I was an early adopter of SKINR, and I’ll try to answer.
I agree. The EVE forum should have somewhere “official” where SKINR can be discussed. There are a few public threads posted by pilots, but you have to be aware of those threads. As I understand it, discussion does take place somewhere over on Discord; but, it you don’t use Discord you’re out of luck.
As to discoverability, my experience with interacting with the Paragon Hub interface led me to using the search function by ship hull. I’ve found that to be adequate. By using that, I also discovered there are numerous hulls that have very few, and at times, no ship skins listed for sale at all. That’s more of a supply problem. I know it led me to design a few skins for hulls I had not considered, or flown for that matter. My sales results were mixed, about half the skins sold. I don’t know if that was due to lack of traffic, or simply lack of awareness that someone was listing skins for that hull.
From my own experience there is a demand for it. I’ve had private commissions from individual pilots, and imquiries from larger organizations. (I’ve never managed to snag a job from an organization, as organizations in my experience will choose a designer from within the organization given a choice.)
Most of my sales come from free lance skin listings. I design for my own taste, and list the skin. If it sells and I really liked it, I make another for my own usage.
I do want to note, during the Winter Event, I did not make a single sale. I assume due to CCP’s reduced pricing. However, I sold 5 skins, immediately after the pricing sale ended, so make of that what you will.
One thing I discovered is I don’t really look at other pilot’s ships while in space. I used to, when I first started the game; but, now I play zoomed out as so many others do. So, I don’t know how accurate your statement is. My point in mentioning this is, this knowledge led me to design most of my skins for ship spinning in station.
So, in summary, I agree regarding forum representation, wholeheartedly.
I think there is a demand for SKINR products; but, I design, for the most part, complicated expensive skins and charge a reasonable price. I think some designers are pricing themselves out of the market. But, having written that, I have also priced a skin extortionately, if I just put it up for public viewing and actually had no intention of it being sold.
As to CCP spotlighting SKINR products/designers, SKINR was controversial in the beginning, and is still so. Lots of pilots, to be blunt, think it is a waste of time/coding by CCP. Personally, I do not, but I understand their position. So, should CCP stir up passions by showcasing SKINR, well, in my opinion, it’s a win-lose proposition still. Anti-SKINRs pilots will complain, no one likes to listen to complaints.
I do believe there will come a time when the controversy dies to “an acceptable level”, and CCP will spend more time promoting individual designs/designers.
One caveat, I list my skins for the most part for one week or two weeks. Outside of the very beginning of SKINR, I’ve only had one set of skins I listed for the full three months available for listings. I’ve found that time “placement” sufficient to sell skins.
But, there is a demand.
