First off, I'd like to apologize for the delay in getting these posted. I wanted to ensure I had received all the relevant files before announcing the winners.

Anyway, the winners and their skins are as follows:

3^rd Place: Fel!x -> http://testingskin.virtualforums.co.uk

3^rd Place: .Phoenix -> http://digital.vforums.co.uk

2^nd Place: Michael & blanka -> http://vfscomp2.vforums.co.uk

1^st Place: slip & Michael -> http://vfscomp.vforums.co.uk

Well done to all those who took part. If the winners would like to PM me/post with their requested custom titles and their forum URL (if they have one) then I'll start handing out some prizes

Hopefully all 4 skins will be available for use on your forums by the end of the week
See here for an update

Congrats to everyone! The standard was exceptionally high for this

Congratulations!! to everyone who took part in the competition, Especially to the one's who templates got the top votes.

Wow, first place is pretty good. Good job to all - kudos to trying out.

Posted By Cryhavoc_ on 10th Mar 08 at 1:26pm

 

Wow, first place is pretty good. Good job to all - kudos to trying out.

Thanks.

Slip worked me hard on that! >.<

Well done everyone

Well done everyone

Congrats to everyone

I actually knew who made some of the skins, because some of them still had photobucket links in codes or variables were named after the skin creator.

And, for those wondering, no I didn't vote. Congrats slip and everyone else.

Yay.

Congrats guys.

I knew Wrighty and slip's skin would win. Great job to the followers.

Well done every one, Though I did not win, that means next time, I shall try harder, and be more aggressive, next time there is a skin comp, I will/may be better.

This one was mine:

http://skincomp.vforums.co.uk/

Congratulations everyone, awsome skins.

So thoes skins will be on all VForums for us to use? or

Yes, on all vForums.

Thanks everyone - Ross what prizes??

Posted By Marc on 11th Mar 08 at 2:16am

 

Yes, on all vForums.

Yay!!

Thanks Ross and everyone who made these killer skins!!

You all did very, very good.

Yay, 3rd XD

Well done Phoenix, Wrighty, Blanka & Slip, all so great!

Posted By slip on 11th Mar 08 at 5:10am

 

Thanks everyone - Ross what prizes??

Mainly ad-free credits. And maybe an early upgrade for one of the new features

ads dont bother me really wat abt a spot on the vforums main page??

I have to make a kind suggestion - for the first place skins, you should make the grads a wee bigger, because the category names are a bit squished in.

</perfectionist>

Posted By slip on 11th Mar 08 at 10:44am

 

ads dont bother me really wat abt a spot on the vforums main page??

Have you even got a vForum thats open
I'll have your ad free also if ya dont want them

Posted By Alex Bailey on 11th Mar 08 at 9:38pm

 

Posted By slip on 11th Mar 08 at 10:44am

 

ads dont bother me really wat abt a spot on the vforums main page??

Have you even got a vForum thats open
I'll have your ad free also if ya dont want them

Or I will have them as I helped to make the skin!

All skins are now avaliable either as a choice when registering a new forum or via the Premade Skins board.

Please don't signup for a new forum just to see the skin, you can import a skin into an existing forum using the "Import Skin" feature. Instructions for this are in the Premade Skins board.

If anyone has any issues either creating a new forum with a custom skin or with importing a skin into an existing forum please make use of the Support Board

- Ross

Looking sexy Ross!

Posted By Michael on 11th Mar 08 at 10:03pm

 

Posted By Alex Bailey on 11th Mar 08 at 9:38pm

 

Posted By slip on 11th Mar 08 at 10:44am

 

ads dont bother me really wat abt a spot on the vforums main page??

Have you even got a vForum thats open
I'll have your ad free also if ya dont want them

Or I will have them as I helped to make the skin!

You didn't make the skin , you coded it. But yeah fair enough you did half the work

Congrats! My fave was the 4th one but o well!

Posted By Parker on 12th Mar 08 at 10:48pm

 

Congrats! My fave was the 4th one but o well!

So you liked this one?
http://skincomp.vforums.co.uk/

Posted By Michael on 11th Mar 08 at 10:03pm

 

Posted By Alex Bailey on 11th Mar 08 at 9:38pm

 

Posted By slip on 11th Mar 08 at 10:44am

 

ads dont bother me really wat abt a spot on the vforums main page??

