| So....who decides what is a Master Skin? A Master Skinner? |
Users are gradually raised in level over time on the site and dependent on
the nature of their contribution to WinCustomize. Becoming a 'Master
Skinner' is an honor we reserve for people who have really put in the time and
effort to make WinCustomize a better place through their participation in the
forums and through the quality of work they contribute.
Master Skinners are picked by a combination of site moderators and
administrators. It requires a near-unanimous vote to move someone up from
Journeyman to Master. Actually executing on the promotion is something
currently only Frogboy, T-Man, KarmaGirl or myself can do.
| Experience or quality? Features of the skin? What defines a "master
skin"? |
A Master Skin is a skin produced by a Master Skinner for sale on the site.
We do not accept blindly everything that is handed to us. Our criteria for
posting an item for sale is much more stringent than for allowing something into
the regular galleries.
| I've seen some great artists here slip to the wayside just because of
personal opinion, or friendships made on the side that account for more then
facts. |
Such is the nature of any community. Your ability to get along counts
for a lot anywhere in life.
| The GUI Championships was a joke. Not the skins so much, as how it was
handled. Version 2 of skins in the category of "most original"....yada yada yada...being
judged by back room buddies even after the masses voted the complete opposite
way. |
I suggest you go back and look at the GUI Champs process that we publicly
went through and explained many many times. Winners were selected by the
judges panel. The skins the judges had to pick from were based on PUBLIC
USER VOTING. Users are the ones who picked out the controversial skins in
the first place. If you're going to point a finger of blame over your
personal favorite not winning, look to your fellow users first.
| So.....talking about cutting off the nose despite the face, here we go
again. Brad himself, admits he's not much of an artist but stands tall when it
comes to judging other's artwork. |
Anyone who spends a lot of time using a PC, using skins and icon sets, who
works for years with artists and the community at large is definitely in a
position to evaluate the quality of work. Art critics often aren't
artists. Same goes for film & book critics. You do not have to be
capable of creating the work to be able to objectively judge it. My guess
is that Brad's been at this far longer than you have, so I'd venture a guess
that he is in fact qualified to judge in a skinning competition.
| You have master artists here that have been listed because you've known
them for a long time, and they've contributed to the community....but then turn
right around and neglect new members to the community that have been skinning
for just as long or longer, created great works of art, (VStyler for example)
made a lil money on the side...and call them "newbies". These so called "newbies"
are already professionals, but because they're not on your IM list, or speed
dial on your cell phone....(god forbid they don't contribute to your costs of
running the place by donating)...and you start them off at the bottom of the
totem pole with not so polished artists above them. |
This statement reeks of a sense of entitlement. Being awarded "Master"
status here is entirely dependent on a user's time ON WINCUSTOMIZE. There
are many outstanding artists out there who don't feature their work on
WinCustomize, that's true. Some of them come to this site in time, which
is great, but just because you've been skinning for years doesn't mean you're
suddenly entitled to going to the top of the heap when you first show up.
We award ranks not purely based on skill, but also largely based on contribution
to the community, as I've stated above.
vStyler is a great skinner, I think his Vectra skin is outstanding and I hope
he becomes a more established member of the community.
If you want to become a Master on WinCustomize, you need to be a part of this
community. You need to contribute work, you need to participate in the
forums and in as many facets of the community as you can.
| and Brad.....please don't try to convince me with your long winded posts.
I've seen the CES footage, the "cut off it's nose despite it's face" ...
man...seriously, is there really any part of you that is YOU!! and doesn't
belong to some other part of another's anatomy? |
Ok, that made no sense.
| You so eagerly want great members of the artistic community to contribute
to this site. But the only way you're going to get that, is to stop kissing Bill
Gate's ass, Apple's ass....or anyone else's ass...stand up like a man, and see
things for what they really are. In other words, SOUND OFF LIKE YOU GOT A PAIR!!
and stop worrying about what "big brother" thinks. |
How on earth are we kissing anyone's ass here? We've partnered with MS
to deliver the DeskScapes Animated Wallpaper technology. Working with
another company does not equate to kissing ass. Or are you simply
referring to the fact that this is a Windows Customization community? If
that's the case you'd probably hate us no matter what horse we tied ourselves to
since you'd just be looking for an excuse at that point.
And Apple? Huh? That one makes no sense since we don't skin OS X,
we don't even have Apple products outside of a beta version of Multiplicity.
This is your company is it not?
If you want it run for the community, run it with the community. You need to be
able to post your opinion about something without having to worry if
members/owners of Neowin, Microsoft, Apple are going to cut you from the
Christmas card list. |
At this point you're just spouting nonsense that has no connection to
anything even remotely close to reality.
