I'm trying and had the same question from a couple friends about voting. I know there is a voting date period. For one to vote can they just be a visitor or do they require an account to vote? Naturally you need and account to enter I know.

The floating banner on top of the home page is nice however it rotates with other banners. Maybe a stationary link added would also be helpful as people just making a visit may think it just some knid of advertisment. Just a thought.

its a shame you have to have a account to vote..  i know a lot of skinners that dont have a account,,so i guess the more frineds you have on here the more chance you will win,,

i no,,,i have put it out on facebook and deviantART myself ,,and im trying to get a few friends to come to WC,,

I suspect the 'Wincustomize cliques' will carry out their "good deeds" in the GUIC voting as well.
Most people now a days don't care about how the skin looks. It's all about being on good terms with the artist(s) - or ratings on your own stuff will get slashed.
We've seen it many times over the years, and are still seeing it.

 I have told everyone I know and then some. LOL

First...I take a close look at the graphics...design,quality and to a very large degree line quality (because an antialiased line if not center on 1 pixel can be up to 3 pixels wide).

On those graphic criteria I give the skin a score from 1 - 10

Second... I then take a look at execution, there are 8 -10 areas

that I know to be tough to deal with so I check those and then

give the skin a number 1-10 for execution.

At this point I simply add the two numbers together and divide by 2 which gives me the total number of 1/2 stars the skin gets.

I am sure everyone has a way that they are comfortable with for me this seems fair accurate and moderately quick.

I have been doing this way for about 4 yrs now helps to keep me consistent for everyone . Ironically I don't rate alot anymore if I download a skin and like it I might rate might not if a skin doesn't make 3 full stars I almost never rate it .

The judges will vote for the top 5 (I think) and then the community will vote for those.  The buttons won't appear until it's time to vote (I think [again])