The goal of this site is to act as a general skin site to the community. There are
variety of applications that can be skinned that are available to use, and WinCustomize
offers downloadable content for the most popular applications such as WindowBlinds,
DeskScapes, etc. It is also designed as an entry point for new users into the exciting
world of skinning with tutorials, wiki, and a friendly community. Through WinCustomize,
you should be able to download skins, themes, icons, wallpapers, and more that will
let you customize every part of the Windows operating system.
- Exile
This is a user who was banned. We do not delete accounts, we exile them. Exiled
users cannot do anything on the site other than download files. They can only download
skins that have been rated at 7 or above.
- Visitor
This is a non-registered user. They can only download. They can only download skins
that have been rated at 7 or above.
- Citizen
This is a registered user. 99% of users are going to be Citizens. A citizen is a
member of the community. They can submit skins, download and talk on the message
board. Citizens can modify their preferences to display skins of any rating or above.
- Apprentice
A citizen can be nominated to be promoted to an Apprentice. To become an apprentice
one needs to be contributing to the skinning community in some way. WinCustomize
is not the only skinning community, helping other websites in the skinning community
counts as well. There is also a Master Apprentice rank for those right on the verge
of becoming Journeymen.
- Journeymen
A handful of "super-citizens" will be at this class. These are people who are significant
contributors to the community. If you're a Journeyman, then you are one of the biggest
contributors to WinCustomize.com. The difference between a Journeyman and an Apprentice
is that a Journeyman is contributing significantly to WinCustomize in particular
as well as the skinning community in general. A Journeyman's skin is automatically
made available upon uploading, not having to go through moderation first. Because
of this power, only the most trusted users will become Journeymen.
- Masters
These are the "elders" of the skinning community. To be a Master, not only must
the user be a significant contributor to the community, but instrumental to the
day to day life of WinCustomize. A Master's skin submissions are also not moderated,
so their works go direclty into the gallery. The honorific "Master" is placed in
front of their name, and a Master has to think of WinCustomize as their home skin
website ahead of all others.
Master users will also be able to sell their work through the WinCustomize store.
- Moderator
Compuserve has "Wizops", we decided to call our moderators Wizops too. Wizops can
do what Masters can do plus add/delete news items, moderate skins, and moderate
forums. One can only become a Moderator by a 3/4ths majority vote by [of] the Admins.
- Administrator
Admins are the administrators: Frogboy, Island Dog, Jafo, Karmagirl, T-Man, and
Yarlen. Any of them have the ability to promote a user up to a Journeyman. Only
a majority approval can promote someone to a Master and only 3/4ths to a Wizop.
Island Dog and Jafo will run WinCustomize on a day to day basis. The others will
provide additional help and resources. You want something changed or done, Island
Dog and Jafo are the ones to talk to. They have the ability to make many changes
as long as it doesn't violate the Covenant.
- The Rules
This site is a community site. As such, we expect users to behave with honor and
integrity. Treat the person you post to or comment on a skin to as if they are sitting
next to you. Picture this place as a nice, comfortable resort surrounded by friends.
More specifically, our rules have to be about the handling of intellectual property.
This site carries intellectual property in the form of skins, themes, icons, and
wallpapers. Intellectual property, be it software, music, books, or skins/themes
is like any other type of property.
When you upload something, you are agreeing to the guidelines set below:
- Ownership: You own the materials you upload. This cuts both ways, we assume you
made what you uploaded and we will not sell your property without your permission.
You must not only own what you submit but the subcomponents of it unless you have
permission from the owners of the property you are submitting. For instance, DesktopX
objects are designed to be used in other people's themes. It is assumed that when
you upload a DesktopX object that you are giving permission to others to use them
in their themes and they can therefore upload a theme that includes your DesktopX
object without permission.
If you upload something that is owned by someone else or contains materials owned
by someone else, we have the right to delete that item without notification. For
instance, if you upload a wallpaper with the Lord of the Rings logo and the owners
of that logo come to us and request we remove it, we will do so. Or if you upload
a WindowBlinds skin, of some operating system, and the OS vendor requests we remove
it, we will do so.
- License to WinCustomize.com: When you upload something to us, you are giving us
the permission, within reason, to display your property for the promotion of this
site as well as allowing us to distribute your property to others (i.e. the whole
reason to upload your skin in the first place).
- The site is free. We don't charge you to store your property and you don't charge
us to display your property.
- Liability - we are not liable for the contents of the site. We will do our best
to keep the site's integrity intact but ultimately when you upload something, the
responsibility is on you that you're uploading materials you own.
- Guidelines - For additional guidelines please
click here to read up on suggestions that our moderators have put together.