this is the most stupid crap i have ever had to read...who cares who wins? its not like you are restricted to download any of them...we are all winners cause we get to download these high quality skins (1st OR last place) at our own free will, with absolutely NO restrictions

I didn't even bother reading all the comments. I just want to say thankyou to all that worked so hard for this event. You all deserve medals. Congrats to all the winners and the judges for all the time spent on trying to judge what must be extremely hard.
Its almost impossible to pick a winner from such a huge collection of the finest.

A tidbit:that forum have deleted some "evidences" before Stardock Cop., taking any action. It seems they have eye on this thread after leaking. To get the matter worst,some renowned skinners from China have been gadding around there and have their eyes shut about this.

To make Stardock Corp., more profitable and reliable from this competition is forfend those who againhst the rule.

We are looking into the issue.  To avoid problems of further evidence vanishing, I can't say any more on the issue.

Test.

Wow, looks like all hell is breaking loose over the visual styles. I'm not going to say anything positive or negative about anything going on here. I only felt obligated to throw a little something up here since it seems as though everyone and their brother got a shot in of some kind in this post (and I hate feeling left out). Besides, how does that saying go? something about beating a dead horse? Hmm...

Anyway, if it's this bad over the most usable skin, I can't wait until we get the results for Best Overall. If I were you Z, I would start lobbying for some extra bandwidth so the site doesn't crash when the results for that one hit *gets the popcorn ready*   

I'm Z.

You meant Zoomba, right?


I know it's confusing. I've even had people email me about the news, 'cause Zoomba's been signing it "Z". I even had one person accuse me of the contest being rigged, thinking I work for Stardock and Zoomba's posting my news.
Hilarious.....until I start getting spam.

ThemeX is a non-business and non-commercial Internet forum, the only purpose is for the fans who like UI and modification OS that provides a space to communicate with each others. However, unfortunately there were some posts that related on the cracks of Stardock, which supplied by some members of forum, but the individual personal piracy activity cannot be verified by us; and meanwhile one of our criterias is NO ANY CRACK AND PIRACY INFORMATION ALLOW TO POST IN THE FORUM. Hence, we just cleaned all relative information and be sure to improved our supervision and control forces; we will delete those things when we just find it in the future. Finally, We all regret about this event that made you in deep trouble.

By the way, thanks Celine Chuang pay a lot of atttention on our site; thanks a lot about his warning and supervision. However A few forum members' behaviours cannot represent our position and attitude, please DO NOT consider we support piracy and try to attack our forum. ThemeX is opened for everyone, non-registered user is only not to allow to download and post, which means you can see anything in the forum. Perhaps our works are not the best in the competition, but they are all harvest of us! You cannot negate our effort and results. We join the game is to communicate internationally and not for the alleged benefits. We expect that do not influence the opinions for other Chinese finalists and their works about this misunderstanding; it is our problem and no business with them. There is no such a private region that only for piracy software in ThemeX. We will supply an ID and co-operate with Stardock if they want to check it out in detailed, any time. ([email protected])

ThemeX crews - 11.03.2006

well honestly...I was shocked with the result..I was excited downloading the gold, silver and bronze skins but I was very disappointed with them, except Acrylic which is sooo great but unfortunately got only a bronze medal. But anyways, I still believe the judges saw better things in these skins that they thought fit to become winners, and we should all respect that. Congrats again to all the winners. You all nailed the judges nods!

Gentlemen... and ladies if present,

Let us not disillude ourselves regarding the notion of the interests of this GUIC. There are clearly benefits to Stardock, any sponsers and the contestants who enter. To read forum posts regarding Stardock employees(?), who are monitoring the events therein, that they "do not have to have these contests take place" or that they "gain nothing by sponsering" is simply a misleading sense of practical business. Stardock and the artists that partake into these ventures are symbiotic. Designing a "great" skin serves a purpose that, I would hope others fail not to take notice, promotes a product far beyond what any simple advertising could even remotely hope to compare with. Meaning that, in the company's wisdom, Stardock understands that in order to move a product such as WindowBlinds, they will undoubtedly require many, many superior graphically-inclined GUI skinners to design for it to showcase and demonstrate the fantatic new innovations behind the software. This contest amounts to a very cost-effective means to advertise what WB5 has to offer. To argue otherwise is a mute point, I am afriad, considering any half-way knowledgible business graduate would likely agree. The skinners gain a small monetary compensation and a name recognition that is likely to push them towards a sort of "graphic stardom". Now that said, let us also re-evaluate what Lightstar mentioned earlier regarding these myriad of graphical "anomalies". If the point of this contest is to promote a product, then sheer wisdom dictates, that any criteria for judgement ought to include the ideals of judging these designs based on the merits of the product. Simply, if WindowBlinds benefits from a new design idea or feature, then a focus of said judging ought to include whether or not these artists make good use of that feature.

