GUI Olympics: Week 4 Results

And by the way, if you click on the Title Box for Medal Count you can a full listing of the events and their medals. http://www.guiolympics.com/medalcount.asp I will also be working on adding links to them as well.

And congratulations to Grayhaze for sweeping this round!

Wow, excellent job grayhaze! Congrats to all.

Agree! Grayhase have the best skins on this contest. Congrats once more, well deserved.

congrats everyone. one discrepancy: LOS by Alexandrie represents deviantART, not LOS.

Jark, LOS represents Lots of Skins and Z represents Dart.

Congrats to all the winners!

If I recall, earlier a LOS-skin by alex was labelled as representing DevArt.

Here, compare Best Power User: 5 LOS Alexandrie DeviantArt ...to Best Use of Plugins: 4 LOS Alexandrie LotsOfSkins

When that skin was submitted it was listed as being for LOS. When it got the first award, they mislabled it as DA and that was pointed out but not changed on the list. It has the LOS flag and did from the day it was posted. Whoever types in the results when the list is posted is fallible, as evidenced by the silver medal I got showing as a bronze in the list on the right. At least, as far as LOS (the skin) is concerned that's how I remember it.

Here we go again...

In what way are you displeased malform? You won a bronze, so you certainly didn't lose. Well done to everyone who won something this week. I'd imagine I'll be taking a back seat for the next couple of events, so good luck!

Thanks for ruining the contest for me Ruinedinc. Since in another thread you said that grayhaze's skin is better than mine obviously my skin getting any recognition is what you're displeased about. Your crack about how they should make all skins blue and grey just to please me just shows you've never even looked at my work. You make underhanded comments about my submissions to the contest which you defend by saying you didn't mention my name or my skin but your meaning is obvious (I've deleted that skin from the contest btw). Not all the complaining about the results has been from you nor (I'm sure) has it all been intended to come across the way it does. There's just been so much of it and this latest one, when I actually win a medal, "displeased with the results" is downright painful to me. Being awarded a silver medal would have normally made me feel really good. You've managed to make me just feel sad that this contest (which had people trying to make it negative right from the start) seems to have become all about poor sportsmanship and petty behavior. Congratulations on your 3 medals... sorry it wasn't enough for you.

DavidK>> Don't let the comments get to you. You'll also remember Ruined Inc complaining that his skin was better than mine in another category, so I've tended to just ignore comments like that now. You did a fantastic job with your skin, and in some ways I think your entry should have placed higher than mine anyway. Well done for getting the silver anyway, and just keep doing what you do so well.

Ruined Inc>> Remember that out of over 130 skins you placed 3rd in that event. If that isn't something to be proud of, then I really don't know what you wanted from this contest in the first place. If you really find it such an outrage that your skins didn't win gold across the board, then maybe you should at least spare a thought for those people you take the credit away from by complaining about it in public.

Ruined Inc>> The point is, you DID do well in the plugin event. As I said, you came 3rd out of over 130. If that's not good, then maybe you're just expecting too much. I would understand your upset a little better if you hadn't even placed in the top 5, but as it is you seem to be disagreeing with the fact that the skins by myself and DavidK were placed above you. There's no other way to interpret your comments. As for the fact that two of DavidK's skins shared the same layout and name, that doesn't mean that he didn't put a lot of work into both skins. In fact, if you take a look at the orange version of the skin I think it's plain to see that he put a lot more work into giving the skin a different look and feel. Maybe it has escaped your attention, but all of my skins tend to follow the same layout too. It's a layout I've discovered works best for my designs and as such I tend to design a new skin around this layout. It seems to me that you're just complaining for the sake of complaining. You didn't win gold, so you feel it's important that you bring to everyone's attention how much better your entry supposedly is. In the end, that just amounts to poor sportsmanship, pure and simple.

Personal opinions don't make something true for everyone else. Winmenu is only one of three plugins you can use. I've never used it in the years it's been available though some people seem to like it. I find it kludgey and clumsy to use. With the Smart Button for the Quick-Launch menu I see no reason to put winmenu too, it's just clutter. But that's my opinion. To me, having worked in a corporate office (seems so long ago now) screensaver is one of the most important buttons to have. With a password it will lock your screen if you have to leave your office suddenly. Notepad is essential to me, because I use it so much. It's all just personal preferences. I started SETI with a uis file I wrote almost two years ago. My work habits on the computer haven't really changed except I don't use a screensaver anymore. But I know that anyone in an office could need it. So your definition of what is important is not some agreed rule that all must follow. We all have our preferences and frankly, as a computer user-interface design goes, the effectiveness and worthiness of the design is purely a matter of personal preference. Does it do what I need? Do I like the way it looks? Does it work properly? things like that are what makes a person use a skin. Using plugins doesn't mean you get more usefulness by using every one of them. That would be like judging a skin's usefulness and design by how much it weighs. If you were a judge, then you could enforce your own personal preference on your decision. But you're not so your opinion is nothing more than just that. Your opinion. Not a rule we all must follow.

I did not make a deficient skin because I was smart enough to replace an out of date menu with Quick Launch which everyone knows how to use and has a drag and drop interface. As far as "use" of plugins goes the WBamp is a good example. I programed the buttons to be in what I thought was a more logical order, not the standard everyone uses which mimics the winamp layout. I worked in consumer electronics for twenty years and have designed tape and CD front panel layouts. I find the controls are much easier to use the way I arranged them. I applied the same logic to how the shift and ctrl functions are used and I put a text file to explain what all the functions are and how to access them. I applied the same consideration to programing the clock's three displays, what would be most useful. I put a text prompt describing what each button on the skin does in the titlebar so anyone could easily use this skin. I could go on but it bugs me that I'm even saying this much. Accept your victory with some dignity and be grateful your skin was awarded a medal. Nitpicking which features of yours I didn't include is downright embarrassing.

I think that some categories are just a little nebulous to interpret. What exactly does "Best use of plugins" mean when there are really only 3 plugins available? Maybe indeed having all 3 plugins available is a criteria, maybe having the option of hiding those plugins when you don't need them is another, maybe a smart positioning of those plugins is also one, and maybe also the smart buttons be considered as plugins since there isn't a category for the "best use of smart buttons". All this to say that I guess it all comes down to the judges' opinions. Also lets keep in mind that this is the first event of this sort. Lessons are learned. Maybe in the future will the criterias be better defined. Lets keep our calm, and be happy that it was overall fun and that it's definately something that should be repeated.

/me notes that making a new plugin was almost an option. Actually, I had one sort of ready (transperiser with memory for each program), just couldn't get a skin going with it in. Maybe in a few months.

s/almost/always/

Now that would be a cool plugin! I'm defrinitly looking forward to that one. Great idea GreenReaper. I wish there were more of them available or more Smart Button plugins to choose from. One I'd love to see would be an audio "mute" button.