Level 4

Sunday, June 9, 2002 by WOM | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk

My understanding is to become a level 4 , all I have to do is subscribe to the browser? Then this non skining citizen can rate!
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feline
Reply #21 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 8:33 AM
before this thread appeared, i had never realised that subscription would endow people with the ability to rate skins.

perhaps the admins want to think about this a little?

i would have thought that there were enough incentives for subscription alread.
feline
Reply #22 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 8:37 AM
*sigh*
the last word should have been "already"

i am starting to worry that i am being swayed from the true path of neutality, and am developing a viewpoint on skin ratings. where will this end?
Mr Benn
Reply #23 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 9:21 AM
I seem to have acquired the ability to rate, even though I have never uploaded anything and I have not (yet) subscribed to WinCust (although I am an OD subscriber). I will not be rating though, I don't see the point. If I like something, I will download it.

But I would be interested to know how skinners currently feel. Would they rather have a high download count or a high peer rating?
craeonics
Reply #24 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 9:28 AM
feline the admin?
davad70
Reply #25 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 9:35 AM
Personally, I would rather have no ratings, but that's probably not ever going to happen.

High downloads are nice in the sense that it feels good to know something that you made is being enjoyed by many. However, there are several skins which I've made that I knew would never be popular, but bring me a great deal of satisfaction in a different way.
Jafo
Reply #26 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:09 AM
Fortunately for me...and unlike some skinners...I'm not really fussed about my download numbers....it'd be sad if I was, considering you can usually count them on the hands of one arm...

But, I've always preferred comments/ratings from fellow LiteSTEP themers than from Joe Public.

Davad...you may think there's a lot of work in a WB skin...to get a paltry comment, but when it's a LS theme that has been literally years in refinement/development.....it really rankles...
Just the time it takes to write a clear, precise step.rc... or, in the case of the LS 'theme' I'm using at the moment...to draw 1,507 bitmaps of varying sizes, adding up to 95,836,139 bytes.....and then maybe have someone say 'this sux0rs'....well, you get the idea...
feline
Reply #27 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:12 AM
feline nominates crae for admin

one mad idea deserves another

davad70, as for "less popular" skins, variaty is good
feline
Reply #28 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:23 AM
Jafo - but when it's a LS theme that has been literally years in refinement/development.....it really rankles...

*eeek*
talk about a labour of love.

i am begining to think all comments and ratings can be divided into 3 sections:

1) by people who really understand what they are looking at, and the work that went into it.

2) complimentry ones by innocents

3) pointless / rude comments by people who dont know what went into it

so if we can have an option, so you can specify which sections you want to see...
Chris
Reply #29 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:58 AM
Well, I'm not a skinner, I'm just a typical user, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I never really liked rating skins, especially when it's anonymous. I've never rated a skin nor will I ever do so (well I might have to counterbalance some moron's blatant meanness of rating a 1 to a perfectly good skin. But there's no contextual information encapsulated in just a number.

As for comments, I don't know what rating you have to be to able to add comments, but again this is tricky. On the one hand, you want some semi-informed interaction. But I really cringe when I read comments that say "That's lame", or "dude, your not trying hard enough", or "sucks". They either are mean-spirited or simply lack of understanding what the skinner was attempting to acheive and have a narrow extremely subjective view of what constitutes a good skin.

So what are the choices: limit the ability to people to comment/rate until they've hung around long enough to "mature" with the community (sounds elitist)? Let anyone comment, who say just joined the community and signed up for a subscription (and take the good with the bad)?
Frank Leon
Reply #30 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 5:26 PM
I don't think subscribers should get to rate skins. It diminishes the validity of the ratings. On the other hand, the people subscribing are supporting the site just like skinners. I just don't think a subscription is quite enough to get a free "rate skins" card. I also see poeple confusing comments with ratings.
Frank Leon
Reply #31 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 5:27 PM
What I mean is that I don't think subscribers should automatically get to rate skins. If they earned their promotion in some other way that's different.
Woodbridge
Reply #32 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 6:23 PM
Just out of interest, how many subscribers are there?
WOM
Reply #33 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 6:49 PM
Well I guess I opened up a can of worms with this thread. That was not my intent. I was just seeking clairification on what I read. You know what they say, don't believe everything that you read.

Now I have a couple of questions.

1. How come when I try to use the skin browser and enter a question or comment I get -99 ?

2. When do I get the ability to rate?
WOM
Reply #34 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:05 PM
Testing.

Powered by SkinBrowser!
WOM
Reply #35 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:59 PM
Testing again.

Powered by SkinBrowser!
kith
Reply #36 Tuesday, June 11, 2002 11:29 PM
W.O.M - You passed! With flying colors I might add.
feline
Reply #37 Wednesday, June 12, 2002 8:38 AM
WiseOldMan - When do I get the ability to rate?

from the about info, you have to be promoted to Journeymen or above before you can rate skins.

however, i beleive this is out of date, and it is actually Apprentice or above.

as for how you get promoted, this is by act of admin
paxx
Reply #38 Wednesday, June 12, 2002 9:32 AM
feline, it seems that actually, from the moment you buy a WC subscription, you therefore buy with it the ability to rate skins. But T-Man mentionned above that everything hasn't been completely coded yet.
I wasn't aware of this before this thread. But it seems it's the way it is.
paxx
Reply #39 Wednesday, June 12, 2002 9:41 AM
Man, I should learn to read things.
Yes, indeed, according to the Windcustomize Subscription Info page, anybody who buys any Stardock product or a Wincustomize subscription gets the ability to rate:

Level 3: Object Desktop / Stardock customer / Elite User. These are users who have either purchased Object Desktop or some other Stardock product (Stardock is WinCustomize's sponser), or has Apprentice access or higher due to contributing to the site in other forms (making skins, being an active contributor to the message boards, etc.). These users get all the benefits of a registered user plus the ability to rate skins and can download an unlimited amount of content.

Anyway, it doesn't matter to me as I don't care about ratings one way or another. Just seems to me funny that the argument of those that were in favor of ratings was that ratings, as opposed to download counts, were done by fellow skinners therefore were more meaningful. Funny.
craeonics
Reply #40 Wednesday, June 12, 2002 9:51 AM
Wow, according to the regulations I'm 1337!

(and paxxy has a point as usual)

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