Another side note of "wisdom" that I feel many here, Stardock and some forum participants fail to undeniably understand: What Lightstar took precious time to comment on was an ideal based off of experiences in this market (both artistically private and commercially) that rival almost all individuals, including myself. Show some respect please. Agree with him or not, it truly does not matter. He has been actively involved in promoting that proverbial "quest for a better desktop" ever since the launch of Windows XP. More users are familiar with designs that bear his trademark signature and household name than the rest of the lot combined. This isn't fandom speaking for the numbers behind him simply do not lie. So know that when he does have something to say along these lines- it is for good reason. If we wish to speak in terms of someone not benefiting at all here, it is he and everyone here wishing that future contests be held in the fairest, most intelligble manner possible according to what is "good for everyone involved" ought to take note of these concerns raised and make an effective and logical use of them so that all may reap the most they can in rewards.

Business-wise, this contest also represents an investment. And for Stardock professionals to throw in their trivial gripes regarding the extra energy it takes to either listen to their customer base, or anything else asked of them in regards to this product due to lobbying, must simply not want to make money all that bad. And clearly is demonstrating a gross lack of professinalism. If someone does not wish to be part of this or be "here" - then don't. Everyone has a stake in this. I would think everyone would recognize that. As part of the comsumer-base that drives Stardock's ecomonic growth, talking-down experiences and shrugging off legitimately valid points backed by infaliable examples of proof, I think that you, Frogboy would be more conscientious of the points that Lightstar brings to light in regards to the overall benefit this contest, artisans and Stardock have only to bestow.

What we have here represents the inevitable "bottom-line" behind WindowBlinds and the total dollars Stardock requires to take-in to continue it's development. And if all can be interpreted from all of this and my ravings amounts to mere "flames" from forth-coming replies, then I mistakenly over-estimated the ability of all parties concerned, to "listen" and "understand".


Good day.

I couldn't approve Naco520 yclept statement after I had revealed all of ThemeX's misconduct.-They has pilfered Stardock Cop.,'s products from inception of their forum. The "criterias" was changed after they get caught! Above statement is only a pretext!


I had caught them when one of their member put the forum's link on IconPackage competition on Dre-S theme dated to 9/15/2006. Nothing down even the competition is going to end. Fortunately(ironically)I can understand Chinese language or else they are laughing all of skinner-Ha! Ha! We uesd cracks and won the medal Ha! Ha!.


Maugre how ThemeX had handled after revelations. the damage is done,rule is rule.
Stardock Corp., sould kick them out of competition undoubtedly! Everyone is happy about this? Every skinners??

I'm Z. You meant Zoomba, right?

LOL, yeah I was refering to Zoomba. I actually gave the fact that you may have thought I was refering to you some thought after I posted it.

Btw,

You still can find eater eggs in ThemeX.net.


If anyone don't want to pay Stardock Corp., products. Go there! You won't be disappointed!

Guess what? http://bbs.pcpchina.com/ has "free" Argos theme for you.

No disrespect to anybody, but when I saw the results of this I thought it was a purely public vote and somehow it'd been rigged. I was stunned to read that a panel of judges were involved.

I think you can gauge the popularity of a skin by the reaction it gets from the public and if you look at the amount of posts (or lack thereof) next to some of the winning skins here then you can understand some of the bemusement and hostility at the results.

Oh well.

Another side note of "wisdom" that I feel many here, Stardock and some forum participants fail to undeniably understand: What Lightstar took precious time to comment on was an ideal based off of experiences in this market (both artistically private and commercially) that rival almost all individuals, including myself. Show some respect please. Agree with him or not, it truly does not matter. He has been actively involved in promoting that proverbial "quest for a better desktop" ever since the launch of Windows XP

That is an interesting point you make. Respect.

