Today, we raised four WinCustomize Journeymen to the rank of "Master" in recognition of their contributions to the site and community at large. These four have been a great asset to the community through the skins they've contributed, and their interaction with the community via comments on skins and in the forums. They've all been around the block, and are likely very familiar names to most who have spent any time around the community.
Our newest Master Skinners are:
All four have their own, very distinct skinning styles and have grown tremendously since their first submissions to the site years ago. They were chosen for promotion because they are exactly the sort of community members we feel exemplify everything a WinCustomize Master Skinner should be.
Part of being a Master Skinner on the site, is the ability to sell their work directly through the WinCustomize store. After contributing countless free skins to the community, we feel it's time they finally got a little back for their efforts. Judging by the popularity of their skins, I bet many of you feel the same way.
Candidates for Master Skinner are selected by members of the site moderation and administration staff. Promotion itself happens after a discussion/vote regarding each candidate. When deciding, we take into account a skinner's overall contribution to the WinCustomize community, which includes skins, activity on forums, IRC etc. To be considered for Master, users need to have achieved the rank of Journeyman, which in itself takes many users a great deal of time to reach.
I hope everyone will take a moment to congratulate these four on reaching the highest user rank at WinCustomize!