I suppose it should have then read "Tell us which skin you think should win because the judges will take what you say into account when deciding the winners". Otherwise I had taken it simply as a way to keep everyone excited and talking about the competition.

Well, as far as I know, none of the "nullsoft guys" involved in creating the skin engine are judging here.. Which means they don't neccesarily have the same knowledge as some of the veteran skinners have (I've been coding winamp3/5 skins since winamp3 was in alpha stage).

i'm totally rpcs and plagues opinion! FIRST the judges seem unable to do their work properly (and i'm wondering why some of the best skinners say that... could it PERHAPS be that it's true?!?!?!)... i disagree with almost all rankings. ok, d-reliction is great, true, so is ar7.... but emp2?!?! no offense, it's nice, but definatly not first place! and for best power user... impulse and resurgence don'T have that much features but they won... those two skins are those which are the less "power user"like skins entered, in my eyes. frogboy, it was asked that the judges should post their oppinions WHAT made them a special skin, and i think this should be added for EVERY SKIN on EVERY EVENT! i can't understand the descissions in any way, and this would perhaps help to clear some arguments up. anyway, on the next guio, i think real PROs should be judges.

Congrats to the winners. I'm not going in discussion with the results.

Yes, the guys involved in Winamp engine are judging. I have no opinion whatsoever about the Winamp skins since I don't use Winamp.

I personally disagree with a lot of the decisions too, but I certainly won't start kicking up a fuss about it here. Why? Because I've organised a skin contest myself before (though not as large as this one, of course!). And one of the things that I learnt very quickly was that people will always whine and moan about the judges' decisions. Frankly, I don't envy the position of the judges and organisers of this thing at all! Everyone has different tastes, and everyone pays extra attention to different aspects of a skin. Something that seems to one person to be a minor discrepancy seems to another person to be a major flaw. While something that for one person is an unimportant detail is for another person a terrific attribute that makes the skin deserve a gold medal. Before anyone complains about the results, they should consider this: What if the results were exactly the way YOU would have liked them to be? Wouldn't there be a load of people that would strongly disagree with THOSE results? Yes, there would be, and many of them would also be "pros", you can count on it. And would those people be justified in disagreeing with you? Yes, they would be. So give the judges a break, because if any one of us were judging this ourselves, we would be copping just as much crap from the public as they are

Well said StillWater.

i am so happy that I can say only: thank You! btw can You change "Miloszl" +"Miloszwl"? Small typo . Thanks.

I have to say some of these results seem somewhat disappointing to me but as StillWater nicely put it, we can't really do anything at this point and there is no way to make everyone happy. Lets just hope the last events will more justly represent the popular opinion on some of these categories.

Even though I was disappointed in the results I would have been totally fine with it had Frogboy not said that "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". That implies that *I* or any of us could have had some influence over the judges decision by simply making comments on the news postings. I don't blame the judges for the events not turning out the way I would have liked if it was understood between them that taking user comments into account when making their final decision was acceptable. But if this was the case, then the people competing in these events should have been made aware that they are not only bieng judged on the merits of thier skin, but on the kind of comments it recieved as well. Perhaps contestants could have then had thier friends or teammates come in and give them in cheer in the news postings hence giving the judges a better impression of thier skin and squeezing out a couple more points in a very tight race. It's not like I am making this argument for myself, I am not on any teams and I didn't submit any skins. This isn't anything personal as far as I'm concerned but if I if did have something at stake in this contest, I'd be pretty upset that something as easy as a few positive comments in the news posts could have swayed things my way... but wasn't told until afterwards and then told they could only blame themselves for not making a a bigger case in the news postings.

If the comments were really meaningfull, skins submitted just before events had no change (talking about event on news posts usually stops before the event). I don't think that was right in any means if that was really the case.

rpterclark: No one lives in a vacuum. As I have pointed out *repeatedly* the judges used these skins for days before deciding on them. That's why it's taking so long. It's a huge leap to assume that people's responses in news items somehow determined the outcome. What I have said and what I am trying to get across is that comments in news items do have *some* influence with some judges. That *should* be common sense I'd think. If I were judging a skin, I would read through the comments, look at the screenshots, look at the news item comments to get an idea of what people are thinking. Then I would make my choices based on what I thought were best. While I can't speak of the Winamp skins I can say that all of the WB/icon packages that won were deserving. I can think of other skins that were also deserving but at that point it's so close that it's impossible to say whether one is "better" than the other. It's a judgement call (no pun intended). Heck, I'm not even sure which skins people feel got "robbed".

