Jafo Jafo

Rating skins

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Rating skins

A screenshot is NOT the skin

from WinCustomize Forums

It beggars the question how someone thinks they can rate a Litestep theme, or a Dx theme ....or any equivalent 'complex' skin....WB, WA, WMP, etc when all they are likely to know of it is the screenshot....as they do not DL and run the work, or even have not ever used the program. 

A screenshot is one happy snap of [as example, an LS theme...perhaps 1600 lines of hand-written code and hundreds of images taking weeks to create] ....yet some twit will go 'der...look at dat piccie...ho-hum' and consign the work to the depths of obscurity for no valid reason than their own ignorance.

Rate the skin/theme...not its 'pretty picture'.

If you are not genuinely knowledgable about a particular skinning 'field', take the initiative to opt-out of judging it at all.

You will only do the skinners and their work a gross injustice...[and raise people's ire]...;)

21,221 views 88 replies
Reply #76 from WinCustomize Forums Top
seems the newer skinners think the long time skinners rate them low,which i can understand the long time skinners have more knowledge about skinning



Not from where I stand, as a non-skinner. I've never found any of the seasoned skinners here, less than very helpful and encouraging to newcomers.

If the new talent thinks that's the case, I'd (personally) refute it and say that they've got it wrong. The seasoned skinners I've met here would not deliberately rate a skin low, and would not have that sort of agenda.

However, ~if a skin does get a low rating ...it should not be construed as slamming the skin ~it's author should take in the ratings and comments, study his/her work ...and find areas where it can be improved upon. After all, good skins are what we come here for...

(2 cents spent)
Reply #77 from WinCustomize Forums Top
log time skinners rate skins by newcomers low? when did this start? i'm with eric on this one. not once have i asked an experienced skinner a question and been turned away. every question i've had has been answered politely and with clarity. these guys have no reason to push lesser experienced skinners away from WC and skinning in general. some of their comments may be taken wrong by new skinners but i assure you, if the person making the comment had been asked what he or she meant, the misunderstanding would be taken care of. the more experienced skinners here will bend over backwards to help new guys if they are asked.
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Reply #78 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Comments like ratings can be bogus. If you look at whos commenting you might find that a lot of the people never downloaded the piece and are just commenting on the preview, same as those who rate without downloading. So just because you have a lot of this is great, very nice, and the skin is rated a 5(2 1/2 stars) doesn't mean the rating is wrong. Think about that.
Reply #79 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Eric I agree with you, I'm not a skinner either. But some of the newer skinners I have talked to think that if they are not a big name like tiggz ,SF or pixstudios ( which these guys are some of the best)they get rated low and it discourages them .Personally if I was a skinner I would expect to get rated lower than these master skinners because I wouldnt have the experience skinning that they have. I have seen some great work by the new skinners(in my opinion).I think it shouldnt be about ratings it should be about their love for skinning giving us great and awesome blinds and etc for us to enjoy, I agree maybe some of their comments have been taken wrong. I also agree with Jafo in comment #68 some have an agenda to unsurp the status of their competition which is what some new skinners think?
Reply #80 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Just an aside, here.  I see people making comments about newcomers vs old timers, and people maybe rating old timers higher because they have been around so long.  Perhaps you might see this differently if you knew that Tiggz is a newcomer, only skinning a relatively short time now.  Success is nothing to do with being around a long time, it is to do with discipline, and care, and constantly trying to learn.  It is to do with setting goals and striving to meet them.  It has nothing to do with name or nepotism. 

In fact, I suspect I have sometimes seen 'old timers' rated low because they do have a name, perhaps in an attempt to level the field. 

Reply #81 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Excellent point GM. Lately I have seen experienced skinners taking some very bad ratings.
Reply #82 from WinCustomize Forums Top
In my opinion have seen some newcomers stuff and some of its better than the experienced skinners but its been rated low. This is a never ending controversy and will never be finished somebody will always get upset about ratings no matter what. Thats all I'm going to say about it ,it was my opinion and it doesnt really matter (my opinion I'm a newbie.) Wasnt meant to offend any skinners old or new! Good Luck and keep skinning!
Reply #83 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thats all I'm going to say about it ,it was my opinion and it doesn't really matter (my opinion I'm a newbie.)
Your opinion matters newbie or not, just the same as mine, oldbie or not.  And thats kind of my point.

There is no reason for either of us to be quiet because we both happen to be thinking people with different opinions.  Would it have been better for me to maintain silence because I'm not exactly a newbie?

There really is more than one side to the picture and I think both are valid enough to mention. 

Reply #84 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have another suggestion. Maybe the ratings of more experienced skinners should affect the ratings more. After all, they know to evaluate the whole work better then some less experienced skinners (I don't have enough experience too, and because of that I rate only those who I really like, so I never give ratings lower than 3, I don't want to rate badly some skins if I'm not 100% sure I've done the right thing).
And if you don't believe the ratings check the number of downloads. It will certainly bring up the best skins.
Reply #85 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Citizen sssnake  ....actually, they do...along with 'promotion' through input/experience...eg to Apprentice, Journeyman, etc....comes a multiplicity factor that means that when an experienced 'Journeyman' for example rates a work a '7', say, it's the equivalent of 4 people [from memory] rating it a '7' each...which helps balance the comparatively un-informed '2' that may have been placed by someone new to skinning.

This is certainly a fair way to do it....just as long as those with more rating 'powers' are responsible and mature enough not to abuse their privilege... 

Reply #86 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Maybe the ratings of more experienced skinners should affect the ratings more


There was talk of something like this at the old site where the higher access level, the greater the impact your rating would have on a skin, but I don't know if it was ever implemented or if it will be.