GUI Olympics: Week 3 Results

congrats to all the winners!!!!!!!

Congratulations to all the winners. I must say, however, that a couple of things shocked me . . . I'm not going to say what because my opinion isn't worth much . . . on top of that, I've never made a skin before in my life! That being said, I think everyone who won put out a great skin. Good work!

you have got to be kidding me.

Would it be possible to get judges comments on why they ed certain skins?

apparently "s e l e c t" gets eaten.

Which in particular? I'm not an official judge but I can relay the views of some of them.

Congrats to the winners... but I have to say when I saw this my jaw hit the floor. I have serious differences of opinion in some of these categories. What a disappointment.

BTW, the judges do look at the news items to see what other people like too. So if you had some opinion on what skin should win some event but didn't comment on the news item, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Thanks for telling us.. NOW.. Maybe the judges should've checked the comments on each skin aswell.. just a tip..

Too bad you didn't mention that before... I figured the judges were to judge entirely on the merits of the skins, not base it on popularity in the comments sections.

by ^^Gabriel - 5/26/2004 12:13:38 PM Would it be possible to get judges comments on why they ed certain skins? I would like that too...

Frogboy, are you saying that the judges purposely read the news posts so that they can be influenced by the public's opinions? That's a bit bizzare, isn't it?

Then what are the "User's Choice" categories for?

it also pretty much guarantees new skins to win over older skins, due to the new skins beeing more popular at that particular time... No? well, then prove me wrong, thanks...

No, the judges run through the skins and USE them for a period of days. Then when they have their picks, they look at what other people have written to see if something got missed. Each judge has their own take on things but since there are only a few judges, they want to see what other people think. There's always some level of influence. Heck, I make no bones about which skins I like the most. But I'm not an official judge so I don't typically get to have a vote (I'm an "alternate" - if someone doesn't vote I can come in). So for instance, my favorite themed skin was "Sugarfree" but my view doesn't override the views of others. Users will get to have their shot at voting when we do the user choice voting at the end of the contest.

Plague: That's a ridiculous statement. You can already tell by looking at who has won that there is no bias in there. Heck, the Thunderstorm skin/icons were one of the first things submitted.

how will you prevent cheating in that particular category?

Congrats to all the winners.....and no further comments!

While I do not agree with alot of the picks this week, I stand behind the judges decisions, Congradulations to all the winners... all the skins were great, we may disagree on which are the greatest but thats all.

Plague: Only WC premium subscribers will get to vote. That's how we'll prevent cheating - each voter is a validated customer.

BTW, if you want to see how close the themed category was, here wree the actual numbers: https://www.stardock.com/brad/standings.html

If I had known I was able to take advantage of some influence over the judge's opinions I would have been posting like mad about who I thought should win. That you are stating this after it's all over is what boggles me. I had just assumed, like everyone else I'm sure, that the judges would not be biased by other people's opinions of the outcome.

Frogboy, my interest isn't in the WB/Icons categories, it's in the most usable wa skin category..

..so what exactly do you think the words "Tell us which skin you think should win" in those news items meant? It's not that the judges use the responses as a guide. But if you look at how close some of these events are, it is helpful to the judges to look and see what other people thought. Different people have different opinions. Like I *just* wrote, one of my favorite themed skins was SugarFree. And it didn't win so obviously the judges aren't being overly influenced by outside forces. Personally, I tend to think some people just go by screenshots and don't use them. Some judges I know consider whether something is even remotely usable even if it's in a different category. That is, if it's totally unusable or buggy (that's another major issue) then they'll deduct points. I've already been talking on the Stardock IRC channel (irc.stardock.com) #stardock about the entries and the skins that people think got robbed (or icons) were ones that, IMO, were very impressive in their screenshot form but when you used them they had issues like having the inactive taskbar text be almost the same color as the background so you couldn't see it or not have a help button or have some other issue that people just looking at the screenshot wouldn't realize. I'm not saying that the judges have the end all be all knowledge on what is "the best". But I am saying that they did spend a great deal of time using the actual skins and icons (we're talking many many hours) and the results are, obviously, the result of several different judges giving their own votes that often had nothing in common with another judge. This is particularly true on ones that are really a matter of taste (like the themed ones).

Plague: The nullsoft guys were the main judges on the Winamp ones so talk to them over at Winamp.com.