I am assuming the site made record of your IP and in the original 'register' and your *new* account is still on the same IP (I don't personally know the details of how that works). I guess thats the price to pay for not registering with your own information to start with.

WC is a good site and the more you use it the more your going to want it and all its features. Subscribing to WC is worth the money.

I would characterise that as 'hurtful'.


Anyway;

on the site it says:



I belong in this category. I am talking on message boards. On a different computer, a year ago, in a different contintent, I did download a few things, as a guest. Maybe a few megabytes. However, I have downloaded nothing on this account, and nothing at all for the last year. It states in the above that I should have 500 megabytes of download bandwidth. What happened?

I don't mean to be insulting. I am just getting frustrated that what should, to me, be an easy solution (change some account settings? use a different computer? wait a few hours, a few days?) seems to have been turned into a struggle of epic proportions.

To respond to Island Dog:
I still don't think I've explained my problem well enough. The first account I used, is listed on the site Bug Me Not (http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.wincustomize.com). The purpose of the site is to provide public accounts, to be used on sites which require free registration, so that one does not have to create/maintain an account on every site on which one wishes to peruse. What happened (and I am not leaving anything out) is that I tried to download the file, was asked to register, input the bugmenot login details (which, as far as I'm concerned, I'm well within my rights to do), got the error message. Logged out, registered a new account with wincustomize, the one I am using now, tried to download the file again, and was presented with that same error message. It was at this point I turned to the forum.

I'm not trying to "bypass the system". I am trying to legitimately use it. I can understand that you don't approve of the use of dummy accounts, and indeed, when it comes to sites that offer paid accounts, I wouldn't try to use an account that was not my own. If I was more aware of the download limit in place, then I would have immediately spotted that a public account would not be the way to go, however I assumed is was unmetered. I AM SORRY.

Oh, and in regards to Philly0381: I have not registered a program. I am using SysMetrix (as described in the first post), which is freeware, available for download without registration or limitation here (http://www.xymantix.com/sysmetrix/index.html).

This is a long post, so I may be replying to things that I have not read. I will get to you if this is the case.

According to what I've quoted above, I should be able to download '500MB's' just for having registered on the site. All I want for now is approximately 600 kilobytes. According to my calculations, that's about one tenth of one percent of the limit. The fact that I cannot achieve even that is really getting to me.

You HAVE been receiving a free service, AND goods. The artists that upload to this site, including myself, spend thousands of hours providing FREE skins, themes wallpapers etc. But to make it fair on everyone, and to help with the MASSIVE bandwidth costs of this site, and the staff to run it, we allow you to download up to 50Mb of goods before you have to help with the costs that you have been running up by downloading that 50Mb of goods. FIFTY Mb's is a LOT of stuff!!Don't you think it would be worth the price of a subscription to continue using the site and downloading the fantastic array of stuff on here? Or are you just one of those that thinks everything on the internet should be free, and if it isn't you'll get it from an illegitimate source?

You sound like a decent, intelligent person, so come on, do the right thing. It's not a lot of money is it? It's only a few bucks, and it's worth it for what you get.

If you don't agree with me, I think you should just give up on this site and get your stuff at somewhere like customize.org or deviantart.com, because we are a proper community, strong, and proud of each other and the things we do.
You could be a part of that too......... for just a few bucks.

Yes there is a workaround. All you need to do is crash your computer and start from scratch.

Its much easier to subscribe to wincustomize and get the full benefits.

I agree with your diagnosis. Now, just bear with me, and imagine that I might possibly be telling the truth. Just, for the purposes of discussion, imagine that I wasn't trying to scam the site or whatever it is people seem to see as the reason for not giving me a solution other than 'subscribe.'

Must I register a second account on a different IP to be free of this? Then I'm doing something which I feel will be taken the wrong way, i.e. 'oh look he's trying to deceive us with a new account.'

Is it possible for someone at StarDock to look at my account, confirm the fact that I've registered today, that my IP hasn't ever downloaded anything, and get rid of the error? If so, that would be dandy.

Here's my confusion . . the account you say you created today shows a creation date of Mar 29, 2005 and below the download cap.

So, again, something is not matching up and it's difficult to know where to go from here and still be equitable towards all users.

In regards to your right to use bugmenot, the Terms of service expressly state that you cannot impersonate another user.  There is no such thing as a public account.

Okay, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. There is a form located here (http://www.bugmenot.com/report.php) which allows site administrators to remove their site from the bugmenot database for reasons such as the above, I would be happy to submit the request if someone from StarDock says it's okay, otherwise I would suggest one of you submit the request yourselves to prevent this sort of thing from occurring again.

...

I did notice the 'creation date' of March 2005, I presume that's when the other account was created. There does seem to be a dual system involved, one dealing with wincustomize, the other with stardock. If you want I'd be happy to send you the email or a screenshot of the email I recieved when I registered the account to prove that the account was created today.

SilentDragoon, my first response was to your original post.

I went back and read your original post, and with out any more info at that time you presented yourself as a person looking for a workaround so you wouldn't have to do what everyone else does if they want something from this site. In your additional posts you have since explained your situation in more detail.

Was I quick to judge, sure I was. Did my replies change and attempt to offer assistance once you explained in more detail?

I seriously don't have $19.95 to spend. I don't have a way of transferring any money. And again, as I've said before:

I have not had 50 MBs. Trust me. Really. This is incredibly frustrating because I would totally agree with your suggestions IF I had had even 50 MBs. But I haven't, as I've said. It also says if you register, you get 500 MBs. If I had somehow exceeded the guest limit of 50 MBs (friends, family, neighbors on the same IP address?), then wouldn't I by registering be able to receive up to 500 MBs? Again, I haven't had that either. As a StarDock member has said, my account reads as being created a long time ago and having downloaded 20 MB. I don't know if you (non-StarDock personnel)can see that or not, I can take a screenshot if you wish.

Ah, frustrated.

Yes, to your credit they have become more helpful. Thank you. I am sure you can imagine how frustrating it would be on the relieving end of things like that; being taken as a crook by default. Again, I am frustrated with the amount of time this is taking, so in my posts I may come across a bit cross. This isn't directed at you, or anybody here really, just at the circumstances which have conspired to place me in this situation, including of course my own instincts and m.o.

Mostly off-topic: So far I've typed very near to 1500 words, over 6,500 characters, 10 paragraphs, 141 lines, including only my own words. It's about two and a half hours since my first post. I think now we may be getting somewhere.

EDIT: 3.5 pages. Alright!

SilentDragoon I understand fully. We all run into fustrations every day.  

There has been some responses from Stardock reps, but I think it's time that you contacted Support@Stardock.com now. We should have pointed out to you that the fourms are a place to seek help, but they are not for Official Stardock Support. Slap our hands!!!

The support folks should have all the information needed to help you in determining you status as of today which would include you new registration.   

Clear your browsers cache and cookies. Problem resolved. WHAW!

Alright, I've sent off an email. I've now spent 3 hrs, 6 pages, and 2200 words on this issue. All for one stinkin' 600 kb file! Wow, this is tiring. I am glad it is dinner soon (if there is any, that is...)