Just to add my $0.02... I think the judges did their job well concerning the WA skins... D-Relicon got 3rd place in the 'Most usable' catefgory...And thats what it deserves. Ive used all three of the skins that won in that category, and while D-Relicon is definately very 'usable'...EMP2 and AR7 top it by a small, but visible, margin. Dont get me wrong, it is a truly *awesome* skin...but its just not as usable as some of the others.

how is it not as usable as the others? I really wanna know, because I have no idea what you're talking about, no offense..

I think another thing that needs to be remembered: The EVENT determines the winner. The two Winamp events were most usable and best power user skin. For their own reasons, the judges made their decisions based on those two events. They werent' judging the "best overall" skin (though I am glad I'm not a judge, holy cow that's shaping up to be scary). I have no opinion at all on Winamp skins. I haven't run any of them. But I am really getting the feeling that some people are ignoring that the events were about the most usable on a day to day basis and the best power user skin. Don't judge the entire contest until it's over.

Can the judges explain to us at least how a skin can be "Most Usable" and same time "Best Power-User" ???? (And I'm talking about the winner on both 2 events you said Frogboy) And no, we don't judge the contest as about WB and Icons where seems to be ok by me, (I don't use WB or IconPackager at all)........ Judges if where so experienced, should recognise what skins took alot of time and effort to be done and don't judge only with what skin fits in their desktops better or to their girlfriends Cause seems like this way of judgement to me in some cases..... Anyway to chil up a bit ,I want a favor (don't answer for the next 15 mins to let me sleep, after this time do whatever you want :D:D:D) LaterZzz

Plague, I don't see why you didn't like the fact that the skinners had to choose the categories so much, although I can see some good sides of what you're proposing (that each skin enters every category). However, consider this: there are over 100 WB skins. You can imagine how much time the judges hace already had to put into judging, and you can see it by how late the results have been. If the judges had to go through 100+ skins with a fine-tooth comb for every single category, that would just be plain ridiculous. (And I'd say that the larger the pool of skins per category, the larger the odds that 'medal deserving' skins will get 'overlooked'.) Ultimately, you made the skin, so you know what its strengths and weaknesses are. If you aren't able to the two most appropriate categories for the skin, then surely something's wrong.

well, yea.. I agreee.. but the thing is that _obviously_ alot of people, including the judges, have very different opinions on what each category means. If the skin authors should choose the categories, then they should be explained in detail what they mean, so there can be no misunderstandings at all.

maybe everybody should start supporting their points with screenshots..

StillWater: For WB you're kinda right BUT remember that this is an International and famous competition, and WinCustomise should MAYBE have MORE judges, seperate on any way of partitipation let's say, 10 for Icons, 20 for WB and another 10 for WA Skins, not just 6 people to do all this work...... So this show to me weakness or not professionalism at the state an International Competition needs, and specialy as Greek participating in a competition having the word "Olympics" on it's title seems a very good joke afterwall to me personaly. biohazard: The server is slow itself, if we all start talking with screenshots will go down in matter of hours.

If all the judges had done as Jark did, then it would have been fine, an impartial vote is exactly what a judge should do. But if you have judges that had to rely on the opinions of others to finalize their own opinion, then you need to find better judges.

lol... yeah(well.. the server is not slow here.. but maybe it is in europe)... but maybe u can upload the pic to other site and just post the addy here...

Plague: Yep, I totally agree that each category should have had a comprehensive description released to the skinners before the contest began. I assume that the judges have some sort of criteria that they have to follow. If so, then this list should have been published before the contest is over. VAG: yeah, but no matter how many judges are involved, each one would still have to look at (in this case) 100+ skins for each category. Every judge would need to look at every competing skin. Otherwise, it would not make any sense. And if judges had to look at THAT many skins for every category, then it would take so much time that you would quite possibly need to pay them. And if you had to pay 40 judges (which is the number you suggest), you would probably first need to rob a bank. You have to be realistic

Also, I have a suggestion. For next time, I think you should either: (a) create 1 separate event for classic winamp skins -or- (b) scrap classic skins altogether and accept only modern skins I say this because I'm sure I'm not the only classic skinner that was disappointed to see how poorly the classic skins went. Especially since there were a few brilliantly crafted classic skins like ripe's "Bunker" skin, for example. This is NOT a whine directed towards the judges, because previous news-posts clearly show that this preference for modern skins is not just the case with the judges, but with the large majority of the public in general. I personally think that classic skins have a valid place in the skinning world. They have disadvantages of course, but they also have advantages, like instantly recognisable and very intuitive component layout and ultra-minimal resource consumption. For these reasons and others, I never even bother using modern skins, no matter how impressed I am by how they look, and have never bothered to try to learn how to skin them, since I'd never use them even if I made them myself. And I'm not the only one like this. So, I suggest that if the GUI thinks that classic skins have a valid place next year, that they give them a separate event. Otherwise, I would suggest that they simply exclude classic skins from the outset - because my guess is that most of us who entered this year probably feel a bit disappointed when we see windowblinds skins, which are also non-freeform, steal the show, while non-freeform winamp skins were all but ignored. And I think that most of us will probably feel that we have, unfortunately, kind of wasted our time.

