Mission Statement

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.

WinCustomize Access Classes

• 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:

1. 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.

2. 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).

3. The site is free. We don't charge you to store your property and you don't charge us to display your property.

4. 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.

5. Guidelines - For additional guidelines please click here to read up on suggestions that our moderators have put together.