The GUI Olympics!

from WinCustomize Forums
Many of us at Stardock are strong believers in social justice. In this case, what I mean is that companies that are doing well have a moral obligation to support the communities that they exist in.

Stardock doesn't exist really in a physical community (I doubt the citizens of Canton Michigan or Livonia Michigan even know we exist). But it does exist in a virtual community that goes by many names and has many definitions based on who you talk to.

WindowBlinds 3 has been a success. A huge success. But its success and Stardock's in general is supported by a great deal of websites that usually run by volutneers who give freely to others with no thought to themselves. So how can a company that exists in such a community give something back and do so in a fun yet productive way?

The 2002 GUI Olympics.

It's not your typical contest. Instead, we created a brand new website called www.guiolympics.com. A neutral site. Then we got together with most of the major skin sites (and I did contact every major one) to have a combined WindowBlinds contest.

In this contest, Stardock is going to give out potentially over $10,000 in cash and prizes. Users who submit skins also choose a website they want to represent. The cash is split between the user and the website they represent. There's enough cash to pay for a lot of bandwidth for the coming year. And enough cash to go on a pretty nice vacation for the author too depending on how well they do (or at the very least, get a few nice things).

Anyone can join and you can represent any site that you don't own EXCEPT for WinCustomize and Stardock since we're involved in running it. Volunteers from WinCustomize (our VOLUNTEER moderators like Alexandrie, Treetog, etc.) are free to enter and represent whatever sites they choose. I don't know who they'll represent but it should be interesting.

Since there are so many awards involved, anyone who enters in a decent skin standsa a pretty good chance of winning SOMETHING. And they stand to help the website in question out.

Good luck and I hope to see as many WinCustomize users participate (representing other sites of course) as possible.

If you have any questions, post them here.
12,129 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
yezzzzzz!!!
this will be really fun!

Kudos to Stardock!

now, first question: Can a skinners represent more then one site?
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Can a skin creator enter representing one site (e.g. DeviantArt) with one skin... and another site (e.g. DeskMOD) with another?
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yes. A skin author can represent multiple site. But a SKIN itself can only represent one site.

So if you make 10 skins, you could represent 10 sites.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
. . . though if you made 10 skins in the time available, the chances of any of them winning would probably be remote. Or you'd lose your job/fail your exams/your wife would leave home.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just wondering, why the clause conveying all copyrights for submitted work to Stardock?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Users continue to own their stuff. But we want to be able to include skins on CDs and such without having to run around again. Frankly, I think it's a bit overboard that it has all that in there (I'm going to see if we can get rid of that part as it sounds way too scary).
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sarcasm on:
Obviously another attempt by Stardock to dominate and ruin the skinning scene with overt commercialism.
Sarcasm off.

It was gonna be said anyway... I just thought I'd beat the naysayers to it.

Honestly, I think this is an excellent idea and should generate some terrific skins. This is a much better implementation than the older eFront manages WB contests. Congrats to Stardock for such a novel approach and a great way to support ALL the community.

Now all I gotta do is figure out how to eliminate Treetog from this... Hmmm, I wonder what Tonya Harding is doing these days?
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
"Now all I gotta do is figure out how to eliminate Treetog from this... Hmmm, I wonder what Tonya Harding is doing these days? "

There will be no maming of skin authors! Please leave your billy clubs at home. There will be security guards at every entrance so don't even try!
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
huh-oh! Russ is going to enter the contest! Now with both Renato and Russ in the contest, I must really try to do my darn best!!! Pheww!
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Sounds to me like a great contest.
I'm gonna give it a whirl
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Truthfully, I find this quite a bit of fun.
I'm really looking forward to the results.


I only hope that the different sites don't get all bent about themselves fighting over which skinners are going to represent which site. I've already noticed a bit of scrambling for the more well known WB skinners...

(I'd find it quite fulfilling to see some "dark horses" come out on top.)
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There are some top quality WB skinners out there, I wouldn't be surprised if some of them pull off a few shocks.
This should be really interesting! Damn, I wish I knew how to skin WBlinds!!
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The contest will be going on for over a month. In fact, the last events are in late March. So that's actually a month and a half. >
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Once again Stardock proves to be a class act...

This looks like so much fun I'm gonna make one too... if I can find out how to do all that new stuff in Notepad...
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
*waves Notepad flag*

Yeah, I've already gotten GUIOlympics related spam, from a site I never even heard of. I imagine the more well-known skinners are getting even more. After all, there's real money involved . . .
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I wouldn't call it spam but I've been approached by a site I didn't know existed. Well, now I know it exists and it's a nice site, so I accepted.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
can I request that judges:

a) not be able to see author's names
b) not be able to see the represented skin site of a skin

during the judging? This may already have been planned, but if not, it's the only way the judging can be truly fair. One of my biggest gripes about wallpaper moderation is that I can see the author's names... You can try to ignore it, but all it takes is seeing a familiar name out of the corner of your eye to color your decision...
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm curious about the rule stating a skinner may represent several sites, as long as it's only one skin per represented site.

If there's no real issue of site loyalty, why even involve the various communities? Why not make it a simple skinning competition?
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've been playing with skinning for a couple of months. This sounds like a lot of fun. I'll probably just represent 1 site since I won't have time to do more skins.
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Shoggot: I think most of the judges involved are going to be capable of making an honest judgement of skins. I know I can. Mian has indicated that you would be the judge for Skinz.org. If you don't think you can make a fair judgement because you know who made the skin and such, you may want to find someone else.

We're going to work on the assumption that people are honorable and fair. Plus, we will have the user voting as a guide.

Tack: As a practical matter, all but maybe 5 or 6 people will only represent a single site. But some of the better known skin authors (I own't say who) requested this because they didn't want to be put in the awkward position of having to choose a particular site. I can respect that. For instance, let's say I could participate, who would I represent? I'd either have to not participate at all or possibly offend or anger some of my friends. What we want to do is lower the barrier to entry for all skin authors involved. But that all said, realistically, skin authors are going to largely represent a single site becuase they do have a single, favorite site that they want to help support.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And it's more fun to play (yes, play) for one site, instead of multiple. Add an extra element of competition.

A month and a half, eh?
1. idea generation: 1 week
2. conceptualisation : 1 week
3. creation of basic elements: 1 week
4. creation of advanced elements and testing: 1 week
5. cleaning and more testing: 1 week
6. packaging

It's gonna be tight! Umm, do I have the time... don't know, don't know...