StillWater I agree as about Classic skins totaly. As about the judges and their payments, well WinCustomize is a big site, has adds, tools to sell, Stardock too, you think they don't have money or sponsors to pay those 40 for example I suggested? I don't think so......

VAG: Yeah, I guess maybe they do. Though it would cost thousands of dollars, would be way harder to organise, would probably make the judging process take way longer, and at the end of it, knowing life, people would still be complaining about the results - so I don't know if it would be worth their while LOL I'm glad you agree about the classic skins. Actually, if the GUI continues to expand in the future, I think it would make it a lot more fun to include other 'minor' events, like for sysmetrix, trillian, skincalc, etc.

I have to Say I am Disappointed in the Results, First of all I got booted for having a Beta out in the public to test my skin Warp. I think one of the boys at winamp had a thing to do with that. Second the Prizes weren't anything, at least for me. If it was $2000 i would be alittle pissed i got kicked out. I think Next time We truely Need a community effort on this. The Guys at StarDoc dont have a clue what it takes to code a Winamp Skin, PLague, RPC, JARED COLE, FRISBEEMONKEY, Jory Compendio All have Computer Science Backgrounds The coding is Just like C++ and Java. D-Reliction used some advanced scripts Resurgence as well. Please When holding a contest Get more Knowledge of the product STARDOCK!!

Stardock DIDN'T judge the Winamp skins.

could the winamp people be any more cry-baby like? what a bunch of pampered little babies. there's what? 2X as many windowblinds skins as winamp skins and half those winamp skins are just classic. you don't see the wb skin authors bitching and moaning. i love how they blame it on stardock when nullsoft were the ones who did most of the judging. go bitch at them.

Judges.. Nullsoft..Steve not a coder, Jonathan, dont know what he does, And the rest 3) Jark from deviantART 4) Voodoo from Neowin 5) Kris from Stardock Anyway..... Have a good one guys!!

Way to make the Winamp community look like a bunch of spoiled babies. Elitist spoiled babies at that. Here Stardock put together a wonderful set of events, included Winamp despite the fact that it's been losing popularity for years, and turned the judging over largely to Nullsoft for those events and what do you guys do? Crap all over Stardock as if it's somehow their fault. Anyone reading this exchange is going to walk away with a very negative impression fo the Winamp community. It's pretty sad that the actual authors of the Winamp skins are belly aching. The funniest part is seeing Winamp skinners threaten to not participate. I bet the organizers are thinking 'oooh no..' I'm sure there's any number of programs that would kill for this kind of exposure whose skinners aren't so quick to throw tantrums. Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.

JayG were are just making points.

1) Blaming Stardock for the outcome of the Winamp skin events is absurd. At most, they had 1 of the 5 judges. No one had more say over the Winamp skins than Nullsoft. 2) On most usable, do you guys realize that a classic skin could easily have won this given that the event was about usability? What does effort have to do with anything? It's about how usable the skin is. 3) Listen to the Hamster. The Winamp community is looking really bad.

If any Winamp skin author feels they have been treated unfairly they are welcome to take their skin out of the contest. We don't want anyone to feel that they are not being treated with the respect that their effort warrants. I'm sorry that some of you don't like the outcome of the Winamp events so far. As I've said, Stardock wasn't the one who did the judging (i.e. overall), we tried to spread it out amongst Winamp experts 2 from Nullsoft. One inhouse Winamp expert, the lead admin of deviantART. I think most people would agree that the judges on the Winamp side were pretty well qualified to do the judging. Incidentally, my comment with regards to looking at news comments was in regard to WindowBlinds skins since there were a LOT more of them in the categories to judge and for the record, yes, some of the judges do look to see what other people think on the WindowBlinds skins. That doesn't mean they take their cues from them. It was not my intention to imply that judges were getting their directions based on news items. As someone else correctly pointed out, Stardock, in general, isn't familiar enough with Winamp to know what's involved in a given Winamp skin in terms of effort which is why the non-Winamp experts at Stardock haven't been judging Winamp skins.

You are all a bunch of babies. It's just a stupid skinning contest. Get over it. It's not like this event even get's any press christ

Oh and btw, I'd like to comment on judging, public opinion etc. Firstly, this is a design competiton, and no matter HOW you slice it, the opinion of a stupid programmer, computer technican or whatever you bunch of tools do for a living, should NOT be allowed to critic or comment on a visual artform like this. What the hell do you know? You think your opinion matters in the real world of creativity? No, artists & are visual people, educated and experienced, and they should be the only ones judging. Artists / Designers don't go to expensive art schools for years and years for nothing you know. Most of you can't even draw a stick figure. Get away from art. You ruin it's public opinion. Yes that means you.

every one who looks the AMDIO iconpack know that a iconpack that havn't the 128x128 format cant get the medal.a very ordinary iconpack .I create it in 1 day.if i want to get a grade to it,the 5 step is the suitable place for it .