I think I'm starting to give constructive criticism. I just hit the last one and a half gallery pages and gave but ONE excellent rating (to "Fallen Warrior" by Lonestar), something like 6 nice ratings, others goods and greats, and all of my comments consisted of an average of four sentences of lighting tips and the like. Is it that the current page of the gallery is sucking? Not likely. Could it be a reflection of my crappy day? Maybe. Or maybe I'm just turning to the dark side. I even feel the comment flames beginning to heat up against me. Do you guys find your comments to be based on your current mood?

Are you saying that, on a good day, you give everyone an "excellent"? Perhaps you're just being more honest. Your mood certainly will affect how you perceive a lot of things. Even if someone has "ratings" turned on, I sometimes don't- what I see as excellent is someone elses good or great. If someone takes the time to comment on a picure, it means they at least took the time to look at it closely and thought it over enough to have an opinion, rather than just ignoring it. I'm not sure I understand why there are ratings- this site has so much stuff posted from beginners to serious artists- how can you grade them all by a single "yardstick"?

Yup only on rare occassions do I use the rating box. I usually leave a comment and only that. Ratings are for the birds. My personal opinion is they shouldn't even exist here, for the exact reasons Artgum mentioned, the range of newbies to masters. Put me next to Rochr or hobbit and I'll look like dirt any day. Of course I do the responsible thing and turn off the vote and rate options when I upload an image, but thats just silly me.

Hey, I like dark. :) Good stuff.

Hi, Moongoat. Welcome over. Here's your robe and membership card.

I vote, but very rarely comment

/cry one of mine he commented on! Haha it's ok, I know mine aren't excellent by any means, they are just getting better with each upload and this last one was all about lighting. Gothika is only my 7th image ever created in Bryce so I'm learning. I post comments and ratings, but only on the ones that I truly like, or on the people that are posting their first images to give them hope.