Have you even got a vForum thats open
I'll have your ad free also if ya dont want them

Or I will have them as I helped to make the skin!

they dont bother me - i dont hate them

I've added slip.wr.blu to this forum and might add the others too

My only pet peeve with this skin is that the Announcement icons are huge, compared to the folders.

*demands slip to fix it :X*

lol Is too tired!!

Posted By Oracle on 13th Mar 08 at 3:33pm

 

My only pet peeve with this skin is that the Announcement icons are huge, compared to the folders.

*demands slip to fix it :X*

The only problem I'm having with the skin is the color of the new / no new post icons on the main page. They seem very similar to one another but that could just be my skin resolution

The only thing that gets me with the skin is that the logo seems a little blurry

Posted By Ross on 13th Mar 08 at 4:30pm

 

Posted By Oracle on 13th Mar 08 at 3:33pm

 

My only pet peeve with this skin is that the Announcement icons are huge, compared to the folders.

*demands slip to fix it :X*

The only problem I'm having with the skin is the color of the new / no new post icons on the main page. They seem very similar to one another but that could just be my skin resolution

Do u want me to make them the blue of the link hover color?

Posted By slip on 13th Mar 08 at 4:36pm

 

Posted By Ross on 13th Mar 08 at 4:30pm

 

Posted By Oracle on 13th Mar 08 at 3:33pm

 

My only pet peeve with this skin is that the Announcement icons are huge, compared to the folders.

*demands slip to fix it :X*

The only problem I'm having with the skin is the color of the new / no new post icons on the main page. They seem very similar to one another but that could just be my skin resolution

Do u want me to make them the blue of the link hover color?

Just change the arrow to the blue!

See, i use the default so i'm not having these problems

Posted By Graham on 13th Mar 08 at 4:43pm

 

See, i use the default so i'm not having these problems

BOO! plain old vanilla!!



I've PM-ed two variants of the ON image to Ross lets see

Congrats Everyone Great Skins!!!!!

Ross ON image looks soo much hotter now

Posted By slip on 13th Mar 08 at 8:24pm

 

Ross ON image looks soo much hotter now

I agree; it fits in perfectly.

Whee, on/off's look better now, I didn't want slip to bite my head off. :X

Now, for the announcement icon.. D:

The announcement icon does need changed. It's pretty dang big

I think if the bar on the left is cut down, the icon will be perfect.

kk i'll rework it tonight

*Virt is using default skin*

xD Slip's skin takes annoyingly long to load for me.

Tut tut *someone needs to buy a faster net connection*

Im using default skin also. Not that i dont like slips skin but for a support forum i always use their default skin

Posted By Alex Bailey on 14th Mar 08 at 4:21pm

 

Im using default skin also. Not that i dont like slips skin but for a support forum i always use their default skin

Slips skin is set as the default, though.

hmm, we just upgraded our internet from express to pro, and the load time is rather long It didn't before, only but a few times. So I am using default til it works a little bit better.

Posted By Nick on 15th Mar 08 at 1:32am

 

hmm, we just upgraded our internet from express to pro, and the load time is rather long It didn't before, only but a few times. So I am using default til it works a little bit better.

It loads perfectly fine for me on a 36mbps wireless connection; must be an ISP thing, or cache settings on your computer.

this is mine:

Download Speed: 2573 kbps (321.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 280 kbps (35 KB/sec transfer rate)

Just did a speed test.

http://www.ip-adress.com/speedtest/

Download Speed: 494 kbps (61.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 355 kbps (44.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

So as you see, it has nothing to do with vForums since I have a slower connection and can still load the skin perfectly fine.

when on the skin, it says 22.756s, and when on default .558s

(s = Seconds)

The new skin is very nice, but the visited links are quite a mid blue and the links a dirty aqua blue - the latter could do with being a little bit darker, IMO.

I'm using the default skin as well. Just because it's faster.

Congrats slip BTW!

This page was generated with 37 database queries and 13 cache files in 0.3447 seconds.

Then with the regular skin..

This page was generated with 63 database queries and 11 cache files in 0.7487 seconds.

