First, let's be honest about critiqueing, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. The basis: to observe and communicate imperfections, and since life is a most imperfect thing, exhausting things to critique will never happen. We must also note the difference between critiqueing and the opinion of the viewer (without substance to improve), very different creatures indeed, often confused by the 'knife plunged into you'. If an artist so fragile, need subject the world at large to something so personal, maybe eliminating the ability to comment would be a safe 'prophylactic' route, so that no one gets hurt. Since this may not be a 'pro' art site, we should get rid of voting and ratings, so that everyone is the same, so that no one accidentally says something that hurts another person( or doesn't shine their hindquarters), or just change all the ratings to excellent and add a line of code so that anyone viewing the image auto-votes for it. If we concerned at all about hurting another person's feelings, what about the artist who takes hours and hours to do a single work thats left behind in the dark because that artist does not spend those hours shmoozing. And that artist wonders what they did wrong, why doesn't anyone like their work? That artist is being left out, where is your rampant sympathy now? Then the shmoozers don't credit Royo in their exact replica of one of his pieces, and they go to the top 20? And then someone like me comes along and says, 'that's kinda messed up', and so I sit back down and place asskiss tape on my mouth? No, nuh uh baby. Suddenly they credit their source and my comment is deleted. Weird...It is not so easy as 'if ya can't say sumpin nice, hon pigsnort...' Life is way too dynamic and this arena is now far too large for anything of that nature. "It should never be assumed that people want critique for simply posting" This seems insane to me, especially when you have to manually check the box to turn comments on. Art is two things, expression for the artist thru a medium and the effect it has on another person. When you expose a piece of art to the public, it ceases to be yours and now belongs to the society in which it dwells. We cannot discount a person's right to be affected by a piece of art. Censorship in any regard(artist or viewer) is the first sign that the freedom you think you had was an illusion from the get go, and which is worse? A lack of freedom or living under the illusion of freedom? There is no person more pro freedom than me, and it extends beyond the safety net that most people have. I am an extremist of neutrality and one of those people who usually slips thru the cracks, but we are here once and once only, and I intend to live freely and speak my mind... If you get offended, your life is not nearly hard enough... G~