I have thought about all of this, and my associates and I have come up with a suggested list of revisions:

1. All members must vote for an image every time they log on.

2. All "votes" shall be assigned randomly to images posted within the voting period.

3. Comments will be assigned randomly as well. Especially the really nasty comments. If you notice someone blasting your image for some reason, don't take it personally, they probably just wrote the comment while looking at the latest NVIATWAS.

4. Any image with a significant number of votes/comments will automatically be removed from the random vote tables, since the randomization process is showing favoritism.

5. Anyone who wishes to contest the random placement of their vote may request a review from Spike (?) who may change that vote to a different random image.

6. Voting for an image you like, for any reason, is now a TOS violation, and will result in a warning on your member record.

7. Anyone who wishes to have a warning removed may request a review from Spike, who may instead choose to assign that warning (randomly) to another member.

Come on, guys, lighten up. :P There's no real reason to be so upset about this. It's just one of those things. I have a friend who received calls from the art director at Sony based on a work she presented. That work never made it to the Hot 20 here. One member was recently contacted by Sci-Fi Channel over another non Hot 20 work.

Anyone who cares about quality art work will be able to generally recognize it, whether it's in the Hot 20 or sitting in the 'Least Commented' section.

So, breathe. Drink a cup of coffee. Smoke something if you're the sort. Save your energy, and wait a few weeks, and I assure you that there will be another opportunity to post a rant in a thread exactly like this one if you feel like it. ;)