Well, here it is, my first rant blog. I promised never to write one of these things, but I really feel I have to on this topic. As a warning, I will say to those who hold a different opinion I mean no disrespect to you, and this is meant to inspire a needed discussion and not an argument about who's 'right'. Anyway, this blog is about a topic that is on a lot of skinners' minds: blocky skins.
Recently, a fair number of blocky skins have become popular, even to the point that there are multiple blocky skins on the pop reel. And, with every blocky skin, the comment section is full of posts like 'this skin sucks, it looks like you put no effort into it' and 'this doesn't deserve to be on the pop reel!'. Not just coming from trolls, mind you, but coming from high level skinners as well. The same people who probably think bullying is a problem here and that the PMC community is deteriorating. See where I'm going with this?
I'd like to address two big points that I think many people commenting on blocky skins don't quite understand. Firstly, people do not choose whether their skins get onto the pop reel. Complaining to them that their skin does not deserve to be there accomplishes absolutely nothing except bullying them and discouraging them from continuing to learn how to skin. If you're going to put down blocky skins, take it to the forums, don't do it in the comments of someone's skin. If I was a lower level skinner and this had happened to me, there's no doubt in my mind that it would have discouraged me from continuing skinning. Many people who use a blocky skinning style do it because they're taking their first steps towards learning shading, and I think it's extremely irresponsible to treat people who are actually trying to shade so harshly.
Secondly, no matter how much you wish it is, the pop reel is not a reflection of the quality of a skin and it never will be. The popular reel measures the activity on a submission. That's it. If a blocky skin is on the pop reel, that's because people like it. Your little in-comment rant is NOT going to change the fact that people like blocky skins. Think of it this way: I hate Crocs (the shoes). What would it accomplish if I wrote a letter to the Crocs company telling them how mad I was at them because I don't like their shoes and I keep seeing people wearing them? Absolutely nothing, because it's not up to them whether people buy them or not. It's the same with skins. Even if I don't like a style of skinning, I would never put another user down because that style of skinning is popular. Not only is that very petty of me, but it shows a fundamental misunderstanding about why skins are popular and what makes them popular.

So, what do I think needs to be done? Well, I'll say this: I believe that all skinners, especially higher level ones, have a responsibility to help and encourage emerging skinners, especially ones that are truly interested in improving their abilities. Too many times do I see 'constructive criticism' used just as a veil to complain about a skin you don't like, and not actually used in a helpful and encouraging way. So, I implore people reading this to truly think about the consequences of the comments they write, and how those comments will affect the skinners reading them.