Very valid points here and I agree with EmeraldSpider's comment about doing your best and being proud of it. It would be hard for me to believe someone would upload something they felt was mediocre. And of course, you will have your circles of friends here on the site, that is a given. What really ticks me off is people rallying their real life friends and family to start accounts just to vote. I know for a fact this is happening, and it's truly sad. As it stands, it's not about the quality of artwork generally, it's about the quanity of friends and family one has. What does that have to do with judging art exactly?? I guess I better start working on having a huge family to win anything here! LOL! To judge this contest fairly, they should have gotten a professional artist or three outside the site who knows of nobody here and the politics involved. When you involve the community in something like this with huge prizes at stake, of course people will abuse the system, that's a given, too. I'm not complaining about my placement, and I worked three weeks straight full time on two images, and the second one I felt was my best work ever. Over 90 hours of rendering time alone for one image! I feel bad for other artists whom I could swear would be in the top 25 before the contest started, and they aren't doing so well at all. As I see it, this event is more like a random fluke than a valid contest; popularity contest perhaps, but it's got very little to do with spotlighting the best images of the event. I also agree with Ele that your image is yours, and the best place for it is in full size in your gallery. I'm sorry I entered this "contest" and I now realize I should have posted my two Halloween images to my gallery for all to enjoy in the way it was meant to be. Now they are locked in and can't be posted until after the 31st. I certainly hope they won't allow this community vote again, and perhaps learn what a huge mistake that was. Anything here that starts with "Hot" or "Top" is obviously cursed and a sore spot for most. Next time think this out a little bit!