Slip's skin loaded faster o_o

Download Speed: 2062 kbps (257.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 240 kbps (30 KB/sec transfer rate)

Default skin 14 cache files in 0.885 seconds.
Slips skin 14 cache files in 0.7557 seconds

That's quite interesting Slip's skin with all the images loads faster than the original one for .System, and I.

If you have a 5 year old desktop computer then it will be slow, if you have a 1-2 year old laptop, it will be faster.

o pfffffft all ppl with slow net connections just get a faster one so u can use the smexier skin

Posted By slip on 17th Mar 08 at 6:13pm

 

o pfffffft all ppl with slow net connections just get a faster one so u can use the smexier skin

agreed

I have Pro which is the fastest, but it still loads slow

EDIT: ok I went over to the skin, and this is all it showed for about a minute.

Cliketh

Posted By Nick on 17th Mar 08 at 11:53pm

 

I have Pro which is the fastest, but it still loads slow

EDIT: ok I went over to the skin, and this is all it showed for about a minute.

Cliketh

That happens to me all the time with that skin, which is why I removed it form my forum.

Sorry Slip, but your skin is slow.

lmao

i guess thats a price we have to pay for making it smexi - it make use of 24bit PNGs throughout - perhaps that slows down loading of images - but that still doesn't explain how it loads in a snap for me even though I have a much slower net connection compared to the ones that are listed on this thread.

Posted By slip on 18th Mar 08 at 6:31am

 

lmao

i guess thats a price we have to pay for making it smexi - it make use of 24bit PNGs throughout - perhaps that slows down loading of images - but that still doesn't explain how it loads in a snap for me even though I have a much slower net connection compared to the ones that are listed on this thread.

Slippy, which OS are you using?

XP's PNG compression is horrible, while Vista's compression algorithm makes PNG's a much more manageable size. If you want I could resave them?

If you lot go to: http://vfscomp.vforums.co.uk -> It'll load instantly! So it's nothing to do with Mine & Slip's work. It's all Ross!

I use Windows XP.

Posted By Nick on 18th Mar 08 at 8:08pm

 

I use Windows XP.

Same Here. I'v always use Windows XP. at school I have to use a crappy junker computer.

At our school we have new computers, but all windows XP, and even with the download 250, and upload 1,275

yes our network sucks in the download part, but I do not understand why in the upload part its fast

The comps at my school are older than some of the teachers, whic is old.

-Sorry, will get back on topic.

Of course I like the skin, but loading time maby put them in .gif if you put them in .jpg it will show up a bit blurry, and I think you guys want high quality.

Posted By Nick on 18th Mar 08 at 9:12pm

 

Of course I like the skin, but loading time maby put them in .gif if you put them in .jpg it will show up a bit blurry, and I think you guys want high quality.

Unfortunately GIF's destroy quality as well.

Posted By Marc on 18th Mar 08 at 9:13pm

 

Posted By Nick on 18th Mar 08 at 9:12pm

 

Of course I like the skin, but loading time maby put them in .gif if you put them in .jpg it will show up a bit blurry, and I think you guys want high quality.

Unfortunately GIF's destroy quality as well.

Not all the time It just depends on the image and wat your aiming for.

Posted By Tim on 18th Mar 08 at 9:15pm

 

Posted By Marc on 18th Mar 08 at 9:13pm

 

Posted By Nick on 18th Mar 08 at 9:12pm

 

Of course I like the skin, but loading time maby put them in .gif if you put them in .jpg it will show up a bit blurry, and I think you guys want high quality.

Unfortunately GIF's destroy quality as well.

Not all the time It just depends on the image and wat your aiming for.

GIF's noticeably ruin quality with any image with colours flowing from one to the next evenly, as well as curved edges.

Posted By Michael on 18th Mar 08 at 7:47am

 

If you lot go to: http://vfscomp.vforums.co.uk -> It'll load instantly! So it's nothing to do with Mine & Slip's work. It's all Ross!

If not, let me know!

Posted By Michael on 18th Mar 08 at 9:34pm

 

Posted By Michael on 18th Mar 08 at 7:47am

 

If you lot go to: http://vfscomp.vforums.co.uk -> It'll load instantly! So it's nothing to do with Mine & Slip's work. It's all Ross!

If not, let me know!

