Aren't all the galleries like that to some extent though? In fact, any web-based voting set-up seems to produce that "vote for your friends" or "vote for myself" phenomenon. It's usually pretty obvious to me which images are there on merit versus those that are there via popularity or vote-soliciting through friends. It's kinda sad really when you think about it. For someone to need validation so badly that they seek a false sense of achievement that way. No, it's not fair to those who deserve the recognition but manage to get overlooked. But at least they have the advantage of knowing when their work is really appreciated by people. And if they're really good, sooner or later they get discovered by the masses. :)