My eyes caught the words "skin" and "update" in the same sentence, and I started thinking... how feasible would it be to have the skin browser automatically check for updates to skins we have installed?
that would be extremely difficult, not even winamp could pull that off without additional servers...this would be a feature for a few years into the future when a large server costs about 100 american lol
I have some ideas for how this could be handled, however I'll have to start embedding version information into the skin as well, or alternatively generate a CRC check for the skin. This will however mean that if a user changes a skin slightly they won't get notification that a new version is available.
I'll have to give it some more thought on the best way to do the version checking as I have some ideas about how not to overload the server, yet still provide updates.
To be honest if you make that happen without overloading the servers....I would hump your virtual leg till it bleeds. Just a metaphor for being very grateful.