I'm trying and had the same question from a couple friends about voting. I know there is a voting date period. For one to vote can they just be a visitor or do they require an account to vote? Naturally you need and account to enter I know.

The floating banner on top of the home page is nice however it rotates with other banners. Maybe a stationary link added would also be helpful as people just making a visit may think it just some knid of advertisment. Just a thought.

Accounts will be needed.

its a shame you have to have a account to vote..  i know a lot of skinners that dont have a account,,so i guess the more frineds you have on here the more chance you will win,,

madcat, getting more people to be a part of this community is one of the reasons this thing exists.

i no,,,i have put it out on facebook and deviantART myself ,,and im trying to get a few friends to come to WC,,

Having an account is free, and requires very little effort.

If it was a free-for-all vote there would be bots and cliques voting which would ruin the results.  

I suspect the 'Wincustomize cliques' will carry out their "good deeds" in the GUIC voting as well.
Most people now a days don't care about how the skin looks. It's all about being on good terms with the artist(s) - or ratings on your own stuff will get slashed.
We've seen it many times over the years, and are still seeing it.

That's just sad.

for me its more about the art ,,im wouldn,t vote for a skin just becuse i like the person ,,,i would have to like the skin ,,my favourites at the moment are (wall- Bashful Benny waited too long by teddybearcholla..and Transcendaii by vamp )(windowblind Day Spa by k10w3)

 I have told everyone I know and then some. LOL

First...I take a close look at the graphics...design,quality and to a very large degree line quality (because an antialiased line if not center on 1 pixel can be up to 3 pixels wide).

On those graphic criteria I give the skin a score from 1 - 10

Second... I then take a look at execution, there are 8 -10 areas

that I know to be tough to deal with so I check those and then

give the skin a number 1-10 for execution.

At this point I simply add the two numbers together and divide by 2 which gives me the total number of 1/2 stars the skin gets.

I am sure everyone has a way that they are comfortable with for me this seems fair accurate and moderately quick.

I have been doing this way for about 4 yrs now helps to keep me consistent for everyone . Ironically I don't rate alot anymore if I download a skin and like it I might rate might not if a skin doesn't make 3 full stars I almost never rate it .

How do I find the 'vote' button?

I know...I'm dense.

The judges will vote for the top 5 (I think) and then the community will vote for those.  The buttons won't appear until it's time to vote (I think [again])

OK