, and you just want to link to your site, rather than uploading them to deviantART again, then please take a look at for example the WindowBlinds themes from vStyler or the Hyperdesk themes from the skinsfactory and see how they have done it.




Don't worry, this restriction will have no influence on deviations that have already been submitted to the Skins & Themes gallery.




Well, some of you have already mentioned their concern, that the feedback you'd get on your work from other deviants won't be the same, if you'd submit a concept shot of a skin or theme to the "Application Interfaces" or "Desktop Screenshots", rather than to the "Skins & Themes".

While this might be true, i however like to remind you once again that the gallery of Skins & Themes is meant for deviations that you can actually download and apply to a software or application on your desktop (or to an entire operating systems). The Gallery of Skins & Themes is not meant for only images of said Skins & Themes.

But, since this is a restriction for everybody, i think it'll be only temporary before many will have realized that the cool and new Skin-/Theme concept shots can be found in either the "Application Interfaces" or the "Desktop Screenshots".

And if you insist on submitting your concept shots (with a bogus-, empty- or fake- zip/rar file) to the Skins & Themes gallery, then i'd like you to ask yourself, if it's really worth breaking the rules, just to get more (not necessarily better) feedback.




I am personally very very excited about this new restriction. It totally makes sense and it's a great chance for the Skins & Themes gallery to become more clean of miscats and non-relevant images.

Now, .. Tell me what you think.