Obviously this forum has a much larger database than that forum which takes longer to load the required information

I've not noticed any real difference in loading times.

Posted By Ross on 18th Mar 08 at 11:25pm

 

Posted By Michael on 18th Mar 08 at 9:34pm

 

Posted By Michael on 18th Mar 08 at 7:47am

 

If you lot go to: http://vfscomp.vforums.co.uk -> It'll load instantly! So it's nothing to do with Mine & Slip's work. It's all Ross!

If not, let me know!

Obviously this forum has a much larger database than that forum which takes longer to load the required information

I've not noticed any real difference in loading times.

Others have though, so I was just wondering!

To all those having issues with slip's skin, it's definitely an isp issue as i'm posting this from a cellphone and it loads in under two seconds.

Posted By Marc on 21st Mar 08 at 2:41am

 

To all those having issues with slip's skin, it's definitely an isp issue as i'm posting this from a cellphone and it loads in under two seconds.

It could also be the persons computer, remember its not how fast the internet it, its how fast the computer is, as My friend is here now, he is on my wireless, and the page loads really fast and his laptop is Windows Vista Home Premium and its 1 week old. whilst my computer is Windows XP and 5 years old. and had over 500 viruses through its lifetime. We are clean now because our ISP hooked up with Nortan. And also my jump drive's virus scanner, is not detecting any viruses.

But he's on a cell phone. Cell phones aren't computers, and yet it's beating a computers speed to get a page up. Its the ISP thats the problem. Unless you have a computer that has hundreds of things running and it just cant load anything anyways.

My friends PSP wont load the page up correctly, nor will his DS. But his laptop, shows this:

This page was generated with 38 database queries and 8 cache files in 0.0281 seconds.
and his Fire Fox shows .480

whilst mine shows:
This page was generated with 40 database queries and 5 cache files in 2.3133 seconds.
and fire fox 2.312s

his PSP shows

This page was generated with 38 database queries and 8 cache files in 4.2116 seconds. and the page is not correctly showing.

Posted By Nick on 21st Mar 08 at 3:06am

 

Posted By Marc on 21st Mar 08 at 2:41am

 

To all those having issues with slip's skin, it's definitely an isp issue as i'm posting this from a cellphone and it loads in under two seconds.

It could also be the persons computer, remember its not how fast the internet it, its how fast the computer is, as My friend is here now, he is on my wireless, and the page loads really fast and his laptop is Windows Vista Home Premium and its 1 week old. whilst my computer is Windows XP and 5 years old. and had over 500 viruses through its lifetime. We are clean now because our ISP hooked up with Nortan. And also my jump drive's virus scanner, is not detecting any viruses.

It's not just the computer though - i was sorting out my grandparen'ts computer (just upgraded them to XP, they had '98 til now) and it's a very slow machine: 20gig HD, 256meg RAM and was jam packed full of viruses, but it loads vF quicker than my machine, which is as clean as it should be, with a gig of RAM and a 250gig HD. While the "performance" of the system can lead to there being some problems i think in this case the ISP is being a little slack.

Posted By Nick on 21st Mar 08 at 4:07am

 

My friends PSP wont load the page up correctly, nor will his DS. But his laptop, shows this:

I have to be the main cause for that, I didn't comply with the PSP 'web' standards. Or the DS ones. BUT it wasn't in the spec so it's ok! ^_^

Use the default if it's that much hassle

lol I never did understand why these companies want the net on devices like cell phones and PSP and stuff. What the hell are computers for??

Posted By slip on 22nd Mar 08 at 6:17am

 

lol I never did understand why these companies want the net on devices like cell phones and PSP and stuff. What the hell are computers for??

I use my cellphone all the time for Facebook, VFS, checking/sending emails, etc.

Public transportation, vacations, school, etc. take up quite a bit of internet time.

Well that;s what laptops are for

I mean isn't it hard to work on a tiny screen

Yes in some ways, before my PSP got stolen from me, It took me about 10 min, to type up this very little sentence.

---

The reason why portables now the net is because of games most likely, look at the XBOX 360 live, or the PS3, its all for internet games. and for phones, its for DLing, games.

EDIT: I think this topic should be locked now and de stickied, I don't believe any one else is going to congratulate the winners IMO

True. Thread locked.