"...news items do have *some* influence with some judges". I had just assumed the judges were impartial. "It's a huge leap to assume that people's responses in news items somehow determined the outcome". Then why do I have only myself to blame for the outcome? Maybe that was an overstatement? If so, I'll just drop it.

Congrats to all the winners!. In my opinion EMP2 is the best WA power user skin(many features... maybe some of the ppl who are arguing just havent looked it well) and then the most usable for its simplicity... I was expecting Legacy in the best themed VS... oh well.... I only have one question... why d3A was first and the Last Order was third in the Best Pseudo-OS icon packager?.... why d3A was better than the Last Order?(I think the last order looks better.. just my opinion)... they look very similar... they should have the same place

Many thanks first to all skinners for their hard work and secondly sponsors for supporting this event, wich helped (me at least) benefit of some of the most inspirational skins/icons yet. Thanks all.:) And the judges as well of course.

Good Job to everyone... I got mentioned 5th place with my icons!! (better luck next olympics ) ... one suggestion to future judgings of these competitions so that there is no complaining: the judges should not be allowed to view any of the skins until the judging begins, that way they are not influenced by people's comments, or look at newer skins more closely than older ones, etc.

btw... only wc premium customers will be allowed to vote for user's choice?? (:() is it possible to let the authors vote for skins in the categories that they have not submitted anything in? (;))

agree.. also, the skinners should _not_ have to decide categories themselves. All skins should be able to win in any category, they should not be limited to just two categories, especially if those two categories have to be chosen by the skin author him/herself. If a skin truly is the most creative skin, but hasn't entered that category, it should still win imo. So as I said, don't make the author choose category.

I think i must say something too. Even if i won somethign i am not really glad about it because i see that other great works from great skinners didnt get what they deserved. I dun wanna say more because everything i wanted to say was told by rpeterclark and plague. I geuss you have a lost a lot of great skinners because most of them wont join next GUIO probably. I would join next GUIO only if i know who the judges are.

Excellent job of judging... The winners all deserved it!

Woo Hoo! Congrats to all. I'm glad I had nothing to do with judging. I'm only following the WB side of the competition and there are MANY deserving winners in each category.

Plague: Feel free to start your own contest. Sheesh. Do you have any idea how much time it takes to try out 150+ skins? It's physically impossible to try them all out and give them a good shake if you had to wait until the event judging was ready.

Congratulations to all winners in all categories. First I wanna say thank you to "judges" giving to my team a medal for AR-7...... Second I wanna know who those people are who judged the WA skins, not in public of course, as a captain of Metaskins team I would like to know with what criteria they "voted" for these results.

I totaly agree with Plague and rpeterclark, and I also have an official statement to make representing myself and I hope my team too. As Metaskins we won't participate in any other GUIO in the future cause we "knew" from a very well known person in Stardock website(s) some of the results and we didn't paid attention in his warnings and we did participate hoping that his words was not so true (well they are at the end as I see) - no further info about him in any case -.

Now I know we ALL here have different tastes as about the results in 3/4 of the WA categories, BUT how Professionals are those judges to listen to each skin comment and NOT see for themselves? are they so lazy to test skin by skin in category after category and having notes of what each skin has /is able to do /features added on it etc. to REAL JUDGE them all????? I remember you Frogboy for example asking for MORE submitions 3 weeks ago in WA skins cause there was only 17....... don't tell me that thosee 46 exist now are too heavy for those 2 judges that they didn't had trust in their selves adn wanted to "ask for help" from people's posts...... cause if this is true, then GUIO is not a serious competition at all and don't expect in the next "series" to have more than 2-3 teams and 10 individuals to participate in a family compatition and not a worldwide event. You can see in your left of your screen how many teams are registered to participate, and how many of them (including our team) have submited meterials....... So blame your administration or your judges as about WA Skins results and NOT THE PEOPLE who commented, suggested, discussed about skins on the skins comment on each submition. Peace from my side and take my statement as you wish, I don't really care LaterZzz