I don't believe you wrote the post as an "I'm better than all of you" post, after reading your post a couple times. It just sounds that way when someone uses themselves as an examples.

This question has been asked before maybe we need to change the question or put out a community challenge on how to attract more women into skinning?

Just my two cents.

Wow.  Great question and one that if answered and accomplished would make a Master out of anyone in my book.    

Kitty since your in Oz i'm not sure if you've seen the "mainland cheese ads from NZ with those two ol' geezers" in a nut shell the point of the ad is that a good cheese takes time same goes for wine,i would assume that you'll get promoted all in good time, tho i gotta say that wednesday wb is most excellant as i use it on the my original hdd

Can I get master down-loader status????

  

actually, trying to get more woman to the site would be good!.....

Give 'em hell kittymalone. Throw rocks at them, pick those rocks up and throw them again! I've been thinking the same thing for years. Ha! Anyway with steady patience and hand you can achieve whatever you want and for being bipolar thats pretty good! I've been diagnosed as bipolar for 20 years now and I believe I've accomplished everything I set out to do! Keep throwing rocks thought I feels good!

HA! Grand Raspberries to all and to all a good night or day......whatever!        

IF you(general not you) get "slapped" it's not the site but some people...



that's cool So make your site; not to tell you to take the door here but cause like that you can sell your work and maybe live with that.
What's master status can make for you about that? sell on WC store? so make your own can help you.
If you are good no mater if you are citizen on WC, people will take your work.
What do you need for that? a good pub, a good work, some patience and MANY work.



sorry to hear that

actually i dont think Bebi agreed with ya...

actually shenaynay agreed with Q ...

wrong. Free speech is not free. You are accountable for your words and people have the right to hold you accountable.

Just hang in there Kitty. Your work will speak for itself.

And...Your are more than welcome to start your own website and sell your stuff there Kitty just as some others have done. WC isn't the only site where skins get sold. Something to think about.

The League of Extraordinary Skinners has women...

I would hope that the majority of folks here are mature enough that they wouldn't make fun of you. Again Kitty, your works do and shall speak for themselves, female creations or not. I hope you stay around and continue to submit stuff.   

and ignore the little perks we dangle in front of you for rising in the ranks.




What 'label'? That they feel they deserve something? That they feel they contribute? Just like promotions, such posts should be taken on a member by member basis. It 'is' possible that someone gets overlooked once in a while. It shouldn't have to wait if the person has honestly and innocently been overlooked.

and 'popular pressure'?? Then 'don't' promote the Master's and their skins so much. Don't post articles on how well they do or that they can 'make a living' on their skins. Geez. What person that skins would NOT want to give up the grind of a 9 to 5 job doing something they don't love as much as skinning? WC made Master status 'popular' and continues to promote it as an elite status to shoot for. I haven't seen any articles on what a huge mistake it was or any Master's saying "Take my Master rank away. I can't stand it."

Where did I agree with you ? I stated that there were lots of others that have been overlooked that have been here 3 and 4 years. ( Men and woman ) I would never agree that the site discriminates against women. There are men here that might rate a ' womans ' skin with less than it deserves because they do not like pink or they dont like frills or whatever. Thats the only time I get pissed about the women/men thing. But as far as being treated different by the administrators and moderators ...I do not believe I have ever been treated any differently. I have been given promotions and Im usually embarrassed by them. I'm not big on fanfare and your post tooting your own horn about being better than some of the other journeymen just doesn't fare well with me. I know my skinning limitations but I also know enough that if I am good at something I would never brag about it and try to bring others down in the meantime. Maybe that was not your intention but being a ' windowblind ' skinner doesn't automatically make you more important than others. You have been here a year - many others have contributed to this site before you in many other ways.

As for you being bipolar and wanting to make a living out of skinning - well thats all well and good. But being disabled doesn't guarantee you a paid position anywhere.
Many of us are disabled and can no longer work and would love to be able to bring in some money and feel productive again. We just don't feel the need to use it as a bargaining tool to get what we want.

As for your skinning - yes you are good but let others tell you...

kitty, for what it's worth i really like your skins alot, so please keep at it, you'll rise through the ranks eventually. I don't think this discussion is going to assist you in that quest, just continue working on your original skins (your skins are some of most original I've ever seen), you already have IMHO master status in originality - nobody can touch you in that category. Don't ever quit your style which is definitely unique - stay with it, keep coming up with the new ideas and uploading them to the site, we definitely look forward to them. Persistence & Determination will pay off in the end and you will get those things in life that you want.

Well, I'm honestly not sure that this is a problem per se, mainly because I don't know (and if anyone does know, jump in, but I'm inferring from Jafo's comments that no one does) what proportion of skinners that are active members of the site are female. I suspect that the ratio of male:female is pretty large. I'm not at all convinced that this is a reflection on the relative skinning talents of males and females; instead, it's probably just that not as many females are as interested in skinning (in general, it seems that not as many females are computer geeks).

