Hello, if most of you know Jan. 20-22nd we won't be able to upload/change skins/capes because Mojang is planning on changing the settings on the skin databases. Most people really want one arm to be Pikachu and the other one they want a dog. But you can only have one arm matching the other one which made a lot of users upset. Mojang isn't gonna keep this long taking. It is only gonna be until the 22nd of Jan. at 7:00 am CET which is gonna not as bad as usual. This migration won't affect your current skin you have now or cape. Just redeeming/changing capes and changing skins won't be possible! This will not lead into any viruses at any costs! Like most computers when you are offline you are a steve skin at all costs with no internet! They will probably make it possible for you to have your main skin instead of a steve skin!
Note: They are trying to make more players happy and after this is done maybe on Jan. 22nd maybe the official release of minecraft 1.8 release edition.