I hate to be Simon but...

Sunday, February 2, 2003 by Frogboy | Discussion: WinCustomize News

You visit most sites that have themes and skins and you'll notice that have a gazillion wallpapers. You come here and you see fewer than 3000. Why is that? It's because we reject 9 out of 10 submissions.

Now, most of the moderators here are nice. They send out often lengthy emails to the authors of these wallpapers explaining why they were rejected. In return, they regularly get flamed, personal attacks and occasionally threatened.

I'm not nice. I don't send moderator notices. I'm the "Simon" from American Idol. I don't like spending time on a thoughtful email to have the author resond by attacking me. I just delete them. Sorry. I know that lots of these wallpapers are pretty good that get rejected. I know that many people spent many hours on these wallpapers. But there are dozens of sites that you can submit them too. Our goal here is to keep the number low. So that it's the "best of the best". Sure, occasionally something mediocre will get through and we are biased in favor of WALLPAPERS as opposed to works of art. But in general we try to ensure that the wallpaper section is kept as small as possible.

I know this upsets some people based on the emails that our poor VOLUNTEER moderators get. But I'm going to recommend that moderation emails become rare. It's just too discouraging for our VOLUNTEER moderators to get trashed in email for trying to gently tell them why their wallpaper didn't come up. Wallpapers that don't meet our criteria will simply be deleted. We hope you understand that with hundreds of wallpapers submitted every few days that this is the only way to reasonably get through them and provide a fair way for everyone.
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crissy14
Reply #1 Sunday, February 2, 2003 8:58 PM
knowing that you probably get dozens of submissions each day, I'm sure you're being as fair as possible.
Colorado 33
Reply #2 Sunday, February 2, 2003 8:58 PM
Simon say's " If you would have been born 2000 years ago, they probably would have stoned you to death "

Do you moderate wb skins too? Cuz some of them are so ugly and they seem to slip through the gate.
mr.bo
Reply #3 Sunday, February 2, 2003 9:31 PM
I agree with Strad about the WB skins. It's difficult sifting through the nasty ones. Even the ratings don't help much. I've seen really ugly skins with a high rating.

As for the wallpapers. I for one appreciate the moderation. Some sites are crammed with walls of chicks in bikinis. (distasteful, and anoying) or sites that really need a Britney (sp?) Spears wallpaper section. Moderation is good.
MikeB314
Reply #4 Sunday, February 2, 2003 9:51 PM
WindowBlinds and other skins are moderated, but not in the same way as wallpapers. We watch for rips, unauthorized ports, copyright infringements, and objectionable content, but they are not moderated for style or appearance. This is a skin site, afterall. It is not a wallpaper site, however, which is why that section is moderated so closely. In my opinion, this policy change will leave more time for us to moderate skin submissions, and that's good news for all contributors to Wincustomize.

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Surj
Reply #5 Sunday, February 2, 2003 10:03 PM
>>Do you moderate wb skins too? Cuz some of them are so ugly and they seem to slip through the gate.
<<

this is a skins site, not a wallpaper site. I can't believe people are actually threatening the moderators, thats just sick.
Frogboy
Reply #6 Sunday, February 2, 2003 10:46 PM
Let me be candid. If not a single wallpaper were ever uploaded again it would not upset me in the least. That's not saying we don't want wallpapers, but that they're not a priority.

Skins are not moderated strictly on quality levels unless they are really terrible since this is a skins site. I suggest using the rating filters, they do work pretty well.
chickenbow
Reply #7 Sunday, February 2, 2003 11:04 PM
I'm posting my comments concerning Wincustomize's justification of moderation in the message board because the don't have much of a place here, meanwhile...

