well, we decided to put the deadline to 1 May, so everyone get's a chance to start a new style as well now.

the more the better i'd say :)

Well, you have to imagine the free advertising place you get.
as you will be mentioned with a link in the footer, i think it's worth ;)

as for preferences: everyone in the staff has different opionions about what is a good style and what isn't.
As we have two winning places, i think we'll choose one lighter and one darker, so every user on vb.org will be pleased, but of course, nothing could be said 100% sure, as it depends on all the netries :)

the thought of paying more for an add-on than the actual product disgusts me for some reason, however i do beleive i might have to start making skins ;) :p

This should be required only if the entry is a winner.
A professional would never submit original work unless paid for (in this case, choosen as a winner).

A screenshot(s) should be enough to satisfy requirements.

If accepted, styles should be XHTML & CSS valid.

I'm pretty sure that only the winner is required to submit the files... But as an entrant you should provide us with screenshots of all the areas along, or alternatively a live demo :) The more information you can provide us the better we can assess the style.

You do not have to provide the psd's and xml's when you enter your style, but you have to when you win.

also screenshots are not "really" enough, so you better set up a testboard, or submit the xml and the jpgs, so we can test it in private

Would love to get in this, but i think my skins are tooo complicated to your liking. I have been in the process of makin this nice pro and clean style, and created psd's of almost every page ( index, postbit, usercp ) and if I would have known that this was still goin on, I would have been tryin to code it awhile ago. But if you guys ever run another contest i might consider joining it :)

you should definately enter than skin, a dark version of that would be great :)

Looks great Paris :)! You should submit it

Submit that skin Paris, it's very nice. With a bit more contrast it would be even better. :)