Skinning for me was old hat when Windows XP launched.  It was old hat for a lot of people.

Respect, in fact, was the reason why people like myself came down on LightStar.  It is not that we, who did not judge the event btw, disagreed with any of the technical issues he wrote about the winners.  We disagreed with the lack of respect he showed to the winners, to the judges, and frankly to us. 

To insist that we "halt the contest" right now and re-design it mid-stream because he doesn't like the results was what I found very disrespectful (and incidentally, don't you feel you should, in the name of full disclosure, explain your association with LightStar rather than present yourself as a neutral observer?)

What some people, usually people not familiar with Stardock, fail to recognize is that Stardock is a privately held company.  So yea, we CAN run a contest like this without any business justification whatsoever.

The GUI Olympics and now the GUI Championships have always been essentially a big party to celebrate and reward skinners who were already giving away their skins for free.  I am sure there are probably good business reasons for doing it. I can think of many.  But all of those justifications could be done in a much more effective way than this.

This is a celebration of the skinners and let them get some of the public praise they deserve.  If someone honestly thinks it's some sort of cynical business project, then ask yourself why Winamp, TGT, and countless others haven't ever held a contest of this kind.

We want everyone to have fun.  That includes us too though.

The issue of warez links on ThemeX is being looked at.  I've said it before, and this is the last time I'll say it.  Repeatedly posting about it is not going to make it go any faster.  Such issues are not discussed publicly as a general rule.

That is the end of that topic.  I appreciate your concern Celine for bringing it to our attention.

On the issue of whether or not we "need" to have these contests. 

I'll contend that it's not a "need" for us so much as a "want."  We run the GUI Championships every 2 years (this being the third competition).  If we needed this, it would be more frequent, and a much larger investment of resources.  If this were crucial to our bottom line, we wouldn't be able to survive going two years between events.  We want to do these because the events can be a great deal of fun for the community as a whole.  Skinners get to really strut their stuff, non-skinners get a lot of great content to put on their PCs, and yes, Stardock gets work that shows off our software. 

But we get work that shows off our software almost every day on WinCustomize.  We put out our own professionally done skins and themes.  Sites like DeviantArt have their own WindowBlinds library where great work gets posted on a regular basis too.  The work is always out there, people are always making great stuff that runs on our software.  The GUI Champs is different only in that now we're trying to offer some very real rewards to our community for doing what they do for free all year round.

For everyone who has offered suggestions on improving the next contest, thank you. Your comments are appreciated and are being considered for next time.  For those who have felt the need to "tell us how it should be done" (there is a real difference between offering suggestions and telling us you know how to do it better), we wish you all the luck in the world in organizing your own contest.  Fact of the matter is, unless you've tried to run something like this, it's hard to have an appreciation for what goes into it.  Before I was given this years event to run, I didn't have a real understanding of how much work was involved.  Until you've tried to run an event like this, with prizes and corporate sponsors and coordinating volunteer judges who also have very busy lives, you can't say you know how it should be done.  You may have ideas, but telling me or anyone else you "know better" without the experience to back it up is blowing a lot of hot air.

As Frogboy has said, this is something we LIKE to do to help celebrate the community a bit.  It brings attention and some prizes to guys and gals who do this for free all year round.

And please remember that the ONLY person who is in any way paid to cover this event is me (and this is only one part of my current project list at Stardock).  Do not disrespect our judges who do this on their free time and out of their own desire to help the community.  Just because you disagree with their votes doesn't give you the right to trash them.  Also remember that the finalists they had to choose from were a direct result of user voting. 

Everyone involved in operating this contest has tried very hard to respect the contestants and the general users of the site.  Issues and questions have been addressed as quickly as possible, often times on weekends and late at night.  All I ask in return is the same level of respect for our judges and everyone involved (even on a volunteer basis) with this competition.  Voicing disagreement is one thing, being disrespectful while doing it is something entirely different.

Very dissapointed in the outcome of these votings. I guess the democrats rigged it again.... Just kidding....

Too bad not all of the teams got their work in. I always expect an overload of themes...

Toot Toot

Why isn't delta getting any consideration
We all have our likes agreed but the thing is it is doing better then any of the other skins inclusive of some of the winners over here on deviantart !!!