I will say two things here:
1) It is a shame that the VOLENTEER moderators are being flamed, trashed, and threatened for their critical thoughts on the submitted wallpapers, and
2) the 3000 walls on Wincustomize are very impressive, as the vast majority of visitors and users will agree, and they certainly appreciate the authors' hard work --just as I'm sure they do for the GOOD WB skins, DX submissions, and the like.
chadlachlanross
Reply #8 Sunday, February 2, 2003 11:21 PM
I appreciate the moderation of the wallpapers here. Some sites are WAY out of control. I personally have had several wallpapers rejected, and that's ok. However, I will say that the moderators obviously favor any walls with an "Aqua" flavor, or the Windows XP logo on them.
Nomad529
Reply #9 Sunday, February 2, 2003 11:21 PM
~ I totally agree about the moderation of the section. I, for one, don't even LOOK at the wallpaper section. I know there are some awesome pieces there but I don't come to WC to see wallpapers. The skins are what this site is about and that's what I like about it. I wish more of the actual wallpaper sites out there would do half the moderation WC does!! Too much crap is posted in that area!
~ In summary, my congrats and respect goes out to those who have the difficult task of filtering out the best of the best!!
TaoX
Reply #10 Sunday, February 2, 2003 11:21 PM
I'm one for voting that you guys moderate the freaking skins more! I mean, dang some of them are so obviously ugly, and some just need a change or two... also, why keep so many old skins that are awful or hardly even work anymore(if they work at all)?
Chris
Reply #11 Sunday, February 2, 2003 11:42 PM
One of the advantages a skinner has here is that they can get feedback, encourgement, user testing, suggesions and techniques for their skins that can ultimately help them refine their craft

Moderating skins, or over-moderating them would detract from this.
Jafo
Reply #12 Monday, February 3, 2003 1:13 AM
Skin 'quality' is an issue with those which lend themselves to 'photoskins' such as ICQ Plus, and WinAMP 2x.
If it's a snapshot of Granny's favourite nephew it won't be getting in.....at all.
Skinmaker proggies....which utilize this 'photoskin' methodology, with 'click here for bevelled buttons'...they, too won't get in.
When these proggies are skinned by 'legitimate' or 'renowned' skinners essentially pixel-by-pixel, you can understand just how 'hopeless' these photoskins really are in comparison.
Unmoderated sites are inundated with 'Britney-[but pink]-ICQ' or 'fluff-the-cat for WinAMP' examples which are really a 'cheapening' of the whole skinning genre.
da_zman20
Reply #13 Monday, February 3, 2003 2:16 AM
how dare any of you imply that any of the wb skins on this site are ugly or old, i've seen skins that aren't my style, but never ones that weren't good... and I have seen every single one of the 2105 skins on this site, I was here in the beginning, and for you to call any artists work ugly shows a lack of respect, and a lack of class... if you want to call someones work ugly speak for yourself... as for wallpapers, go upload them elsewhere. wincustomize has skins... it is a skin site... if you don't think it's fair that they won't upload your wallpapers go upload them on a WALLPAPER SITE...

I mean no offense to anyone, but why can't people just be happy with things... I like WC just the way it is... and no newbie should be allowed to come along a disgrace someone elses work... if you don't like the "UGLY', "UNMODERATED" WB skins here... Leave... you can download WB skins from http://www.deviantart.com, http://www.skinbase.org, and many others, and wallpapers from those sites too...

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Fix
Reply #14 Monday, February 3, 2003 2:27 AM
I agree with you da_zman20... but people are usually so agressive...
Thanx for all the moderating job here at WC : it's really impressive, as any webmaster can recognize it.
Angel_Wings
Reply #15 Monday, February 3, 2003 3:45 AM
I think Frogboy's point was a very good one. I'm *blush* guilty of uploading my share of walls recently and I wouldn't want to have to moderate all of the submissions, I'd probably go cwazy blind.

Angel_Wings will try to only submit a few a month from now on to lighten the load.

craeonics
Reply #16 Monday, February 3, 2003 4:05 AM
Yeah well, at least give them a reason why it's moderated, be it a standard list. Else you get questions like "why isn't my wall up yet?".
CAClark
Reply #17 Monday, February 3, 2003 4:09 AM
I had wallpapers rejected for being 'straight out of terragen' and the very next day see people have terragen or bryce images accepted. That frankly is shit. Art is Art.
Jafo
Reply #18 Monday, February 3, 2003 4:47 AM
CAClark...Art is Art, and this is a skinning site, which also has a section to accommodate wallpapers....and your point is....?
Lecrayon
Reply #19 Monday, February 3, 2003 5:17 AM
Interesting, interesting I remember the days when walls and other works were called "art" here. In all the wall submissions I did I had only two times a comment why it was rejected. One liners. Moderation is good, but don't make it sound so extreme like uploaders are screaming harassers and VOLUNTEERS are ALWAYS nice. That is simply not true.
paxx
Reply #20 Monday, February 3, 2003 5:59 AM
Hum. Art isn't Art. There is such a thing as good and bad. There ARE some bad skins here as there are nice ones. Heck, give me a paintbrush and I'll show you what bad Art is. My 3 year old paints better than I do.

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