That's the main reason I would disagree with Kitty's original post. My feeling, after hanging around for a few years, is that the site admins are as fair as they can be in light of the fact that it is a non-paying, part-time job.

Kitty, anybody who picks on you for having a mental illness is a complete asshole. Pardon my language, but I have no patience for penisheads of that caliber. Personally, as you know, I think you have a great deal of talent and given some more time, you will undoubtedly be promoted up the chain. I didn't comment on your last WB skin, Vampothika, but I have been using it at home for a week or so, and I think it is one of the most legible skins you've produced yet (which translates to "usable" for me). The text is super easy-to-read, and the skin strikes a great balance between your unique artistic vision and readable and usable elements. I certainly hope you stick around and try to make being part of this community work for you, because your contributions have been great up to this point, and I believe that you will achieve your objectives in time.

Used to be the "promotional" thread only popped up every couple of months.
Since the Masters started seeing a financial gain, the threads have been becoming commonplace.

I agree with Fairry~ (#7) However, I don't think there's any discrimination involved against women or anyone else. Promotions seem to come when someone "notices" that they are due. In a site with thousands of visitors and hundreds of regulars that can take a while. In some cases the "squeaky hinge" approach has appeared to work.

IMO the Masters should be LONG time contributors and those willing to take time out to help other skinners who ask for it. Their body of work should be varied and not just Windowblinds or just Wallpapers etc. Nor should their work look like a constant re-hash of the same skin in dozens of flavors.

Yo, Kitty, your work speaks for itself and eventually you WILL be promoted on its merits. I have no doubt whatsoever on this....mightn't happen right away, but it WILL happen cos you got the talent & right smarts for skinning.

Oh, and there's no disadvantage to being female around here....some of WC's most/best respected skinners happen to be women who have been embraced by the skinning community as a whole.

As the overall site administrator, I can say with absolute certainty that when user promotions are discussed, they are based on the body of work a skinner has contributed, and gender has absolutely nothing to do with it.

When it comes to Master skinners, we have very few period compared to the overall number of active users at this site.  And if you look at who is a Master, they're folks who have been a part of the community here at WinCustomize for a very long period of time, and their work is often professional quality.  And that's not just the opinion of myself or one other moderator, that's the consensus of more or less every moderator and administrator on WinCustomize.

We have women scattered among all the other ranks (apprentice up through journeyman) and even have a selection of women among the moderation team at various points in the site's history.

Also, we do not now, nor will we ever penalize people for expressing their opinions or asking questions about how the site is run (there is a difference though between expressing opinions and trolling.  Don't worry Kitty, you're fine!).

I agree to an extent that there is a lack of female 'higher ups' in the promotion of skinners, but there is an overall lack of female skinners too. Many skinners get overlooked for promotion when they probably should be. I hung around as a journeyman for what seemed like an eternity.

Being promoted on WC has to do with many things and not just skinning ability. Its also the overall contribution to the skinning community. I personally think you should be promoted beyond Apprentice by now but, not sure about Master (none of which is actually up to me either way).

I'm sure in due time you will be promoted, making 'Master' takes time for everyone and I don't think (nor would I hope) that you being female has anything to do with it. There have been post like this in the past (all by males I believe) saying the same sort of thing. Be patient is all. Expressing the fact that you would like to be promoted to the proper people and in a less public 'forum' might have been a better choice and a viable option for getting a possible promotion

Work your ass off, ( day and night ) help out when possible, improve with each theme submitted, be original with attention to detail and useability and hang in there, be a good person and ur own worst critic.

Good things alays come to good people.

Kitty, I certainly hope you stay here! I've always admired your spunk and your talent! You're an awesome skinner! You seem to me as being a fun and caring person with a free spirit. Awesome qualities, and they're reflected in your work! You are a respected and loved member of this community! I've seen it from time to time in comments and even here in this forum. Sure there may be a disagreement going on, but I can still sense it. Your personality and style would be sorely missed!

I think the problem might have started with financial gains for Masters.

Is it possible at all to not to show the geneder? You wouldn't show the race and religion.

I have a question though.

How many of you felt being descriminated because of their race, religion or country of origin? The last one being more visible than others, many can claim they are being descriminated.

Please don't alienate the best and brightest skinners of WC (I am not one of them) by playing in to the hands of loud whiners.

Whiners may be good artists, but they are still whiners sometimes sawing seeds of destruction.

I can be quite emphatic there is none, not from either the Stardock OR Wincustomize facets of site administration.

Were anyone to be found to be discriminatory their position would be terminated.  In some things, not just with warez promotion, spam, etc, there's zero tolerance.