What would you have us do then Phoon? There has to be some sort of mechanism in order for casual users to be able to sort through the skins of various qualities.

Let's use Boxxi's skins as an example: The average rating on his skins is 4 stars.

https://www.wincustomize.com/Skins.aspx?LibID=1&view=1&sortby=4&sortdir=DESC&p=2&advanced=0&searchtxt=Boxxi

The lowest is 3 stars which is STILL above average (2.5 stars is an "average" skin).

Boxxi's 5th most popular skin of all time has a 3.5 star rating.

Ratings are part of any serious library site.  Over on Download.com, WindowBlinds has only a 3.5 star average review.  Yea, it stings, but the alternative is for new users to be overwhelmed with skins OR we personally moderate skins very very harshly.

SKinners want to pick up their ball and go home? I would hate to see that happen but the only ones who suffer are the users and the skinners. 

When the supply of free content goes down, the market for premium (non-free) content goes way up.  So users better start bloody being more appreciative of skinners.  But skinners, I think, need to have a thicker skin sometimes.  Not everyone can have a 5 star rating.

Since Boxxi is a moderator here and we're friends, I'll use his skins as an example.  On his top 5 skins I've rated them personally at around 3 stars on average.  I don't consider that malicious. It's just my opinion.

The rating system is weighted by access.  An admin rating a skin has their rating count 9 times versus an apprentice which is only counted 1 time.   Few skins don't get rated by at least a couple of moderators (who are weighted at something like 5 times an apprentice or super moderator 6 times an apprentice). 

If the rating system costs the site a few skinners, so-be-it.  There's nothing that can be done about it that doesn't involve causing pain to someone.  If only the admins rated it, for instance, the results could be even more dire.  Again, to use Boxxi's, if only I rated skins, Boxxi's would average 3.5 stars which is lower than the rating most people give because we all have different tastes.

To me, a malicious rating would be a 1 star rating in which the user didn't even take a good look or did so in order to purposely lower the person's rating for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of a skin.

What I don't like personally is that subscribers can rate skins. I don't think that's right. I think that rating a skin should be earned.  This was something implemented without my input and now it's hard to take away such a feature from paying users.

I also think that skinners should have the right to control who comments on their skins.  On JoeUser.com, users can say who can comment on their blogs for instance.  I think the same thing would be nice on WinCustomize.

But in the end, the problem is that the people who care about the skinners hang out in this forum and the people who would say crappy things do not. 

I think one solution may be to have a place here on the forums where skinners can easily report this kind of thing and we moderators can jump in and take care of those people.  I feel contempt for losers who have nothing better to do than to crap on people who share their hard work with the world.

BTW, that STJ character is clueless.  I checked out that Xbox skin you made. I've been using it since it came out and featured it right away (it may still be in the queue).   It' s a really good skin.

People who are in the spotlight attract the attention of jerks.  I think most here (who know me) will agree when I say there's no one in this thread who has been flamed anywhere near as much as I have over the years.  You never get used to it. 

We have put our heads together and the solution is the current rating system.  No system will satisfy everyone.  We've had years of discussion on the rating system and essentially you will always have a percentage of people who object to any rating system at all and that's a non-starter.  We will never get rid of the rating system. There will always be some mechanism in which skins that people like better than others are distinguished. 

The current rating system is not the same as the old one. It is weighted by access level which makes a huge difference.  If one jerk at citizen level gives a rating of 1 to a good skin and an admin gives it 5 stars, it's going to have 5 stars still.  It would take 5 or so jerks to bring it down to 4 stars even and that's exceptionally rare.

If a mod gives a skin 3 stars, then a drive-by gives it 1 star, that isn't going to have an effect due to the weighting system mentioned above. Where it is a problem is for those with high enough access levels to have skins auto approved. They go through with an automated 3 stars on, the drive-by comes along and rates it 1 star - the rating goes to 1 star because the auto rating is overwritten. I know, it happened to my last skin. Fortunately others came along to rate and the rating moved up. But you can see how frustrating that can be.

You could post your best ever skin only to have it immediately knocked to 1 star by a passing twit. That's why people with no skinning experience should not be allowed to rate. I don't care if they've paid, the privilege should be removed. Put rating in the hands of those who know what it feels like to be rated.